Free for All

Jimmy did.

Jimmy grew up in Huntsville, Alabama … and was intensely curious as a kid .. he loved to read just about anything he could get his hands on including World Book Encyclopedia that his mother had bought him … Jimmy just couldn’t wait to learn more … after graduating from university and working in finance he was inspired by how Netscape had gone public … and started his own online business with some friends called Bomis … now originally Bomis was a directory of businesses in Chicago … but eventually BOMIS branched out into some other more adult content … and began making money … so Jimmy invested some of that extra money in creating new, completely different, “for profit” online business … that he thought everyone would use … one where they would make money by placing ads next to the content … but the new website kept losing money .. so, Jimmy and his confounder converted it to a charity non-profit .. and it grew quickly. Within a short time BOMIS went out of business … but its key non-profit investment just kept growing and growing.

Today, almost 20 years after it launched … the website Jimmy Wales co-founded and initially funded with profits from a now defunct website with adult content … is now the world’s fifth … fifth most popular website with 500 million readers … every single month … Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a great idea because great ideas often come from learning all you can about something .. and Wikipedia is a great place to start!