justin @

Louis Rossetto

Louis is the charismatic, driven, abrupt founder of Wired. A bizarre blend of idealism and marketing savvy - he can deliver a resounding defense of brand names.

(and rib-ticklingly righteous political ponouncesments)

In net.culture, commercialism is antithetical - selling out, second to community. While Wired posits itself as the voice of the digital revolution, it has not held itself to that ideal. mostly rich white dudes making money on the cover!

it appears as though Louis would like to have it both ways - sitting on top of a bottom up revolution.

Louis is a spirited debater with severe credentials on the business side of the technology age. Louis knows what he wants to do, and how he wants to do it. He's got an MBA in finance and marketing from Columbia. He's not just a small scale netrepeneur, he's got his eyes on the prize.

Perhaps you've seen some of his strongly worded rants. I hear he used to have the Public Enemy phrase "Don't believe the hype" up over his desk. I argued that the infamous HotWired press release "Way New Journalism" and "Rational Geographic" was just that, but he stood firm.

it's not clear that he always believes it himself - some of his extreme positions on net issues are so kneejerk and dogmatic - I guess I find his passion alluring, though largely from a distance. when you sit in the midst to it, and try to reason with it, or counter it with your own, he seems to feel under attack.

that seems a sign of inscurity to me,
real jesus freaks will argue with you about jesus forever because they love him so much. if they stopped, and blamed it on you, it would show that they didn't have him deep enough in their hearts, or that they thought you weren't worth saving. Louis don't keep up with his ideals in face to face forever. it's a short time before he shouts or dips into cynisterism to accuse you of trechery or stupidity.

I dunno, it's like he's not a good debater - he gets too bent out of shape too fast. I think he takes himself too seriously.

and look at the serious world he's in!

fucker wouldn't buy pens for us when I worked there. wouldn't have a coffe machine unless we paid for it!

or at least that was the scuttlebutt. whether or not that's all true, it's a sign of what his employees have to say about him.

That's his vision: a strong party line, he writes it, it stands firm. Working under that, or with that, is great if you buy it wholesale, but he is extremely sensitive to being second-guessed or excerpted.

For Wired's third anniversary party, there were three scheduled events. The first event was a schmooze-a-thon, free drinks, free food, fancy folks. Only senior management and contributors and moneybags were invited to that one. The other two parties were for the rest of us employees and our friends.

Of course all of this generated confusion. I was designated HotPerson in charge of HotInvites - who to invite to what. I recieved a few letters from my peers asking about the different tiers of party, so I sent out this clarification:

>At 12:19 PM 12/13/94, Justin Hall wrote:
>>Last call for party invites. Please put your selections in, and be sure to note which list (a, b, c) they belong in. If you don't know what that means, pick b.

>I'd prefer to know what it means before I pick it. Please enlighten us on the definitions of A, B, and C.

A is for the super-hyped. The A list people get invited to a pahrtay that most all of the Hot/Wired staff can not go to. For senior management. Chances are, if you are not senior management, then you would not know to invite people to this level of fiesta.

B then will suffice for the next level of people, that's the party even we get to go to! So, invite the near and dear, the contributors near (and far) to this party, to be held at Bimbo's, and leading into the primary party. This is for folk you would imagine to be wired, but you yourself aren't cool enough to have at the first party (and even if you did invite them to A, you probably wouldn't be there to talk to them anyway!).

C list is for those people you think you might want to have a late night conversation with, the people you think should not go uninvited to the Wired bash - the people who don't really qualify to be on the in with all us cool folk, but are nice people, and should attend at some point.

I will take no flak for any of this heirarchy. I didn't come up with this, I'm relaying information. I'm sorry we are all not virtually cool enough for us and our friends to make A list, but that's the way it goes. Someday when we are all at the helm of our own successful startup ships, then we can throw elite parties for our friends and patrons. I'm just glad I get to invite my family and friends to what promises to be a rockin' blast affair at Bimbo's, with all of my cool coworkers.

Louis was incensed. I recieved an ominous e-mail, "Come see me in my office."

HotReprimand

December 14, 1994

All quotes are approximations.

I just had a five minute session with Louis in his office.

It was interesting. Intense. Informative.

"Take a seat."
"Has Wired ever done anything bad to you?"
"No."
"Has Wired ever broken any contract with you?"
"No."
"Has Wired ever -"
"You think I'm taking out a vengeance."
"Yes, well, from the tone of your e-mail, that's what it sounds like."

He was upset with me for having cast the A level party incorrectly in public HotWired e-mail. He said "A party with 400 people is work." I tried to explain to him that that is not the common conception, or mine. He told me "Then you should have asked." And I could see his logic, and his reality, and that he would probably not want to see mine.

He talked of how my note cast the party in terms of elitist, us versus them. I told him I thought a senior management party naturally fostered that kind of feeling - because of small company - big company transition. He told me that there had always been "specialization" at Wired, and that people here should understand that, and that if they didn't, that was their baggage, and if they felt that way, they shouldn't be working here. I kept thinking of Caleb, for some reason.

I tried to talk here, about the natural side-effects of the growth of the company, and the party, and he bristles - "No Justin, now it is time for you to listen. You're 19, you think you know everything. You don't. We've afforded you probably the best opportunity of your life. And now you are fostering this us versus them mentality. If that's your attitude, you shouldn't be working here. Now you've only got a month here, and it may be a month too long!" I tried again to talk, "That's it, end of discussion." sweeps his hand horizontally, looks at his monitor and begins firmly clicking his mouse.

I took stock for a moment. A deep breath. I stood, and stated "I apologize. This has been an incredible opportunity for me, and I am sorry if I have acted counter to the ideals of the company which I strove to work for."

He looks up with that wary half smile of his and says "Accepted."

and then at the third anniversary VIP party, which I didn't have an invitation to, he put his arm around me and posed for the photo above!

Back before his media mogul days, he spent a good amount of time on the set of Caligula, a most luridly fascinating film. In fact, he ghostwrote the bookstory of the film with the Assistant Director - it's called the Ultimate Porno and it was one of the few books I read from cover to cover while I worked at HotWired.

The construction of giant phallus monuments, sweeping scale whorehouses and instruments of torture were good to keep in mind while launching HotWired. Guccione cut off funding and coopted the vision of the director, after he had failed timely delivery on great expectations. Instead of a sweeping epic, Caligula become a porno cash cow - striving simply to eek out as much money as possible from the existing footage.

Somehow I keep running into Louis in my dreams.

An account of the founding and founders of Wired magazine.

If you're going to read that, you should probably also read a history of Mondo 2000 as well.

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