Venture Experience
Mike O’Donnell started his high-tech career in 1983 as a co-founder of one of the first high-speed electronic service bureaus in the United States. In 1985, he founded Ask Me Multimedia Systems, where he served as its president and CEO for 10 years. Under O’Donnell’s direction, Ask Me pioneered some of the first multimedia kiosks, authoring software and presentation programs. In 1991, Ask Me Multimedia received the prestigious, National Small Business Innovation Award from Nations Business Magazine and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
After selling Ask Me Multimedia in 1995 to publicly-traded Midisoft, O’Donnell embraced the Internet revolution and joined CompuServe as a key executive. While at CompuServe, O’Donnell was one of the leaders of the team that launched SPRYNET, CompuServe’s Internet Services Division. He pioneered CompuServe’s Private Label Community service offering, building Web sites for large corporations. During his tenure, SPRYNET was selected by PC Magazine as the `Best Internet Service Provider’ in the country.
In 1996, O’Donnell joined Design Intelligence as Director of Electronic Commerce. At Design Intelligence, O’Donnell was the chief architect of the corporate Web site and built iPublishLIVE, an online publishing resource for people who create their own documents and Web pages. Design Intelligence was subsequently acquired by Microsoft.
In 1997, Mike founded StartUPbiz.com, one of the first websites launced to assist aspiring entrepreneurs. Since that time, StartUPbiz has helped to start more than 25,000 new businesses and helped countless number of aspiring entrepreneurs.
In 1998, Mike founded iCopyright to address the problem of online pirating of intellectual property. He wrote the business plan, raised over $25 million, designed the product and recruited the board and management team. O’Donnell led the company for 12 years before stepping down as CEO in 2010. He still serves on the company’s board of directors and is involved in strategy and the design and launch of new services.
In 2001 and 2005, iCopyright won a CODiE, the industry’s highest award for Best Digital Rights Management Solution. While at iCopyright, O’Donnell launched Clip&Copy, a news alerts and press clippings service; ©reators, a licensing service for user-generated content, and Discovery, a content monitoring and infringement detection service.
In 2008, 2009 and 2010, iCopyright was named by eContent Magazine as one of the 100 Companies that Matter Most in the Digital Content Industry. In 2008, iCopyright was voted The Top Emerging Company in America by venture capitalists and angel investors of FundingPost.com.
O’Donnell is currently working on his latest and greatest new venture, called Leaves.us. The service helps people to tell, share and preserve their life story, and to “leave” their legacy to their descendents and to the world. The service is set to launch in October 2011.
