Publica’s CTO explains Publica’s CEO
Josef’s story in publishing winds through NY Times #1 bestsellers, the biography of a polymath, sexy thriller romance novels, Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker’s Guide…), Jeremy Beadle (TV, books), and most of the odd jobs in publishing that nobody does for fun. He says that’s the best way to learn anything.
1977, fired from a rock band, he and his best friend wrote songs, borrowed money, rented a studio, hired a photographer, paid a printer, borrowed a car, sold boxes wholesale to stores, until rock stars The Police heard their song on the radio and signed them up. In other words, independent self-publisher invited to the big leagues.
The Book Of Lists was very, very big leagues. Irving Wallace and family worked through the night, so Josef took notes for the daytime staff, hauled galleys, edited, proofread, annotated contracts (he studied law at university), ran errands for agents, publishers, publicists, movie stars, anybody around. When the Sidis biography needed a science & maths chapter, he researched and wrote it. When the publisher needed urgent electronic delivery — from an electric typewriter with a tiny memory — he figured out digital upload.
Jeremy Beadle also worked on The Book Of Lists, so Jeremy lent Josef a flat and introduced him to the magazines and BBC. At Douglas Adams’ 30th birthday party, Josef drove the radio-controlled balloon — what we’d call a drone today — a very odd job indeed.
Sony hired Josef to project-manage the CBS Olympics broadcast centers, DirecTV, and Verizon Fios TV. Film and TV were becoming digital media. Behind image and sound, everything runs on metadata, just like publishing books. Which were also becoming digital media. Books, music, film, and TV have always been closely related. Josef calls that his unfair advantage.
Josef co-founded a company making software for Netflix, movie studios, and TV networks distributing their wares. Meanwhile, his filmmaker friends started becoming independent creative entrepreneurs, still dependent on powerful publishers like YouTube.
Then blockchains matured enough to sustain themselves and support authors who want to control their own publishing rights and finances.
Antons and I had hands-on blockchain experience, Josef had a hands-on history in publishing and high-stakes digital media, so Publica became our project.
Yuri Pimenov, CTO Publica
