We planned to have subscribers pay us, because they'd recognize that such information added value. We thought we could earn revenue from advertising, but we never counted on it. Ultimately, we created financial content that people had been buying for a lot of money. And we were able to provide it to them better and faster. We never lost that focus.
Patience is critical.
One thing that annoys me is the hypocrisy I see among the media, the investment community, and shareholders. On one hand, those groups said that too many dotcoms didn't understand brand building or that brand building is a process that takes years, not months. On the other hand, those same people were expecting results in a matter of months. You can't have it both ways. We've got to try something else.