A Year of Challenges
Michael Apgar, Founder and CEO, Speakeasy.net Inc.
From the December 27, 2002 print edition
© 2002 American City Business Journals Inc.
While most broadband providers went down in flames this year, Michael Apgar watched revenue grow from nearly $30 million in 2001 to $40 million in 2002.
Many DSL companies are cutting employees, but Speakeasy's staff grew from 135 last year to 155 at the end of 2002. In mid-June, Apgar raised $6 million in venture capital in an industry that most investors have all but abandoned.
Speakeasy is a classic middleman company -- it leases DSL capacity from providers such as Covad Communications Group Inc. and New Edge Networks Inc., and then resells it to residences and small and medium-sized businesses.
Despite the company's success in a tough industry, Speakeasy has experienced its share of headaches as a result of the 2-year-old telecom depression. In March, nearly 90 percent of Speakeasy's leased DSL capacity came from Covad, which emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy by the skin of its teeth and a last-minute, $150 million bailout by SBC Communications Inc. Apgar also inked a deal with another seemingly stable provider -- WorldCom Inc. of Clinton, Miss., which has been hit with a series of accounting scandals.
Now, Apgar is looking for new partners. He thinks the large telephone companies such as Qwest International Communications Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. or SBC might be willing to play ball with Speakeasy.