Welcome to our yearlong project with YNOTMASTERS. You may have read the editorial by Executive Editor LAJ in a recent issue of YNOT NEWS, “We are going to be following Dino and his company for up to a full year and putting together a documentary if you will, on his company’s successes and failures…” That’s right! We’re putting together a yearlong project, where we photograph and document our weekly activities (good, bad, or otherwise) into an ongoing diary for the adult Webmaster community..LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

Welcome to our yearlong project with YNOTMASTERS. You may have read the editorial by Executive Editor LAJ in a recent issue of YNOT NEWS, “We are going to be following Dino and his company for up to a full year and putting together a documentary if you will, on his company’s successes and failures…” That’s right! We’re putting together a yearlong project, where we photograph and document our weekly activities (good, bad, or otherwise) into an ongoing diary for the adult Webmaster community.

A Little History

My name is Dino (AKA disc0) and I’m the illustrious leader of a small company named MODENA Group, LLC., located on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. I have two partners – Martin (AKA stoutkraut) and Xavier who also help in the day-to-day operations of our small company.

Our mission is to build the best adult Web sites on the Internet. Up until this point, all the work we’ve been doing has been corporate in nature: intranets, extranets, corporate sites and anything else that falls under the rigid rules and wide umbrella of big brother and corporate America. We’ve now changed our focus to the wonderful and exciting world of the adult Internet. We’re going to be doing everything from building swinger-centric matchmaker sites, to developing our own “Fetish-Gay-Hardcore-Anal-Oral-Avs-Tgp-Super-Niche” sites… and we’re bringing you along for the ride!

About Us

Where should I begin? Well, let’s go back a couple of years and take a look at my resume. I went to school in Pennsylvania and studied Information Systems. At the same time I was running an even smaller business designing and installing corporate intranets (back then an intranet was just a GUI sitting on top of a file server), and while I was doing that, I was teaching myself the basics of Object Oriented Programming.

I almost finished school (dropped out because of the upcoming and foreseeable Internet boom) and decided to go to work for a recent (at the time) start-up company named MindSpring. I started by answering tech support calls and working the phones. I slowly moved up the ranks and became the Assistant Internal Webmaster, and had the opportunity to properly associate myself with the tools and political correctness of corporate America.

All of MindSpring’s internal web servers were DEBIAN (my first true UNIX love). Day to day, you’d find me updating internal sites, creating cron jobs, building search engines and putting together the crisp, clean graphics that can still be found by boring cubical dwellers around the states. This went on for quite some time, until I reached the point of wanting more of life.

I moved from MindSpring to another corporate monster: BMG. There, I found myself poking needles in my eyes to stay awake through the monotony of my cubical walls. I would design Web-based applications that allowed recording studios to upload track “Masters” to facilities in North Carolina, that would take the data and turn it into CDs. Besides growing my personal CD collection ten-fold, I found myself bored with the fact I had no other intelligible human to communicate and share my passion for Perl, HTML, and ASP with. So, I decided to move on.

From there I ended up at a company called USinternetworking. I was hired as a senior consultant to perform pre-sales work, requirements analysis, web development, design, testing and delivery. Needless to say this was a start-up company and I wore several hats. I got in pre-IPO and found myself a paper millionaire in less than one year! It was great. I’d check the stock price as often as I could, I would take out the company boats every weekend, and I even enjoyed rides in the CEO’s helicopter. It was every start-up junkie’s wet dream come true!

But then rumors of mismanagement and overspending (I think it may have been the boats) were scuttled around. As days drew longer, the stock price fell lower and lower. I found myself at a turning point, and decided to sell my stock and then go work for another start-up in Reston, Virginia. In real life, “paper millionaire” translates to around $200,000!

At this startup I was in charge of developing corporate (there’s that damn word again) travel software. I got me a fancy title: Vice President, Application Development, and bought myself a kick-ass BMW M3. My daily life consisted of driving 60 miles to work in the worst traffic in America (Washington, DC Beltway: home of the “sniper”), overlooking the work of up to 50 developers located half a country away, attending venture capital meetings, sitting through corporate events and meeting some of the big names of the Internet… BOOM. I was having fun!

Then the money ran out…

All the VC’s hid under rocks, my paychecks would bounce and I was getting tired of the long-ass commute! However, I left this last company inspired, knowing that I could do this “thing” myself. I knew that I could formally start my own company and I could have fun doing it.

So here we are. Several years later, a couple thousand stock options lighter and having fun!

I started my company with my very best friend and a business acquaintance. We work well together. I perform the responsibilities of Chief Executive, Martin runs the technical side of the house as the hardware technology guru, and Xavier takes care of all the boring business filings, taxes and record keeping. We compliment each other very well, and find ourselves enjoying life.

Why?

Some may ask why we’re doing this. The answer is simple. I want to break into this industry with a bang. I want to succeed and I want my clients to succeed. I want the newbies to see what it takes to make it, I want them to see how we get swindled (please see my last article Turnkey Vendors – Should They Stay Or Should They Go?), how we succeed, and how we fail because of our mistakes. I want to learn from other’s experiences and I want to know how others feel about issues that I may have to face.

Plus… it’s fun! Hell, if there is a way to communicate and network with people like you (people who read this and can sympathize with my sorry ass) well then it’s worth it!

Want to be part of the action?

There are two ways to help participate in our project. The first way is to read the YNOTNEWS and newsletters that LAJ sends out, post your opinions on the chat boards, and offer feedback. The more feedback we get from people like you, the more fun this whole thing becomes!

Second, a more interactive way to participate is by becoming an official MODENA Group, LLC. sponsor. Don’t worry, there is no money involved! If you would be interested in being mentioned in some of our weekly diaries, then write us and tell us how you can sponsor us.

For example, if you’re a traffic guy, and you want to throw some traffic our way, we’ll mention your company and give you a link in our article. If you’re a video, or pic content guy, then sponsor us by providing some of your content, and we’ll let the world know how we feel about it and how it has helped us grow our business.

Currently we have some great people and companies that have helped us get to the point where we are today. DWHS web hosting for example, is one of the most reliable and professional companies that we have worked with. Charles runs the show at DWHS and I know that I’ve woken him up several times to ask him stupid questions about his hosting packages. He’s never once told me I was an idiot (out loud).

At Consumption Junction the guys are top notch. They helped me overcome a very traumatic newbie experience and have walked me through the process of architecture in putting together a quality pay site.

Finally, I have to give kudos to one of the most talented, and most devoted graphic artists and adult Webmasters out there, Voodoo. Not only does his work stand out above the rest, he is a considerate and honest businessman looking to help people succeed.

So that’s it folks. That’s the first diary entry of the year. Stay tuned and watch us grow. See some of the sites we build – MODENA Group, BitchFlix and SuperPornMart evolve into more sophisticated XXX money-making machines!

If you’re interested in sponsoring the MODENA Group, feel free to send an e-mail to sponsor@modena-inc.com. If you’re interested in web design, content feeds, or hosting plans please visit them at http://modena-inc.com.