Thank you for visiting my blog.
As you might know, I became a blogger in 2007 when I launched Bear on Business. At the time, my focus was on telecom. Specifically, I wanted to capture the learnings from the Telecom Boom, Meltdown, and Resurgence. I blogged for 2 years and, over this time, drifted from Telecom. I pretty much stopped in mid 2009.
In October of 2010, I attended a Summit sponsored with Warren Stephens, CEO of Stephens, Inc., an Investment Bank headquartered in Little Rock. Warren Stephens, who was #130 on Forbes’ list of the 400 wealthiest Americans, is a vocal and passionate believer of Free Enterprise. At the Summit, Warren assembled an impressive list of speakers to speak to an audience of about 50 CEOs of middle market companies. The goal of the Summit was to spark a dialogue about what we, as business leaders, could do to get our country on a much better track.
I returned from the Summit knowing I need to do more. I am a successful Serial Entrepreneur. I am committed to Free Enterprise and know deep inside of me that American Style Free Enterprise has done more for the advancement of mankind than any other system in history. I understand the constitutional promise of the Pursuit of Happiness. Perhaps I can offer some perspective and help us get our country and economy back on track.
So with Stephens’ Summit as a spark, I return to blogging. My blog will be less about telecom and more about Entrepreneurship. My strong beliefs on American Style Free Enterprise will be shared. I will explain why the Pursuit of Happiness is so foundational. Our founding fathers didn’t promise us happiness. Or wealth. Or property. Instead they promised us the inalienable right to the Pursuit of Happiness. We, as a citizens of this great country, must re-commit to this promise of the Pursuit of Happiness.
About Dan Caruso:
Dan Caruso is Co-Founder, President and CEO of the Zayo Group (www.zayo.com) and Chairman of Envysion (www.Envysion.com).
Dan also oversees Onvoy Voice Services (www.onvoy.com).
Zayo Group consists of three telecom businesses–Zayo Bandwidth, zColo, and Zayo Fiber Solutions.
In 2009 and 2010, he was on the board of GTS Central Europe and was a board director of New Global Telecom until its 2010 sale to Comcast. The Denver Post recently named Dan one of Eleven Colorado Business People to Watch in 2011. In 2009, Ernst & Young honored him with the Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the Emerging Companies category for the Rocky Mountain Region.
Between 2004 and 2006, Dan was President and CEO of ICG Communications. In 2004, he led a take- private buyout of ICG. At the time, the company held approximately $100M of debt and was burning its
$30M of remaining cash at a rate of $8M a month. Columbia Capital and M/C Venture Partners backed the buyout, investing a total of $8.7M. In 2006, ICG was sold to Level 3 for $170M, resulting in a total distribution to the buyout group and management team of over $225M and a total return on investment in excess of 25x.
Dan was one of the founding executives of Level 3 Communications. From its 1997 inception through 2000, he was responsible for Level 3’s engineering, construction, and operations organizations. Between 2001 and 2003, most of Level 3’s lines of business and marketing functions fell under his jurisdiction.
Prior to Level 3, Dan was a member of the MFS Communications senior management team. He began his career at Illinois Bell/Ameritech.
Dan has an MBA from the University of Chicago and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from University of Illinois.
Dan supports the Denver School of Science and Technology, a network of public charter schools focusing on science, technology, engineering and math. He is a board member with Colorado Uplift, a charity helping
Denver’s inner city youth focus on school and personal development. Additionally, Dan supports Boulder’s, entrepreneurial community and, in particular, University of Colorado at Boulder, by helping bring students
and alumni together with fellow entrepreneurs.
