While most people consider the Internet the “wave of the future,” Lawrence P. Howorth, 47, the newly appointed chief operating and financial officer at CyberStudios Inc., looks at it as a business that has stronger ties to the past.
“The Internet is really just something to support a good business model,” he said. “It’s going to become like the telephone to us, a piece of infrastructure that will help us do business.”
CyberStudios produces themed Web sites targeted to people with an intense interest in a particular subject. The company’s first Web site, launched in June, is Wedding411, where a bride can go to find one-stop advice, shopping and services for her upcoming wedding. With that first site launched, Howorth’s role will be to build and operate the company as it rolls out a number of new sites.
CyberStudios was founded by Steven Koltai, a former Warner Bros. executive, two and a half years ago. Koltai, who created Warner’s interactive entertainment division, is now the chairman and chief executive. In December, the company plans to release two more Web sites, the details of which Howorth declined to reveal.
Now that that the Wedding411 site is up and running, “we have to get out there and sell it and promote it.”
Howorth is familiar with developing companies. He was co-founder and president of Softbank Interactive Marketing and chief financial officer of Learning Tree International.
He attended the University of Saskatchewan, majoring in commerce with a minor in accounting. He went on to receive an advanced degree in accounting, but eventually realized that he wanted to be involved in developing start-up companies. As he became active in consulting, he gravitated to Internet-based companies when they began blossoming in the early 1990s.
“There are a couple of things that this company has that are going to be absolutely necessary to succeed in the Internet,” said Howorth. “No. 1, they have to identify with the user, No. 2 they have to have a high service level, and No. 3 they have to have a very highly used element of e-commerce. Those are really the key items, and this company has all of them.”
Lauren Hollingsworth
