The Business Journal had a great feature on Kelly and Jeff Fitzsimmons. Kelly is a well-known Milwaukee entrepreneur, and this venture seems a bit of a change from computer security. Their idea is an “American Idol” type of website for joke-telling. The site is Comic Wonder, and their money-making proposition revolves around selling advertising.
Users of Comic Wonder record audio of jokes, and other users vote for the best jokes and best joke-tellers. The site will feature a variety of weekly and monthly contests.
Kelly was the founder of Sun Tzu Security, which was eventually sold to Neohapsis in Chicago. She was the CEO of Neohapsis for a few years, and sold her equity in the company in October. Jeff’s background involves writing books and writing for television shows. His book, “The Art of the Bonsai Potato” has sold over 200,000 copies.
Comic Wonder is Jeff’s idea, dating back to 2000. The site has been developed under Jeff and Kelly’s company, Area 444, and more online products are in the works.
Kelly and Jeff invested $250,000 of their own money to get this site off the ground, and have been working it full-time since December. The site had its official roll-out late last week.
27 Jun 07 at 9:14 pm
Hi Tracey!!
Thanks for the post! We appreciate it greatly. Now we need some good forensic accountant jokes. I am sure you have a couple. We are light on the jokes, so send us your best stuff!