My first 'MTP' company was MaritimeTechnologyPartners.com 

DID YOU KNOW that New York City was a 'Maritime' town? New York has a natural deep water port and this is why 'The Big Apple' became so... big. And also this: name a major city in the world.  Boston, Baltimore, Chicago, Miami, LA..... London, Hong Kong....

THEY ARE ALL MARITIME TOWNS. Hey Tom, nice 'niche' market you got there....

Back in the day I was selling AT&T Long Distance as a reseller. It was called AT&T SDN (Software Defined Network). The fact that I could save folks money on their long distance charges (especially INTERNATIONAL charges) was a big deal. We could save a company around 30% on their AT&T fees, and we would still make great margin. Folks were joining the Maritime Association just to get the AT&T discount! Banks, Law Firms, the word spread fast that if you were in New York City you should join the Maritime Association. Even if you had NOTHING to do with shipping or the Maritime, you should JOIN! Ah yes, good times. And then I learned about NAMO: The National Association of Maritime Organizations. Game on!

It was because of the INTERNATIONAL niche that we met Howard Jonas of  IDT (www.IDT.net) and our ability to service 'the world' for telecom and technology services grew. IDT became a public company with a successful Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange. NYSE: IDT

I was in the Maritime Office at 11 Battery Place NYC right after 9/11 when the country (the entire world) was struggling with disbelief. We would host our monthly Maritime Association meetings at Windows of the World. No one could process what just happened to our city, to our country. 

When the Statue of Liberty was closed to the public because of 9/11, they wanted to host 'virtual field trips' for the kids (videoconferencing). MaritimeTechnologyPartners.com got the call. I remember that day like it was yesterday. It changed my life - it changed my career.

And it was from THAT project with National Parks Service (distance learning via videoconferencing) that MTP - MyTeachingPartners.com was born. And from that we started to service all of the schools in the country, getting them off of ISDN and over the DSL to power their videoconferencing. 

2025: Because of MTP I run the (now) Global Distance Learning Association (www.GlobalDLA.org) servicing 174K+ K-20 schools across North America - and reaching every country in the world. Delivering teaching, training, coaching, mentoring to every time zone in the world. Including ships at sea.

But our HQ and our 'home' will always be New York City. The Big Apple. The Center of the Known Universe...

When you find a good niche, you should grab on tight. There are riches in the niches. Oh, and by the way, over the years we grew to launch 14 'MTP' niche companies, but Maritime Technology Partners was the first. And it's still going strong.... 

TomCapone.com goes to my LinkedIn
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Cell: 201-466-8442 { texting preferred}