Meet the tireless entrepreneur who squatted at AOL

<i>...given just $20,000 by the incubator, and after the four-month program ended, the money was gone...</i><p><i>...after pivoting and focusing solely on letting teachers share lesson plans, Simons said he was able to score $50,000 in seed funding from Ulu Ventures and Silicon Valley VC Paul Sherer.</i><p><i>Now, Simons said, he's looking to raise an additional $500,000.</i><p><i>So is Simons just a kid with a particularly honed entrepreneurial spirit?</i><p>Exactly when did the definition of entrepreneur change from "build a sustainable business that provides value to its customers" to "survive long enough for the next round of investment"?<p>I admire Eric for his tenacity (most others would have quit long ago), but I'd much rather hear about when he actually sells something.

Judging by the gossip I heard while at AOL, he surely isn't the only person using AOL's offices and food without contributing to AOL, but he's the only one who isn't actually employed by AOL.

While I applaud Eric's inexhaustible dedication to his company and mission, taking advantage of AOL in order to accomplish it is disgustingly unethical. It just makes it harder for other entrepreneurs who share that dedication but have chosen to build their businesses above-board.<p>I'm glad AOL has a sense of humor about this. But you can be sure that this incident will create additional requirements and restrictions for the [honest] entrepreneurs who still remain in the building.

Reminds me of the story of Graphing Calculator:<p><a href="http://www.pacifict.com/Story/" rel="nofollow">http://www.pacifict.com/Story/</a>

Got to say the response from AOL was pure class. They could have been really annoyed at the kid for sponging off their employee services, but no, 'we just didn't expect it to work so well'. Nicely done from AOL there.<p>Sure, the kid contravened plenty of rules and laws, but the level of focus to do 18ish hour days and maintain a lifestyle like that to achieve the goals? You don't get that everyday.<p>And lets be honest, he's not the first guy in the Valley to treat the rules with a loose interpretation.

Its a neat story. When I read the headline I thought it was a Mike Arrington story :-)<p>We joked at Google that they really did want you to live there but their secops team would not let a non-employee do this.<p>However for a potential investor this is a great demonstration of how committed someone is to their idea, and their passion. I don't doubt for a moment that Eric will be successful at what ever he sets out to do, you can't buy that kind of focus.

This is an entertaining story, at most. The pursuit of round after round of funding that Eric - and many other entrepreneurs, surely - are striving for is concerning. What ever happened to the pursuit of a savvy business that brings in real profit? The hunt for funding needs to be replaced with a hunt for sustainability.<p>Am I wrong for believing that?

I wonder if he was eating our food. Playdom has three meals a day "up stairs" in that building, where we are headquartered and have an entire floor. There is also another startup incubator in this building. It's pretty funny they just mention AOL in the article.

I'm reminded of Rodney Rothman's <i>My Fake Job</i> (New Yorker, November 2000), a "personal history about the writer's tenure at an unnamed downtown Internet company where he did not actually have a job":<p><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2000/11/27/2000_11_27_120_TNY_LIBRY_000022173" rel="nofollow">http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2000/11/27/2000_11_27_120_T...</a><p>* Reporter's fake job irks real dot-com: <a href="http://articles.cnn.com/2000-12-05/tech/reporter.irks.dot.com.idg_1_employees-luminant-worldwide-dot?_s=PM:TECH" rel="nofollow">http://articles.cnn.com/2000-12-05/tech/reporter.irks.dot.co...</a>

This kid's drive and ambition is impressive, but using that as an excuse to ignore honesty? Sounds like he should be working on wall street, instead.<p>Kudos to David Tempkin for his response -- spot on. He recognized the situation for what it was, and responded most appropriately.<p>But here's the thing -- suppose he was instead sponging off a smaller, non-corporate, recently-funded, bootstrapped operation. Would everyone be calling him a go-getter? I'm guessing not, as the "theft" conversation would likely take a different tone.

