Topic: E Cademy

Host Jonnie Jensen introduces the "Come Back King" episode featuring longtime friend and tech entrepreneur Thomas Power. Power's career spans from working for Sir Alan Sugar at Amstrad to mentoring figures like Jay Shetty and Daniel Priestley. The discussion highlights Power's history with e-cademy, a precursor to LinkedIn, and his current involvement with the Bit 100 super connect community.

Thomas Power details the growth of e-cademy, the first social business network for small enterprises, which reached 650,000 members across 60 countries. Built using Drupal, the platform hosted 100 events weekly and predated LinkedIn and Facebook. Power shares anecdotes of his celebrity-like reception in Mumbai and Singapore, where hundreds of members gathered at hotels to meet him, illustrating the deep human need for belonging.

The transition of the internet to "free" models led by Facebook and LinkedIn eventually undermined e-cademy's subscription-based business. Power explains that after turning down several buyout offers, the company was sold to an insurance firm that dismantled the community. This loss of professional identity in 2012 triggered a period of severe clinical depression for Power at age 48.