Wired: Operation Channel 9
Lenn Pryor knew his little project was going to upset some of his colleagues at Microsoft. And sure enough, when the junior exec unveiled a Web site called Channel 9 in April 2004, the organization reacted like a dog whose tail had been stepped on. You could hear the yelps and howls all over Redmond. Pryor started to sweat.
"Who told you you could do this? I want a meeting with your VP," read an email from a marketing executive in the Windows division. "Some of the information in the last video was false. Do you realize shareholders could sue us over this?" an attorney pinged. And then there were the dozens of awkward hallway run-ins: Someone in public relations or marketing would stop Pryor and ask, in effect, "Who do you think you are?"