1980-1990
With a partner, I set up Proxy, Ltd., in Stoke Newington, London N16. Proxy specialized in providing translations that could be delivered electronically using ITT (later BT) Dialcom, an internet forerunner that provided worldwide dialup access, and ran on PDP 11 mini-computers. We had leased a block of PDP systems , and provided remote processing, text processing and message and email services to our customers, not just to deliever translation, but I provided VNU Business Publications, my long time journalistic publisher, with the means to file stories electronically, using, at first, Radio Shack portable computers and acoustic couplers. While the venture was in itself successsful, we had difficulty attracting venture capital, necessary to develop a gateway that would let us deliver remote mail using MCI Mail facilities, a project I had been working on with MCI's Vint Cerf (the Vint Cerf), and we eventually decided to wind up the British mother company. The Official Receiver allowed me to retain Proxy U.S.A., Inc., the U.S. subsidiary I had set up in Coral Gables, Fla., and as the business environment in the United States was more conducive to internet ventures I moved to the United States permanently in 1985. The American company I eventually closed down after NYNEX offered me an R&D position, acceptance of which precluded me from having outside commercial interests in technology ventures.