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Jacob Kiefus / JWJ / Jacob Jervey of 'BroHoster' and 'LethalDrive' arrested for Lewd and lascivious

MannDude

Just a dude
vpsBoard Founder
Moderator
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Source: Brought to my attention via a private hosting group with the quoted source within that being: http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1276521 (wahtever the hell that site is)
 
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drmike

100% Tier-1 Gogent
Kid host.  Gamer.

Well this is just an arrest incident pending a trial.  Innocent until proven guilty.

Hope the kid likes 'bros cause he's hanging out in a lock up with tons of them now.

My question is what was "LethalDrive"  a company or a username?   Sounds oh so, umm, awkward in light of this.
 
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drmike

100% Tier-1 Gogent
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brohoster We treat you like a bro, not screw you like a ho

Really, that was the company slogan.

The fellow posted offer on HackForums and that alone should be a reason for some time in lock up.
 

drmike

100% Tier-1 Gogent
Seems like this isn't the first time Jacob was screwed either...

---------------------------------------

Short version of the story:

  • Founder hires CEO.
  • CEO fires founder.
  • CEO fires lead technician.
  • CEO sells company after making virtually no contribution.
This should never have happened and probably wouldn't have if proper contracts would have been signed. Shame.

-vladh, former employee

----------------

Yeah brohoster was snaked by another dork who was "hired" by Jacob... so the story goes...
 

mrosenblatt

New Member
Seems like this isn't the first time Jacob was screwed either...

---------------------------------------

Short version of the story:

  • Founder hires CEO.
  • CEO fires founder.
  • CEO fires lead technician.
  • CEO sells company after making virtually no contribution.
This should never have happened and probably wouldn't have if proper contracts would have been signed. Shame.

-vladh, former employee

----------------

Yeah brohoster was snaked by another dork who was "hired" by Jacob... so the story goes...
Vlad wasn't an employee of Brohoster during the time that I owned the company. Emphasis on owned. I bought out the company in December of 2010, long before it grew to the size it was. I funded it's expansion, and had I not purchased it and cut the monthly server costs down from $600+ per server to $214 per server, it never would have grown.

I never "stole" the company from Jacob, and you can find video/audio recordings of Jacob himself stating that I purchased the company from him.

Jacob was fired because he became unreliable and unstable. He had countless warnings before he was fired. Tyler (the technician) was fired because he went explicitly against our word and ran a series of changes to the entire Brohoster network without permission.

Unfortunately, the internet is loaded with more rumors than anything. Even after Jacob came out and stated that we owned the company legally, people ignored that and ran with the rumors. 

I don't know about the current situation. I know that as a person, Jacob is actually a pretty cool guy. He's fun to hang out with and chat with. As a co-worker/employee, he had a lot of issues taking instructions to heart and following through with his own projects/work. Do I believe he did this? Not a clue. If something happened, my guess is that he was under the influence of something. I don't think he would do anything like this while sober.
 

drmike

100% Tier-1 Gogent
WIth all that hard work, investment, etc., so where did brohoster every go?

Sobriety, well I expect that out of a 20 year old. But you know kids these days.

he had a lot of issues taking instructions to heart and following through with his own projects/work

That description probably fits 80% of the hosting community :)

PS: Welcome to the forum and sorry your your first matter of business was this thread.
 
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mrosenblatt

New Member
PS: Welcome to the forum and sorry your your first matter of business was this thread.
 

Not a problem. In the end, it's been nearly two years since everything went down.

To answer your question, when Club Uptime took over Brohoster, Brohoster had about 160 clients. Within 3 months, it had grown to nearly 1000 I believe. By the time it all folded, it was on target to break 7 figures and had hit 6500 clients. But it wasn't profitable. It was barely break-even. When we fired Jacob, we lost enough business to make it so we couldn't pay the employees, the bills, etc... When you're breakeven and you have $34k/month in server bills, you've got a problem. 

