ABOUT

Hi. I’m Adrian Bye and I interview the CEOs of MeetInnovators. My goal is to make high-value connections that will help your business grow. MeetInnovators gives you business insight, networking opportunities, and direct access to the absolute best minds and most influential CEOs on the Internet. And, I make the introductions that result in big deals.

Why run this site?

A few years ago I was reading a book written by a Japanese soldier who fought WWII for 30 years after it finished. He didn’t believe that WWII was over; he stayed on a desert island in the pacific. What struck me from the book was that he did some incredibly intelligent things during their time on the island - he got the small picture incredibly right. (the book is here)

BUT HE GOT THE BIG PICTURE TOTALLY WRONG!

I had a profound realisation after reading the book. I realised I wasn’t doing a good job at getting the big picture right either. So I decided I would find a way to learn about it from the smartest people I could find. And I decided to share it with everyone - the result is MeetInnovators.

Most business education on the Internet is by journalists and bloggers. While they provide useful insight, they do not experience the day-to-day understanding that comes by being in the trenches. And, since I’m Australian, I’m pretty direct. So I’ll ask the hard questions we as entrepreneurs want answered. Do I take capital? Do I take my company public? Should I consider a reverse merger? What is really working for driving traffic? How can visitor value be increased while maintaining retention? I’ll also I’ll ask the dumb questions on behalf of all of us! Each interview focuses on some aspect of Internet monetization.

These interviews will also give you an inside and informal look at the companies, CEOs, business practices, and business models.

About Me

I’ve been fortunate to have been doing deals for quite some time now. I’ve been developing partnerships since 1995. It started when I negotiated partnerships between AIESEC, the world’s largest student run exchange organization, and organizations such as Adobe, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, and Symantec. I grew up in Tasmania, Australia, went to university in the USA, and have lived in the Caribbean (the Dominican Republic) since 2001. If you know what you’re doing online, you can live anywhere, right?

You can easily follow the interviews by joining our community or via twitter.

My Ethics Statement

Nobody can pay to be interviewed. Period. I’m here to learn, so I interview people I want to learn from only.

Usually, I don’t have a business relationship with the person at the time of the interview. If I do, it will be clearly stated.

Each interview is designed to be a little “rough” without the perfection of a press release. However, as part of our interview publishing process, each CEO is given the opportunity to review, correct, and approve the published interview before its publication. The CEOs are limited to making a maximum of 50 word changes.

This is an unusual step compared to interview publishing in other industries. We provide the opportunity for minor editing as a courtesy to ensure each CEO is comfortable with how they will be represented. Our publishing team then reviews the recommended changes by the CEO prior to the finalized published interview.

We believe our approach enables a higher caliber of interviews and content to be published on the Web.

Feedback about MeetInnovators and any of our interviews is always welcome in the comments following the interview.