What I learned - SeekSpots (2001)

 SeekSpots.com (Age 14 - 2001)

I was brought on to create a PPC search engine for The Spots Networks that would be called SeekSpots.  The Spots Network was a group of sites (shoppingspots.com, datingspots.com, lovespots.com, and others) that made money from referral programs.

SeekSpots - Technical Side:

Web Services - Using XML feeds of search results as back-fill... XML was all the rage.

Merchant Services - Setting up background processing of credit card transactions.

More Ops - I got to setup and maintain lots of Microsoft technology.

This is where SeekSpots.com was being hosted. My parents basement. 

SeekSpots - Business Side:

Connections

When searching for a back-fill provider, I found a search engine called SearchHippo.com which offered results via a free XML feed that I could use.

 
I thought it was quite cool and I e-mailed the creator to let him know that I planned to use SearchHippo to back-fill our own results.   This person turned out to be Kevin Marcus who co-founded InfoSpace.com and became a bit of a mentor and helped me connect to others.   We still keep in touch.