IP Applications Billing and Payments blog

Hi, I'm John Jacobson.  In my day job, I'm President and CEO of IP Applications Corp, a technology company with roots deep in the internet boom of the late 1990's and early 2000's.  I'm also a volunteer with the Canadian Cancer Society (I chair what is in effect the Society's audit committee) and I live in Vancouver, BC.  This is my first blog post ever.

Not that I haven't posted online before, though.  I'm a member of three online car enthusiast forums and while I don't post a lot, I've posted a little at a time for the last five years - enough to get over any sensation of stage fright.

So who am I and what have I got to say?  Well, I've been a technology entrepreneur pretty much since I graduated from university.  I've been an employee of technology companies, I've been a President and CEO of technology companies, and I've done the founder-in-the-garage thing as well.  I've run fast-growing tech companies, I've done a few turn-arounds and restarts, and I've slogged my way through some deep mud in some businesses where even a great product and a sharp strategy could only deliver beige results. 

Through five company changes (in 32 years) I've switched industries five times - power electronics to aerospace and defense to tech training to geospatial systems to internet technologies.  Some people make wisecracks about people like me who've done a wide variety of things being unable to hold a job - I've done enough different things to joke about not being able to hold an industry!  As for talking about my personal situation, I'm old-fashioned enough to believe that when it comes to the internet, my family and friends will have to find their own way there - I won't be doing any advertising.

What have I got to say? That's what blogging is about, or so the experts say, so you'll have to read on.  The focus of this blog is IP Applications and its business.  That doesn't mean I won't be wandering a little ways off the reservation to comment on other things, but in the short term it's going to be about IPApps and SaaS billing.