Sky Dayton
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sky Dylan Dayton (born 8 August 1971) is an American entrepreneur.
Dayton is the founder of EarthLink, co-founder of eCompanies, founder and Chairman of Boingo Wireless, and the CEO of Helio.
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[edit] Early life
Dayton was born in New York City. His father was a sculptor and his mother a dancer and poet. Shortly after his birth the family moved to Los Angeles. He lived for a time with his maternal grandparents. His grandfather, David DeWitt, was an IBM Research Fellow and he played a huge part in introducing young Sky to technology and computers.
At the age of 9, Dayton got his first computer, a Sinclair ZX81. He learned to program in BASIC on this early machine. At age 16, Dayton graduated from the Delphian School, a private boarding school in Oregon, which uses study methods developed by Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. He got a job at an entertainment advertising firm, where he became exposed to Apple Macintosh hardware and digital imaging software and soon managed the digital imaging department. He then moved on to a larger advertising agency, Mednick & Associates, where he held a similar role until he was 18.
[edit] Entrepreneurial career
In late 1990 Dayton and a friend raised $20,000 from family and friends and opened Mocha Gallery, an art gallery and coffee house in L.A. After 6 months they changed the name to Cafe Mocha and got rid of the art business. The trendy Cafe Mocha was written up in the LA Times, Vogue and [GQ] magazines and was featured on MTV's "House of Style". He soon opened another coffeehouse called Joe Cafe.
In 1992, while still managing Cafe Mocha, Dayton and friend Adam Walker opened Dayton/Walker Design, a Studio City advertising and design firm in 1992. Dayton/Walker served entertainment clients including Fox Television, Disney, Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures, and Warner Brothers.
In 1993, Dayton discovered the Internet and created a GUI Internet Navigator [citation needed] to help ordinary people connect to and browse the Internet. By 1994 Dayton had figured out that there was tremendous potential for a dialup Internet access company in southern California. In the spring of 1994, with funding from Reed Slatkin and Kevin O'Donnell, he opened Earthlink, Inc.
Dayton quickly expanded the company and by the summer of 1995 Earthlink was able to provide national service enabled by its agreement with UUNET. In 1996 Dayton turned over the day-to-day operation of the company to Charles "Garry" Betty. At the time, the company had 30,000 subscribers and was growing at a rate of 15 percent to 20 percent a week.
In recent years, EarthLink has grown to become one of the nation's leading Internet service providers, with more than five million customers and over $1 billion in annual revenue.
In June 1999, Dayton left his position with the company and announced the formation of eCompanies with former Disney Internet chief Jake Winebaum. eCompanies began as an incubator and venture capital fund for developing Internet companies. It is a privately held company, and while it reportedly struggled for a time (as did most Internet companies in 2000), it has helped launch several successful companies, including LowerMyBills.com, JAMDAT Mobile (Nasdaq: JMDT) and Business.com, and now serves as a holding company for these investments.
Dayton started Boingo Wireless in 2001 to solve the fragmentation problem inherent in Wi-Fi networks. Boingo aggregates tens of thousands of Wi-Fi “hot spots” around the world into a single system for major carriers.
Dayton became CEO of Helio upon the company’s launch in 2005, and this company is where he currently devotes most of his time.
Dayton serves on the boards of Helio, EarthLink, Boingo, Business.com and on the advisory board of the Center for Public Leadership at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
[edit] Family and leisure
In 1998 Dayton began taking surfing lessons and quickly fell for the sport. His love for surfing is often featured in articles about him and his businesses.
Dayton is married to Arwen Elys Dayton, a published science-fiction author and aspiring screenwriter. They are members of the Church of Scientology and they have three children.
[edit] References
- Rose, Frank (March 2006), "Sky Dayton Gets Mobile". Wired Magazine, pp. 154-162.
- Young, Shawn (Oct 26, 2005), "EarthLink, SK Telecom Dial In to Data Venture". The Wall Street Journal, p. B4.
- "EarthLink Inc.: Wireless Joint Venture Is Signed With South Korea's SK Telecom". (January 27, 2005). The Wall Street Journal, p. D6.
- Ankeny, Jason (March 2005), "Sky Dayton's Newest Next Big Thing (Again)". Wireless Review, pp. 45-50.
- "Surfing Book of Records: Most Enterprising Surfer". (October 2004). Surfing Magazine, p. 66.
- Dayton, Sky (May 2003). "Education in the Internet Age". Imprimis, pp. 1-5.
- Dayton, Sky (March 25, 2002). "When Capital Corrupts". Forbes ASAP.
- Helio: About Helio: Meet our leaders: Sky Dayton's Bio. Retrieved May 9, 2006
