Jothy Rosenberg | Biography

Summary

PhD computer science, Duke University
Author 2 technical books: How Debuggers Work, Securing Web Services
Author The Cloud at Your Service (cloud computing) from Manning Books
Author Who Says I Can’t an inspiring story of resilience and survival
Founder 8 high tech startups; 2 with exits over $100MM
Frequent speaker at corporations, organization/association events, schools
Host of new reality TV Series also called Who Says I Can’t
Media coverage including Today Show, USA Today, NECN, Boston Globe, others

Background

“You have zero chance of survival.” That is what my nineteen-year-old brain heard as my doctor told me that the cancer that took my right leg three years previously had now spread to my lung, two-fifths of which had also just been removed. What he probably said was, “No one has ever survived once this type of cancer spreads through the bloodstream.” That was over thirty-eight years ago. I survived. And then some.

Sports

Black diamond amputee skiing, one-crutch volleyball, class V white water rafting, competitive open-water swimming, long-distance bike-a-thons, ocean kayaking, crutch mountain hiking, rowing.

Career

Post PhD, professor computer science Duke 5 years
Joint appointment between Duke and Microelectronics Center of North Carolina
Member founding team MasPar Computer Corp (supercomputers)
VP Languages division Borland International (programming languages)
Founder Webspective (Web site performance) sold for $106MM
CEO NovaSoft (document management)
Founder, CTO GeoTrust (internet transactions security) sold for $125MM
Founder, CEO Service Integrity (web services monitoring)
Software CTO Ambric (massively parallel image processing chip)
Director IT Ventures Angle Technology Ventures (early stage investing)
Founder, Rocket Technology Labs (email), Mogility (mobile apps)

Who Says I Can’t

This book is about what effect suddenly becoming disabled and hearing you have zero chance of survival has on someone’s personality and how one can not only survive, but also fight back, recover, and thrive. This is not a “cancer book.” Those are written when the survival is new and fresh and the experience is raw. Instead, this book, written with more than a thirty-eight-year perspective, is about human perseverance, adaptability, and strength aimed not solely at those dealing with cancer or amputation but at everyone who at some point in their lives will inevitably have to deal with some sort of knock-down or major setback.

Speaking

Facing Extreme Challenges and Winning
Inspirational Stories of Disabled Extreme Athletes
War Stories of an Incorrigible Entrepreneur
What Cloud Computing Really Means

TV Series

Positive and inspirational, “Who Says I Can’t” is a television show that tells the story of brave and determined men and women as they overcome disabilities and become athletes. The program will feature the “up close and personal” style of Olympic features combined with the heart-warming community elements of “Extreme Makeover” and mix them with the excitement of “The Amazing Race.”

Family

Married 30 years; 3 grown children; 2 golden retrievers.

My Story

At age 16 I was diagnosed with osteogenic sarcoma, which, back then, always resulted in an emergency amputation because the cancer so readily gets into the blood stream. Both the amputation and the idea that I had cancer were very hard for me to deal with, especially at such a young age. As a matter of self-preservation, I learned how to do some of my favorite physical activities, starting with skiing. I was making steady progress on all fronts when three years later at my normal every-six-month checkup I heard the dreadful words: “You won’t be going home today — we are checking you into the hospital.” In yet another emergency surgery about 2/5 of my lungs — the site to which my original bone cancer had chosen to metastasize — were removed. I was in no way prepared for the psychological blow I was about to receive which was by far the worst that had ever happened to me. The doctor told me: “No one has ever survived when this cancer metastasizes.” What my 19-year old brain heard was “You have zero chance of survival.” I believed him, so when the chemotherapy course was over, I left home and school to become a ski bum with the expectation that I would ski until I was dead.

I skied 100 days straight and learned to ski well on one ski. When spring came I was, quite to my surprise, still alive. I suddenly had to think about the future. I kept barreling headlong into the next thing and the next. I got my PhD. I wrote four books. I got married, had kids. All pretty normal stuff. But not for me. Each achievement was a big deal for me and I never took any of them lightly.

I started to swim and got better and better at it to the point where I could compete in major open water swims. To date, I have done the Alcatraz swim 17 times. I donated to a rider in the Boston to New York AIDS ride and was struck by how impressive a feat that was — 375 miles in four days. The person who told me, “Yes, it’s a major commitment and it seems like something a person with one leg and one lung could never do” didn’t realize what saying something like that does to a survivor. I fought back against the doubt and characterization of me as somehow fragile and limited. I signed up for the next year’s AIDS ride and worked through long lonely training rides and extreme exhaustion of my poor left leg. But I was ready when the time came and completed the full 375 miles from Boston to 8th Avenue in NYC.

At first I did these things for myself. But on a hill in Connecticut, as I steadily pushed down and pulled up on that pedal over and over, knowing I had to make it up each and every hill because I could not get off and walk, I started passing people. Two-leggers were walking up that hill. Some were whining to anyone who would listen. But they all stopped their complaining when I passed them. And then I heard things like, “I’ll never whine again” or “You just motivated me to push harder.” I couldn’t ever have imagined this would happen. I was not even supposed to be here, yet now I was motivating able-bodied people because I was doing something that inspired them! This is how survivors are thrust into giving back. Because we can, and because, without meaning to, we set examples for people and they invest in us the right to inspire them.

After the revelation that I could and should turn these activities into something that gives back, I shifted my focus to the Pan Massachusetts Challenge bike ride (www.pmc.org). This 30-year old event is the oldest and largest athletic fundraiser in the country. It is also the most efficient, with 100% of all donations going directly to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. I feel like I am sort of Living Proof of their cause. I have done their 192-mile two-day ride across Massachusetts to the very tip of Cape Code eight times. It is precisely organizations like this one that produced the chemotherapy that enabled me to make that ride every year instead of ending up as just another sad statistic.

With so many bright lights of progress what is being accomplished gets more exciting every year. The research is working. I am living proof. Spread the word. Help the effort.

jothy [at] whosaysicant [dot] net