Frank Ruscica xxx East xxth Street, Apartment x

New York, NY 100xx frank@postromcom.com

646.583.xxxx

Objective To work with a company that can profit from my thirty- two years of development and success as a comedy writer.

Key Successes

Wrote 180 pages of the first startup comedy: a serial novel that doubles as an equity-crowdfunding pitch. (2012-4) Identified a defining relationship-comedy premise for our post-romantic times. (2010-2) Learned how to manage a variant of Alloy Entertainment that will specialize initially in post-romantic comedy. (2005-14) Received effusive praise from relevant experts after they reviewed business insights of mine that are by-products of my efforts to develop my comic persona. (1998, 2004)

Developed an ideal approach to developing a comic persona. (1984-5) Determined that I can reliably write good jokes. (1984-5) Gained admission to the University of Chicago, partly because of my comedy-writing samples. (1984)

Chronology 1980-1 (9th grade) Until I agreed, was encouraged almost daily to establish a Mencken-esque literary magazine for The Allen-Stevenson School (K-9). Encouraged mostly by a teacher who was also the administrative head of grades 7-9. In place of Latin II, was assigned year-long independent study that centered on innovative journalism. Scored 156 on an I.Q. test. Received an academic scholarship worth half the cost of tuition. (Received the half-scholarship all three years I attended A-S.) 1983-4 (12th grade) A teacher of mine at Montclair Kimberley Academy predicted to a classroom full of my peers that I would be

“the next Woody Allen.” Gained admission to The University of Chicago (#5 in the 1984 rankings by U.S. News and World Report magazine), at least partly on the strength of humor essays that I submitted as writing samples when I applied. One reason I know the essays helped: During my on-campus interview, the interviewer was hard-selling me on the University and the city as places where I could develop as a comedy writer. During spring and summer, read every book I could find about the craft, history and business of comedy. 1984-5 Determined that I can reliably write good jokes (i.e., determined that my brain’s non-conscious processes can reliably identify associations that are comparative remote). From 2012 book Imagine — How Creativity Works, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt:

Why is a relaxed state of mind so important for creative insights? When our minds are at ease—when those alpha waves are rippling through the brain —we’re more likely to direct the spotlight of attention inward, toward that stream of remote associations emanating from the right hemisphere.

From 2014 book Ha! — The Science of When We Laugh and Why:

One scientific review of seventy-two recent experiments revealed that no single brain region is consistently active during creative behavior. There is, however, something special about people who make novel connections . . . What sets them apart is the connectivity within their resting brains. . . . [P]eople with highly connected brains—as measured by shared brain activity over multiple regions—are more flexible and adaptive thinkers.

From 1999 book The Entertainment Economy — How Mega-Media Forces Are Transforming Our Lives:

Steve Allen has observed that at any one time there are fifty good comedy writers in America. . . . As many comedy producers have confirmed to me, “comic DNA,” or whatever is the genetic material that makes one person funny and another hair-pullingly boring, is apparently in short supply in the human gene pool.

Recognized the importance of developing a comic persona. From 2007 book Conversations with Woody Allen:

At their best, jokes are a vehicle to present a character. When I started out [as a stand-up comedian], I thought just the opposite. . . . But Jack Rollins [a longtime manager of many top stand-ups] kept saying to me, “You have it backwards.” . . . [T]he jokes become the way for the person to display a personality or an attitude.

Designed an ideal approach to developing a comic persona. Comprises 3 steps, with 1 corollary: S1: Select a problem that is causing many people a lot of distress. S2: Try to solve the problem. S3: Mine the experience for comedy. C1: The more effective I am at solving (part of) the problem, the more likable my persona will be. Re: the approach is ideal: From an interview of Neil Simon that appeared in the February 1979 issue of Playboy:

When people care, even the slightest joke will get a big laugh, for they’ll be so caught up in what’s going on. If they don’t care and are not caught up, you need

blockbusters every two minutes and even that won’t fulfill an audience.

1985-8 Fixed on democratizing economic opportunity as the solution I wanted to provide. Completed a B.A. with a major in political science and a minor in economics. This course of study prepared me to recognize the Internet’s potential to expand economic opportunity. 1992 Recognized said potential. 1992-5 Completed course work commensurate with a B.S. in computer science. 1995 Started researching and designing ways of leveraging the Internet to expand opportunity. (These efforts were aided by much of my subsequent work experience.) Co-founded Medicine Rules (MR), a software company that specialized

in diagnosis support (i.e., in software and algorithms that also “power” intelligent tutoring systems). 1995-8 Designed and engineered software, managed projects, analyzed (business) processes associated with providing health care. MR recorded sales of $880K during my tenure. MR’s diagnosis-support application later received an Innovation Award from the National Institutes of Health. Managed eight student-programmers during 1995-6, and four during 1996-7. Managed software- development processes in keeping with the criteria for ISO 9001 certification. 1998 Received an email from the then Manager of the Learning Sciences and Technology Group at Microsoft Research. An excerpt:

Frank, you are a good man. Have you thought about joining this team? Your only alternative, of course, is venture capital. But their usual models require getting rid of the “originator” within the first eighteen months.

1998-9 Director of Digital Services at Metropolitan Telecommunications, a telephone company and ISP based in New York City. Managed the design and launch of a dial-up ISP that served over 15K New York City residents during my tenure. Managed a permanent staff of four, along with numerous consultants. 2000 Consultant at Global Crossing, then a Fortune 100 company. Co-developed a business plan for a joint venture (JV) between Global Crossing and Certco. After the plan was reviewed by executives of the two companies, the JV received initial funding of $10M. 2004 Received an email from Amazon.com’s first Director of Personalization. An excerpt:

Frank, I just spent about an hour surfing around your website with a bit of amazement. I run a little company . . . We are a team of folks who worked together at Amazon.com developing that company’s

personalization and recommendations team and systems. We spent about 1.5 years thinking about what we wanted to build next. We thought a lot about online education tools. We thought a lot about classified ads and job networks. We thought a lot about reputation systems. We thought a bit about personalized advertising systems. We thought a lot about blogging and social networking systems. . . . I guess I’m mostly just fascinated that we've been working a very similar vein to the one you describe, without having a solid name for it (we call it “the age of the amateur” or “networks of shared experiences” instead of CLLCS [i.e., customized lifelong learning and career services], but believe me, we are talking about the same patterns and markets, if not in exactly the same way). Thanks for sharing what you have—it’s fascinating stuff.

2005-2014 Learned how to run marketing as a profit center. More precisely, how to manage a variant of Alloy Entertainment, a book packager and television-programming producer that was acquired for $100M in 2012. Identified a defining relationship-comedy premise for our

post-romantic times. Wrote 180 pages of a serial novel that is the first startup comedy, because the early chapters double as an equity-crowdfunding pitch. For details about these comedy innovations, see my cover letter and writing samples.

References

Available upon request.