Lycos was started in 1995 when CMGI’s investment
group, @Ventures, bought a search engine developed
by Michael Mauldin at Carnegie Mellon University
and Bob Davis signed on as CEO. The company
grew rapidly over the next several years as Internet
usage exploded.
By the peak of the Internet Bubble, it was the
fourth most popular site on the Web. In 2000, Lycos
was acquired for $5.4 billion by Terra Networks,
a subsidiary of the Spanish telephone company,
Telefonica.
Davis is currently a managing general partner at venture capital firm...

be torn apart or written about. I got a lot of that and that’s kind of why I stopped
blogging—because people were critical of me.
There was one post where I made a joke about wanting a banjo, and it was
like, “Ben, he’s such a tyrant, he won’t let me have a banjo.” I don’t have any
instruments, and why should I buy a $300 banjo?
He was right, but I was trying to make him seem like this villain. The point
of the joke was, “Boy, she’s really stupid about wanting something...

person, so if I have a choice of complimenting a person or making a joke, I’ll
make a joke. I’m like that dad that won’t hug. It’s really pathetic.
Livingston: How did it feel to get famous so quickly?
Trott: It’s weird because—and I’m not comparing myself to a celebrity—when
people want to be celebrities or actors and they say that “this is the thing I want
most,” then they get to that point and they realize, “I feel the same way.” I feel
the same way that I really did 4 years ago....

to them.
There aren’t that many women in technology and maybe it doesn’t really
matter. I mean, why aren’t there more men in design?
Livingston: Looking back in your whole experience, what would you say is the
most surprising thing?
Trott: There’s the whole, “I can’t believe we have a company that has 100 people.”
The surprising thing is that there’s going to be someone here now that I don’t
know personally. It’s not just to a point where I’m not good friends with them,
like other employees; it’s like, “I don’t...

other people in my class who were class clowns, they weren’t girls. It was me
and a bunch of boys. I think there’s that same sort of personality that makes you
want to do something like start a company, and you can’t do something like that
without wanting to be exposed.
I’ve kind of retreated a bit. I want to be exposed less now. But I’m more
confident in what I’ve done. I’ve always identified more with guys at school and
I’ve always been competitive with them. If you try to figure out the...