High Five: Meet Joe Collins, CEO Of Void CommunicationsHigh Five: Meet Joe Collins, CEO Of Void Communications

Photograph by Ken Schles

1

GO WITH THE FORCE
Collins' father, also named Joseph, is the former CEO of Time Warner Cable and now sits on the board of directors at Comcast. Joe the younger looks up to him greatly. "My dad's kind of like my Yoda."

2

FEATS OF STRENGTH
At 6 feet, 8 inches tall and about 300 pounds in college, Collins could bench-press 410 pounds. "My friend Wayne Lucier"--who ended up playing in the NFL--"said, 'You should be a competitive weight lifter when you're done with this.' I said no way. I don't like lifting."

3

GROUND FLOOR
Collins started off in business from the lowest levels as an employee at an uncle's gas station. "I ended up working for him for a while, and my first job was working the night shift behind the counter. It was good to get off the absolute ground floor and then work my way up."

4

I LOVE L.A.
Script pitches in Hollywood didn't always go over the way Collins expected. "I wrote a screenplay about the childhood of Jesus. One studio out in L.A. said, 'We're not interested in this, but why don't you make a buddy movie?' Another guy wanted to turn it into a Saturday morning cartoon."

5

INTO THIN AIR
VaporStream might raise a few regulators' hackles, but Collins isn't concerned. "There are industries that can't use our system, like brokerage firms," because of regulations.