- Dennis M. Lynch
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Dennis Michael Lynch (born August 28, 1969) is an American entrepreneur and documentary film maker. Currently, he is the Founder and CEO of TV360Media.com, a digital media company claiming to operate one of the world's largest network of independent content creators.
Contents
Personal life
Lynch was raised in Hicksville, New York where he struggled through middle school and graduated near the bottom of his class at Holy Trinity High School. His efforts to obtain a college degree were no better; Lynch is a five-time college drop-out.
In 1990, Lynch attended John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan so he could play on the school's baseball team. After seeing Lynch pitch just one inning in an exhibition game, a major league scout for the Montreal Expos invited him to spring training try-outs in Lantana, Florida. Upon failing to earn a spot on the Expos' minor league team, Lynch gave up on baseball and returned to New York to marry his high school sweetheart.
His cousin, Elizabeth Hendrickson, is an actress and cast member of daytime soap, Young and the Restless
Entrepreneur
At age 22, Dennis received a $2,000 loan from his mother to start a computer recycling company called Lynx Technologies. Lynch grew the company by opening a chain of retail stores on Long Island called Computer Again. In 1999, a reporter from Newsday requested an interview with Lynch after seeing him on the Long Island Expressway in a Mercedes 500SL bearing a personalized license plate reading, "NOCOLEGE". On the day the article ran, Lynch was contacted by numerous venture capitalists eager to invest in Lynx Technologies. In August 1999, Lynch secured $13 million from venture capitalists Rho Management, George Soros, Boston Millennium Partners, and John Sculley, the former CEO of Apple and Pepsi.
In January 2000, the company was renamed to TechSmart.com From August 1999 to July 2000, Lynch grew the company from 35 to 217 employees, revenue increased by more than 800%, and the company's locations increased from one warehouse in New York, to five throughout the country.[1] Lynch and his company quickly captured the attention of media outlets. He appeared on CNN's Business Unusual, CNBC's Business Center, ABC NEWS and News 12 Long Island. He was featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur Magazine, USA Today and various business magazines.
In June 2000, Lynch won the prestigious Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in e-Business. A few weeks later, Lynch was hospitalized with a life-threatening case of double pneumonia. After six-days in ICU, Lynch resigned from TechSmart. Subsequently, John Sculley resigned from the company's board of directors. Three-years after Lynch resigned, the company was incapable of maintaining profitability and closed its doors.
In January 2001, Lynch and John Sculley started a Manhattan-based consulting and investment firm called Signature21. Sculley and Lynch focused on small companies with unique products and services. Two of their clients were instant successes. The first was InPhonic, a wireless services company which later conducted a successful IPO. The second was The Wine Clip, a wine accessory product sold worldwide on the Home Shopping Network and Sharper Image.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, Lynch was in downtown Manhattan where he witnessed the terrorist attacks. Shortly thereafter, Lynch left Signature21 to pursue his dream of film making. Lynch enrolled in a 5-week digital film making class at the New York Film Academy. He later launched TV360Media.com as an Internet-based video production company that hires freelance film makers from around the world to produce high-quality short videos for clients such as ABC NEWS and UCLA Health Systems. With more than 12,000 freelancers, TV360Media.com claims to be one of the largest networks of its kind.
Web, TV & Films
Since 2007, Lynch has been CEO of TV360Media.com He's been Executive Producer of 3,000 web videos called REALQUESTIONS. In 2008, he produced a series of short documentaries called REALHEALTH. The films ran for one season on ABC NEWS' HEALTHY LIFE [2] with Dr. Tim Johnson.
Lynch's debut film, King of the Hamptons, is a full-length documentary about his own mid-life crisis. In search for something better than his daily routine, he abruptly moves out to the Hamptons for a summer and embeds himself amid the rich and famous. [3] The movie premiered with two sold-out screenings at the 2010Hamptons International Film Festival and was the feature film on opening night at the 2011 Long Island International Film Expo on July 7, 2011.
Christie Brinkley, who appears in the film, commented, "King of the Hamptons is a small-town film with a huge soul." Dan Rattiner, founder of Dan's Papers, the Hamptons largest newspaper, said, "Dennis Michael Lynch created the best film ever made about the Hamptons. He is a filmmaker to watch in the years ahead." Other celebrities in the film are Billy Joel, Alec Baldwin, Chevy Chase, Edward Burns, Mercedes Ruehl, Kim Cattrall, Andre Agassi, Stefi Graf, James Lipton, and Alexa Ray Joel.
Lynch's second film, "A One Man Tsunami", is a short documentary about Tom Widel. Widel, who is an out-of-work carpenter, has been protesting everyday for six years straight against the hundreds of undocumented day-laborers who solicit themselves on the corner outside a 7 ELEVEN in Southampton, New York. On October 11, 2011, Lynch released the movie on his website, DennisMichaelLynch.com. The making of the film inspired Lynch to produce a full-length documentary about illegal immigration. The film is called, THEY COME TO AMERICA, and is scheduled for film festival release in January 2012.
References
- ^ New York Times
- ^ ABC's Healthy Life
- ^ Dan's Papers
King of the Hamptons Who's Here [1] (August 2008)
EOY Finalists [2] (May 2000)
NY TIMES [3] (May 2000)
New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/04/nyregion/li-work-an-entrepreneur-banks-on-his-own-enthusiasm.html?pagewanted=all
TechSmart Raised VC [4]
Dan's Papers, "The King" (9/30/2010) http://www.danshamptons.com/content/danspapers/issue28_2010/01.html
Dan's Papers, "Local Film to Debut at HIFF2010 http://www.danshamptons.com/content/danspapers/issue27_2010/05.html
East Hampton Star, Stars Align for the 18th Annual HIFF 2010 http://www.easthamptonstar.com/dnn/Arts/StarsAlignfor18thFilmFest/tabid/13325/Default.aspxCategories:- American businesspeople
- American documentary filmmakers
- Living people
- 1969 births
- People from Nassau County, New York
- John Jay College of Criminal Justice alumni
- Businesspeople from New York
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
