James Keyes

Pretty compelling competitive advantage, right? So you say, what happened? Well, we also had a From an IPO, in other words, a public offering that Viacom once owned Blockbuster, and they spun it out and created a new entity, a public company called Blockbuster. In 2004, put on a billion dollars of debt. Third of which was due in 2009.

Pretty compelling competitive advantage, right? So you say, what happened? Well, we also had a From an IPO, in other words, a public offering that Viacom once owned Blockbuster, and they spun it out and created a new entity, a public company called Blockbuster. In 2004, put on a billion dollars of debt. Third of which was due in 2009.

Now, if you remember what happened in 2008, something called Lehman Brothers occurred. Financial market collapsed around Lehman Brothers failure and others. And we had a refinancing that we had to get done. Yeah. It's like being in a commercial airliner at 40,000 feet and all of a sudden the air gets sucked out. You have a decompression. That's what happened to Blockbuster.

Now, if you remember what happened in 2008, something called Lehman Brothers occurred. Financial market collapsed around Lehman Brothers failure and others. And we had a refinancing that we had to get done. Yeah. It's like being in a commercial airliner at 40,000 feet and all of a sudden the air gets sucked out. You have a decompression. That's what happened to Blockbuster.

We had to put the aircraft in a bit of a dive, if you will, preserve cash. and get to a safe altitude to be able to then climb back up. So we took it through a restructuring and had a successful sale of the entity to Dish Networks. So in spite of popular belief, Blockbuster didn't liquidate. They didn't go away.

We had to put the aircraft in a bit of a dive, if you will, preserve cash. and get to a safe altitude to be able to then climb back up. So we took it through a restructuring and had a successful sale of the entity to Dish Networks. So in spite of popular belief, Blockbuster didn't liquidate. They didn't go away.

They were sold to Dish Network, who ultimately had a different strategy for 100% streaming and 100% streaming via mobility They were a bit early in their strategy and ultimately closed the stores down. They still own the brand. You never know. It may come back one day.

They were sold to Dish Network, who ultimately had a different strategy for 100% streaming and 100% streaming via mobility They were a bit early in their strategy and ultimately closed the stores down. They still own the brand. You never know. It may come back one day.

I set this thing off, almost blew myself up. Didn't manage to get off the ground, but it did create quite a little fire. So I snuffed out the fire and then left. Came back and discovered I had nearly burned down half the neighborhood. So here's a kid trying to learn. And I was dubbed a bad kid in the neighborhood because I almost burned the place down.

I set this thing off, almost blew myself up. Didn't manage to get off the ground, but it did create quite a little fire. So I snuffed out the fire and then left. Came back and discovered I had nearly burned down half the neighborhood. So here's a kid trying to learn. And I was dubbed a bad kid in the neighborhood because I almost burned the place down.

You better call me Jim, though, Adam. I put James on the book because I wanted to be more formal, but nobody will know who it is if they call me James.

You better call me Jim, though, Adam. I put James on the book because I wanted to be more formal, but nobody will know who it is if they call me James.

That's a really good question. I literally grew up in circumstances where I didn't even know what options were out there. Business to me was the factory my dad worked at, and I didn't want any part of that. So business was kind of dark and dirty and hard. Or the alternative was it was typing class. I remember in high school, we had typing class, no frame of reference whatsoever.

That's a really good question. I literally grew up in circumstances where I didn't even know what options were out there. Business to me was the factory my dad worked at, and I didn't want any part of that. So business was kind of dark and dirty and hard. Or the alternative was it was typing class. I remember in high school, we had typing class, no frame of reference whatsoever.

But I was inspired by the space program at the time. As a kid, I grew up watching the Apollo missions and Buzz Aldrin walk on the moon and Charlie Duke and guys like that. And so I thought, okay, these guys came from nothing and they've become astronauts. So maybe that's a path for me. I want to be an astronaut and I can do really cool things. So that was my first dream to be an astronaut.

But I was inspired by the space program at the time. As a kid, I grew up watching the Apollo missions and Buzz Aldrin walk on the moon and Charlie Duke and guys like that. And so I thought, okay, these guys came from nothing and they've become astronauts. So maybe that's a path for me. I want to be an astronaut and I can do really cool things. So that was my first dream to be an astronaut.

Set out to do that. Fell a little bit short of the astronaut thing, at least so far in my life. You never know though. Yeah. What did that even look like? Well, Adam, that would imply I even knew the path to be an astronaut. All I knew is that to be an astronaut, I'd better be smart.

Set out to do that. Fell a little bit short of the astronaut thing, at least so far in my life. You never know though. Yeah. What did that even look like? Well, Adam, that would imply I even knew the path to be an astronaut. All I knew is that to be an astronaut, I'd better be smart.

And so literally I said, well, if you really want to be an astronaut, you better study because they have to be smart. I dove into learning and I dove into school and I loved science. You know, I was trying to learn as much as I could. One of my failures, I said, I'm going to learn how to be a rocket scientist and that will be my path to being an astronaut.

And so literally I said, well, if you really want to be an astronaut, you better study because they have to be smart. I dove into learning and I dove into school and I loved science. You know, I was trying to learn as much as I could. One of my failures, I said, I'm going to learn how to be a rocket scientist and that will be my path to being an astronaut.