He quickly reorganized the company into three divisions and set goals for each. First, he aims to boost e-commerce on VerticalNet's community Web sites, which provide news, job listings, and discussion forums for small and midsize companies. VerticalNet now relies on ads for nearly one quarter of its revenues. Second, Galli is accelerating the move to the Web by VerticalNet's big electronic components exchange, which operates primarily by phone and old-fashioned electronic trading. And he is pushing to sell more e-store software to corporations to do business online.
Early results show improvement.
He's not afraid to get his mitts dirty. And he relishes the chance to help these underdogs. ''We will enable these companies, which maybe aren't large enough, or are intimidated by the Web, to move their businesses online,'' he vows. When he was co-captain of the wrestling team at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he won more than 100 bouts. And when Galli lost, he was harder on himself than his opponents had been. Galli will need the same kind of grit as he tries to whip VerticalNet into shape.