I left Jacob to run Brohoster on his own. I was focusing on Club Uptime as that was my baby. We had one excellent reputation for quality service for a reason. However, Jacob didn't listen to the few things we explicitly laid out. He kept dropping prices, changing up hardware, purchasing things we didn't need, etc... by the time his behavior was affecting the company to a point where we had to step in and start to take things over from him, it was too late. We took out loans (which we still have sitting over us), we borrowed from friends and family, and we nearly had it back to break even and paid off. Then we fired Jacob, and it all tanked.

I miss Club Uptime. I don't miss Brohoster at all. Club Uptime was six years worth of work. It was my child, and we loved providing the highest quality of service we possibly could. Premium hardware, bandwidth, and service. Sometimes we wonder what would have happened had we not taken over Brohoster, but you live and you learn. 

I'm open to answering questions about things provided people keep cool and collected. If things turn into a flame war, I'll just disappear again. That's why I stopped bothering with Facepunch and what not. 5000+ hate posts with no one even willing to listen to the situation doesn't end well.
 

drmike

100% Tier-1 Gogent
Thanks for being forthcoming.   Rare with lots of hosts, especially when and where the matter isn't all fluffy clouds and rainbows.

Acquisitions can be quite a bad thing.  Textbook example there with Brohost being Jacob essentially.  Jacob barked and people followed.

6500 clients should be profitable in any business.  $34k a month in server bills, well, that's extremely high but different time in space and you had expensive hosting.

Here's a lowendtalk thread with some of the usuals talking about Brohost/Club Uptime.  Our resident idiot savant  is on the thread trying to lure refugees for CC:

http://lowendtalk.com/discussion/19/clubuptime-refugee-thread
 

mrosenblatt

New Member
I know about all of those threads. I've read pretty much every post online. The amount of hate towards myself is staggering, and most of it is a result of rumors. I know I'm not perfect, nor was the situation. A lot happened, and we're still paying for it. But as I said in my last message, you live and you learn. 

$34k/month was definitely high, but our total costs were about $12k more than that every month. In the end, we had 103 servers with Softlayer. I really miss having them as a provider. They were absolutely fantastic to deal with. There were some bumps in the road, but overall I couldn't have asked for a better team of people to work with. I'm really hoping that with the IBM acquisition their management team is mostly held in place. Seriously, I wouldn't trust anyone more with my data. They bent over backwards to work with us in the several years we were with them.
 

drmike

100% Tier-1 Gogent
Softlayer is a good provider, and you pay for that :)

I pointed the LET thread out for others who know different folks in the community there and here and some additional info.

You planning on re-entering the hosting market?   
 

Reece-DM

New Member
Verified Provider
Someone ate to many doughnuts.. :|

I remember ClubUptime. though don't know the story about it, cheers for a sort of history lesson :)
 

Flapadar

Member
Verified Provider
Do I believe he did this? Not a clue. If something happened, my guess is that he was under the influence of something. I don't think he would do anything like this while sober.
Only a mitigating circumstance in Florida, not a defence. Sadly unless he can prove it was either:

1) False accusation or

2) Lack of lewd intent

He's going down for 25 years. To clear the charge up to anyone wondering: Lewd and lavicious molestation can be anything from slapping someone's arse to forcing someone to grope you (over clothes)
 
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ShardHost

New Member
Verified Provider
Guy seemed to claim being diddled twice first with brohoster and also lethaldrive.  He had a half nice control panel being developed at LD.  This if true is just disgusting though.
 

Tyler Salwierz

New Member
Verified Provider
Tyler (the technician) was fired because he went explicitly against our word and ran a series of changes to the entire Brohoster network without permission.
Sorry to revive this thread. This is not accurate, and you can review the whole email regarding me being "fired". Make of it what you will.

I'm not here to get into an argument, just stating the facts. I have no intention of reviving age old arguments here.

http://elup.me/p/a_data_004.zip

Unzip and open a_data_004.html in chrome. I also have the screenshots readily available if anyone wants them.

Also note that at no point in time did Matt personally tell me that I was fired or bring it up in conversation with me.

I also found this team conversation if anyone is interested, it covers the above quote as well:

http://pastebin.com/y7Nb0wK3
 
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