COMIC MISSION: “We are on a mission to find the funniest joke teller on the planet,” says Fitzsimmons. (Photo: Darren Hauck/AP Images)What do you get when you cross a CEO’s management skills with a parent’s appreciation for laughing at life’s foibles? For E. Kelly Baumgartner Fitzsimmons ’93, the answer is not a punch line. It’s thousands of them.
For the self-described “mompreneur,” those punch lines are the focus of her new online endeavor, ComicWonder.com, a user-based community of joke tellers who submit audios of themselves telling jokes in the hopes of being crowned “Comic Wonder of the Year.”
“Comic Wonder is the first and only competitive arena for joke telling online,” says Fitzsimmons. “We are on a mission to find the funniest joke teller on the planet—the Comic Wonder of the Year. It is also the world’s largest repository of audio jokes.”
The site is the latest entrepreneurial effort by the Rochester religion major who has spent her life defying conventional wisdom.
“It started when I was young,” the Wisconsin native says. “At 13, I had zero reading comprehension. Most people figured I wouldn’t do well in school.”
Fitzsimmons persevered, surpassed expectations, and developed her trademark tenacity in the process. At Rochester, she earned her degree in religion and classics, and after graduation enrolled at Harvard Divinity School, where she received a master’s degree in comparative religion.
“I cannot give enough credit to people like Doug Brooks and Andy Overman,” she says, referring to the faculty of the Department of Religion and Classics (Overman is now on the faculty of Macalester College). “Having said that, my father harbored dreams I’d get a degree in something that could lead to a salaried career or ground my entrepreneurial bug in some useful aspect of science. He never saw the religion and classics thing coming.”
Just when it appeared certain Fitzsimmons would steer clear of the corporate sector, she surprised people again. At 25, she launched Sun Tzu Security, an information security and computer forensics consultancy. Seven years later, it was acquired by Neohapsis, and Fitzsimmons became CEO of the combined company.
It appeared the young woman in charge was on the fast track to major success. And then, she walked away to spend more time with her daughter, Brynn.
“I wanted to try my hand at being a full-time mom,” she says.
Fitzsimmons dove headfirst into a world of diapers and bedtime stories. She cherished the experience, but it was not long before she started envisioning a return to business.
“I can’t help it,” the third-generation entrepreneur says. “It’s in my blood.”
If people assumed she would return to the security industry, they guessed wrong.
“Being a new mom is a mix of joy and silliness,” says Fitzsimmons, who now has a second daughter, Reiley. “I wanted my new business to reflect that.”
The new business that Fitzsimmons cofounded is called harQen, a Web-telephony company that markets the ComicWonder application as well as another application called VoiceScreener that helps automate job interviews for human resources professionals. The technology is intended to make the site as user-friendly as it is funny.
“To post a joke,” says Fitzsimmons, the CEO of harQen, “all you need is a phone. The jokes are then posted automatically to the Web site. It’s as easy as leaving a voicemail. Listening to a joke is just as simple—requiring only the click of a button.”
The site has received positive reviews from many of its users.
“Comic Wonder is using new technology to pay tribute to old-fashioned storytelling skills,” says Chris Cashman, a Seattle-based TV and radio personality. “It gives even the most timid the ability to perform globally.”
According to Fitzsimmons, the site has received more than 5,000 audio jokes and generates about 600,000 page views each month.
Given Fitzsimmons’s relentless schedule and the flash-in-the-pan nature of some online ventures, some observers might wonder if the initial results of ComicWonder.com will be sustainable.
Judging by her track record of success, it’s a good bet Fitzsimmons will have the last laugh.
Greg Forbes Siegman is coauthor ofThe Silhouette Man.
