Sky Dayton's Blog: This Week in Startups, my first interview in a while...(Jason Calacanis twisted my arm)

The Bio

Over the past 15 years, Sky Dayton has founded and built companies that have helped to propel the Internet into our everyday lives.

Sky founded EarthLink in 1994 at the age of 23 after becoming frustrated with how hard it was to connect to the Internet. EarthLink grew to serve millions of consumers and helped usher in the Internet revolution.

Sky has founded, co-founded or helped build several companies with an aggregate market value of nearly $3 billion. Since 1999, these include JAMDAT Mobile (purchased by Electronic Arts in 2005), LowerMyBills (purchased by Experian in 2005), Neopets (purchased by Viacom in 2005), and Business.com (purchased by RH Donnelly in 2007), Helio (purchased by Virgin Mobile USA in 2008) and Boingo Wireless, which Sky founded in 2001, went public in 2011 and where he currently serves as chairman.

Prior to EarthLink, Sky co-founded a computer graphics boutique catering to the entertainment industry, and a popular coffeehouse in West Hollywood, Calif. He graduated from the Delphian School in Oregon in 1988 and chose to forgo college to pursue his interests in business and technology.

Sky has received numerous awards and honors. He was named one of Business Week’s top seven entrepreneurs and chosen as the University of Southern California's entrepreneur of the year. He has been featured in Fortune, Forbes, WIRED, Wall Street Journal, CNBC, CNN and in hundreds of other media.

Sky is currently involved in a handful of promising new companies.

An avid surfer, he resides in California, with his wife, novelist Arwen Elys Dayton, and their three children.

4/26/10

This Week in Startups, my first interview in a while...(Jason Calacanis twisted my arm)