This guy is fantastic. If what he's doing now with the new incubator doesn't work out I hope he considers applying to YC. Living at AOL is at least a good a story as selling cereal.

He also has been solo the whole time, which makes it more impressive. He had a cofounder who gave up, but Eric never budged.

Break the rules when it fits your own interests. This kid should leave the valley and move to Wall St.

&#62; Update 9:31 a.m. PT: This story has been updated with a response from AOL.<p>What was the response? I can't find it in the article, would be interesting to see it.

Homeless entrepreneurs: The new cool thing.<p>Now I just need $50k or so.

Hearing about AOL throws me back to the late 90s.<p>And whenever I hear about them it is never in a technical context as in "check out this new database AOL techs created" it is more of "remember how AOL used to send people a ton of CDs?" or "Check out the statistics of people still using dial up"<p>I don't even remember what made them sort of quitely disappear from the radar? Was it broadband from cable companies and Verizon's Fios?<p>So I am wondering what do AOL tech people do there? Is it just maintenance to keep the dial-up server pool working?

Anybody know his Twitter username? The one linked to from the "About Us" page doesn't work.

Great story and lucky for Eric he wasn't locked up in prison. Worth noting he was involved in an earlier project at AOL and they hadn't deactivated his pass. A without this things may have gone the other way.<p>I think Gates and Jobs spent nights at places they were working at, leveraging off free to use, latest technology.<p>His startup idea is great. There are variations out there already but maybe this story and network will turn this into something successful.

I'm sure once AOL eventually goes out of business, they can crash on his couch and use his shower. Fair enough he was using their facilities to work on his own projects and try and raise capital, but I admire his audacity. This is probably one of the most impressive things I've heard and read about in a long time.

Bending the truth gets you far - I spoke to a trainfan once who told everyone he was a train/locomotive driver/engineer and used that to travel all throughout Europe in traincabs

Very cool story :) I understand the ethics arguments, but I can't find the heart to support them. I admire Eric's resourcefulness and outright balls ;)

So today I found myself reading Robert Burns' poem, “To a Mouse” (the origin of the famous phrase, “The best laid plans of mice and men”).<p>I think it's almost possible to read this poem in the voice of AOL talking to Eric Simons.<p><a href="http://www.worldburnsclub.com/poems/translations/554.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.worldburnsclub.com/poems/translations/554.htm</a>

Good hustle, Eric. Sorry for dropping the ball on not getting back to ya but you've been making do better than I can.

Too bad his incubator wasn't at Google. He probably could have lived a little better down in Mountain View.

I had a friend that claimed he was squatting at Virginia Tech's Math Emporium. At the time I assumed he was joking (they didn't have showers) but now I'm not so sure anymore. And it's not like college students are renowned for their personal hygiene.

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. "

His motivation and will to make his project exist is out of the ordinary and I respect that.<p>However his behaviour is just shameful. I guess the end, justify the means ...<p>Still I don't like it, one bit.

Discarding the primary point of this article (squatting at AOL), today is my last day of college (16-18 age bracket in the UK), and you can tell that every single lesson is the same as it was five years ago, bar electronics because it's a new exam board and the teacher is only just finding his feet.<p>Computing, we still use VB6 for coursework, Chemistry, everything is photocopied with ye olde dates on<p>Props to him for attempting to introduce variety into lesson plans, thankfully, today is the last day of copying out photocopy masters from a whiteboard onto paper

Similar to that Duke U. student who lived in a van on campus. Of course he was paying for tuition.<p>Also reminds me of Half Baked and the guy on the couch.

See film 'Secret of My Success' with Michael J. Fox for similiar plot. Great film.

Where did he work during the day as to not be noticed by hundreds of employees?

I think "don't die" refer mostly to his ambition and startup....epic!

love this guys hustle

Maybe he should have brought the security guard on as a co-founder?

Simons' supervisor commented that he was a model employee for AOL's Palo Alto Office.<p>"Eric was always on time, never late for work."