MindSpring logo

MindSpring was a major Internet service provider which merged with EarthLink on February 4, 2000, with the company retaining the EarthLink name. Image File history File links Mindspringlogo. ... An Internet service provider (ISP, also called Internet access provider) is a business or organization that offers users access to the Internet and related services. ... EarthLink (NASDAQ: ELNK), headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, is one of the major Internet service providers in the United States, with 5. ... February 4 is the 35th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... This article is about the year 2000. ...

Famous for its Core Values & Beliefs and 14 Deadly Sins, MindSpring was founded in February 1994 by Charles Brewer in Atlanta, Georgia after he had a frustrating experience trying to get online with Netcom. It had only non-paying customers for four months, and shared facilities and technical staff with Internet Atlanta, another local ISP. By late 1994, MindSpring had obtained investment funding from ITC Holding Company and moved into offices at Georgia Tech's Advanced Technology Development Center. It established its first point of presence outside Atlanta in May 1995, and went public in March 1996 with the ticker symbol MSPG. February is the second month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ... Charles Brewer is an experienced entrepreneur, most notably as the founder and CEO of MindSpring Enterprises (founded in 1994). ... Atlanta is the capital of and largest city in the U.S. state of Georgia. ... NETCOM On-line Communication Services was an Internet Service Provider established in 1988 by Bob Rieger, an information systems engineer for Lockheed. ... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ... Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology, or Georgia Tech, is located in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A. With over 16,000 students, Georgia Tech is one of four public research universities in the University System of Georgia. ... A point-of-presence (POP) is an artificial demarcation or interface point between communications entities. ... This article is about the month of May. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... March is the third month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) is a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... A stock symbol or ticker symbol is a shorthand code used to uniquely identify shares of a publicly-traded corporation on a particular stock market. ...

Mergers & Acquisitions

MindSpring grew quickly by acquiring other companies. Along the way, it acquired the ISP business of Nando.net in North Carolina, although Nando continued as an online news website. In September 1996 it acquired PSINet retail subscribers, and in October 1998 it acquired SpryNet. It also acquired many smaller "mom and pop" ISPs along the way. In the early 1990s, NandO or Nando. ... September is the ninth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of four Gregorian months with 30 days. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) is a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... PSINet was one of the first internet service providers (ISPs), and a major player in the commercialization of the Internet until the companys bankruptcy in 2001. ... Look up October in Wiktionary, the free dictionary October is the tenth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ...

In February 1999, it acquired Netcom and its subscriber base surpassed 1 million. It announced its first high speed cable service to Montgomery, Alabama in March 1999 and DSL services to eight cities the following November. MindSpring announced an agreement to merge with EarthLink that September. Merger transactions with EarthLink were completed on February 4, 2000, creating the second largest internet service provider with over three million subscribers, while keeping the EarthLink name and its ticker symbol, ELNK. February is the second month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... NETCOM On-line Communication Services was an Internet Service Provider established in 1988 by Bob Rieger, an information systems engineer for Lockheed. ... Montgomery is the capital of the U.S. state of Alabama. ... March is the third month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... DSL is a TLA that can stand for: Digital Subscriber Line Damn Small Linux Domain-specific language Divers Sign Language A derivation of American Sign Language which scuba divers use to communicate underwater This page concerning a three-letter acronym or abbreviation is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which... For other uses, see November (disambiguation). ... September is the ninth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of four Gregorian months with 30 days. ... February 4 is the 35th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... This article is about the year 2000. ... An Internet service provider (ISP, also called Internet access provider) is a business or organization that offers users access to the Internet and related services. ...

Employees

MindSpring enjoyed a cult like following with its employees. It was known for not having a dress policy or sick leave policy and was well known for its acceptance of alcohol in the workplace. At one point, an employee tested the dress policy with no punishment by reporting for work in a towel and shower cap the day an Atlanta News crew had arrived to film the Atlanta call center. In religion and sociology, a cult is a cohesive group of people (often a relatively small and new religious movement) devoted to beliefs or practices that the surrounding culture or society considers to be far outside the mainstream. ... In general usage, alcohol (from Arabic al-kukhūl الكحول = the spirit, the chemical.) refers almost always to ethanol, also known as grain alcohol, and often to any beverage that contains ethanol (see alcoholic beverage). ... This article is about the state capital of Georgia. ... A call centre (Commonwealth English) or call center (AmE) is a centralized office of a company that answers incoming telephone calls from customers(often for the purposes of product support) , or that makes outgoing telephone calls to customers (telemarketing). ...

The employees of MindSpring were the original "fanatical" employees, often going far beyond what was required of them. This was due to the internal policy that an employee would help a customer whenever possible.

