On August 11, 2008, Kevin E Anderson, the founder of Cognigen Networks passed away. Having been in ill health for the better part of 15 years, he finally succumbed to the inevitable. You may not know Kevin Anderson, but some where, some how, I am sure he has touched your life in some way.
Kevin founded Cognigen back in 1994 with his wife Laurel. He had this crazy idea that independent agents could use the internet as a vehicle to sell products and services for product suppliers. Although his web design was pretty good for a pure coding genius, his pages read like a classified ads page in the New York Times. But they worked.
Kevin figured out, using "hash files" in perl (yuck), that he could make web pages that were "self replicating", capable of tracking an individual's AgentID. This opened the door for thousands of people incapable of creating a web page to become referral marketers - directing their web traffic to these pages Kevin created to capture orders and deliver them to the associated vendor.
This all seems trivial now, but 13 years ago it was revolutionary. Kevin was a man ahead of his time in many regards.
I met Kevin in 1997 when I joined Cognigen. He took the time to welcome me and to show me the ropes of my Cognigen business, together with my upline Joe Kennedy. His low, baritone voice reminded me of the voice of God in the movie "The 10 Commandments". His command of the English language was superb - he could articulate his opinions ever so cleverly.
Kevin had an astute sense for danger. He spent 1995 - 2002 building up Cognigen and 2002 - 2007 trying to save it from would-be predators. Many "guys with business plans" came to Cognigen promising the fruits of prosperity only to take Cognigen's money and fall on their face. There surely would have been more had Kevin not guarded the hen house like he did.
He was a large man due to a combination of a large appetite and low metabolism - the result of many years of chemotherapy and radiation of his lymph nodes. A cancer survivor, he lived on borrowed time in some sense.
His body type caused Kevin to be somewhat self-conscious. He did not like to go out into public very often, opting instead for phone conferences and endless hours on his computer communicating via email, instant messenger, and VoIP.
I remember the first time I met Kevin in 1999. Cognigen had sponsored a drag race car and Kevin came down to LA (where I lived at the time) to watch the race and to meet me (the newest employee of Cognigen). After a few minutes, I didn't even notice his size. He was so friendly, gregarious, and full of trivia - it was easy to forget about the obvious.
In a lot of ways, I feel that much of the success I've had in recent years can be traced back to Kevin. I learned the system he built when I was the Cognigen Webmaster. I took that knowledge, mixed it with my own, and started Telarus with Adam Edwards. It's too bad that Kevin didn't have an Adam - someone who could be the face of the company, have the hard conversations with vendors, defend the company in public, etc. A great business requires two skill sets: technical/marketing and leadership/politics. Kevin had the technical/marketing pieces, but lacked that right hand - someone to be out in front of the agents, leading them, inspiring them, and making sound business decisions. But even without that, Kevin pioneered the affiliate marketing business model; the very one that Telarus uses to this day. Although our way of doing business has evolved, the basics can trace their ancestry to Kevin Anderson.
In looking through my vast libraries of past email and IM's with Kevin, I wanted to find what would turn out to be his "last words" to me. After a Cognigen training call, I told him "I better run. Debbie needs me to get off my computer and help with the kids" to which he replied "I understand. Laurel hates my computer." It's ironic that Kevin will be, in essence, immortal, because of his computer. His code, his web sites, his company, and his ideas will live on for many years to come.
Thanks for everything Kevin. You'll be missed, but not forgotten.
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