Our story begins in February 1996 at the University of Florida in Gainesville. We were both in our fourth year of school when mutual friends angled to have us meet, thinking for sure we'd click.

We met for only the briefest of moments  at BW3's Grill & Bar, but it was enough for us both to want to see each other again. Love at first sight? You bet, as we've been virtually inseparable ever since... :-)
 

University of Florida
Gainesville, Florida

Groomsman Brent Delgaizo gets the credit for introducing us - a friend of Rich's since his first summer at UF in 1992 who also knew Kelly through two Creative Writing classes, introduced by one of Kelly's old high school friends, Joey Ballantyne (also a groomsman).

Much to my surprise, in a highly ironic twist of fate, guess who was Rich's roommate when we met? My old high school pal, Joey. What a small world!

Less than two years later, we were engaged and after finishing up at UF, we struck out for the West Coast to pan for some cyber-gold.

Carmel-by-the-Sea, California

Since the summer of 1998, we've been living in the sleepy little town of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California - just an hour south of the hustle and bustle of Silicon Valley. A charming and quirky, seaside town, Carmel still maintains its oddball village character that was established in 1916 when it was founded by a collection of bohemian artists and writers.

The city is one square mile, with quaint shops adorning the picturesque streets of downtown that have a very European flair. There are no street addresses, so residents like ourselves, continue with the curious village custom of congregating at the Post Office downtown to collect mail daily. (If you haven't read about the ongoing brouhaha over home mail delivery in Carmel that's made national news lately, click here to read all about it.)

Of course, you can't mention Carmel without paying tribute to its high-profile tough guy, Dirty Harry ex-mayor. To read more about Clint Eastwood's stint as a politician, check out this Web site (and click 'Carmel Mayor').

Scenes from Carmel
Hogs Breath Inn, Carmel Mission

Kelly and Rich
One year anniversary ~ April 8, 2002

Life at Internet Speed

When we first ventured onto the Internet, we couldn't have imagined that we were about to participate in the next Industrial Revolution. That was 1995, and saying we took to the Internet like ducks to water would be an understatement. Quack, quack!

For more than a year, we labored tirelessly on our first Web start-up, devoted to the financial markets, which we sold in August 1999 to a publicly-traded firm. We stayed on to manage the Web property for the next 8 months, before we ultimately set our sights on our next challenging endeavor.

Meanwhile, Kelly had also broadened her horizons with various freelance writing positions and analyst roles online, at Raging Bull, Worldlyinvestor, Internet Stock News, and Gomez Advisors.

While still hammering away on our newest Internet start-up, in April 2000, we both assumed positions with internet.com Corporation. Kelly took the reigns as a Senior Investment Analyst for internet.com, dishing always irreverent, actionable and investable commentary on dot-com stocks and the high tech industry. Ditto for Richard.

This last summer, wedged between our busy schedules, we finally managed to turn out our second Web start-up, which has attracted armchair investors by the thousands since its launch.

Today, we continue to channel our energies into numerous entrepreneurial endeavors while managing our second brainchild, all the while happily eating, sleeping, and breathing the Internet from our veritable idea factory in sleepy Carmel-by-the-Sea.
 

*Update - April, 2002*

Lots of juicy tidbits have transpired since our original update. Since then, we got our canned by internet.com. Without going into great detail, let's just say it wasn't your garden variety layoff. It involved cigar-chomping lawyers, libel, and a chimp named Bubbles.

Kelly and Rich   1
internet.com      0
 

Four months later our second company was acquired , sandwiched neatly between our wedding and subsequent honeymoon.

And the best news of all, we're expecting our first baby!! Read all about it here. Now that we're going to be new parents, we're retiring from the dot-com game (well, sorta) and starting a children's toy company. Details to follow shortly... In the meantime, follow our newest adventures changing smelly diapers and burping gassy babies. LOL.