Employees of MindSpring are considered a large family. The ex-employees occasionally throw Christmas or reunion parties in the Atlanta area. Invitation is always by word of mouth or through email contacts. Christmas (literally, the Mass of Christ) is a traditional holiday observed in much of the world on 25 December, or on 7 January in most Eastern Orthodox Churches. ...

Customers & Reviews

MindSpring was very popular with its customers and as such, they gave it rave reviews whenever possible.

Companies reviewing MindSpring, often posing as a normal customer, usually gave it high marks as well. MindSpring won the following between 1997 and 1999. 1997 (MCMXCVII) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ...

1999 PC Computing Magazine's "Five Star Award"—PC Computing named MindSpring as the best national Internet service provider. "With MindSpring's wealth of options from V.90 dialup to custom e-commerce sites—you can start out simple and add extras later."
1998 PC Computing Magazine's "MVP Winner"—PC Computing Magazine named MindSpring as the best national Internet service provider. "It's a no-brainer for Internet access and small-biz Web hosting."
1998 PC World Magazine—PC World Magazine named MindSpring best Internet service provider. "It's hard to improve on what readers tell us is the best support in the business."
1998 Home Office Computing—Home Office Computing Magazine named MindSpring best buy for Web hosting. "We found MindSpring to be the best choice for both access and simple Web hosting."
1998 SmartMoney Interactive—SmartMoney Interactive named MindSpring as the best buy for Internet services. "MindSpring is a national provider that offers swift connections and customer service that beat AOL's by a long shot."
1998 Upside—Upside named MindSpring "One of the best online service providers". "…[they] understand[s] the value of service, community and brand in the cold world of the Net."
1997 CNET—CNET recognized MindSpring as a "Buy It" recommendation as best value ISP. "…its software selection beats the pants off the competition, and MindSping's technical support gets our nod as the best overall."

Core Values & Beliefs

The MindSpring core values and beliefs were known to the employees as the CV&B's. They were read during all company meetings as well as some team meetings. When possible, the CV&B's were used for guidance.

The original CV&B's were thought up by Charles Brewer before he had the idea of MindSpring. Thought of while in a downtown Atlanta bar, he wrote them on a napkin. He would joke that he didn't know what type of business he wanted to start, but the list of core values and beliefs would rule whatever it was.
Charles Brewer is an experienced entrepreneur, most notably as the founder and CEO of MindSpring Enterprises (founded in 1994). ...

Original CV&B's

• We respect the individual, and believe that individuals who are treated with respect
  and given responsibility respond by giving their best.
• We require complete honesty and integrity in everything we do.
• We make commitments with care, and then live up to them. In all things, we do what we
  say we are going to do.
• Work is an important part of life, and it should be fun. Being a good business person
  does not mean being stuffy and boring.
• We are frugal. We guard and conserve the company's resources with at least the same
  vigilance that we would use to guard and conserve our own personal resources.
• We insist on giving our best effort in everything we undertake. Furthermore, we see a huge
  difference between "good mistakes" (best effort, bad result) and "bad mistakes"
  (sloppiness or lack of effort).
• Clarity in understanding our mission, our goals, and what we expect from each other is
  critical to our success.
• We are believers in the Golden Rule. In all our dealings we will strive to be friendly and
  courteous, as well as fair and compassionate.
• We feel a sense of urgency on any matters related to our customers. We own problems and we
  are always responsive. We are customer driven.

When MindSpring and Earthlink merged, a new CV&B was added by Earthlink management: "We love to compete, and we believe that competition brings out the best in us."

14 Deadly Sins

The 14 Deadly Sins were created by Charles Brewer as well and like the CV&B's, the Deadly Sins were read at company meetings as well.
Charles Brewer is an experienced entrepreneur, most notably as the founder and CEO of MindSpring Enterprises (founded in 1994). ...

After the merger, the 14 Deadly Sins were no longer focused on and are, to this day, missing from the Earthlink homepage.

THE 14 DEADLY SINS OF MINDSPRING (or ways that we can be just like everybody else)

1. Give lousy service- busy signals, disconnects, downtime, and ring no answers.
2. Rely on outside vendors who let us down.
3. Make internal procedures easy on us, even if it means negatively affecting or inconveniencing the customer.
4. Joke about how dumb the customers are.
5. Finger point at how other departments are not doing their job.
6. Customers can't get immediate "live" help from sales or support.
7. Poor coordination across departments.
8. Show up at a demo, sales call, trade show, or meeting unprepared.
9. Ignore the competition, they are far inferior to us.
10. Miss deadlines that we commit to internally and externally.
11. Make recruiting, hiring, and training a lower priority because we are too busy doing other tasks.
12. Look for the next job assignment, instead of focusing on the current one.
13. Office gossip, rumors, and politics.
14. Rely on dissatisfied customers to be your service monitors.