Many notable things have come out
of Cleveland. It’s where disc jockey Alan Freed coined the term "rock ’n’ roll,"
where the creators of the Superman comic strip attended high school, and where
Hector Boiardi first stuffed Chef Boyardee spaghetti into a can. David Baum
hopes that his second career will be another success with its roots in the soil
of Cuyahoga County.
 | FACING BURNOUT, David Baum left his demanding position at
Goldman Sachs and decided to make a living as the publisher of a golf
newsletter. |
In 2002, Baum was working as cohead of mergers and acquisitions
for Goldman Sachs when he fielded an urgent call from Cleveland. "On Valentine’s
Day, a client of ours got raided with a hostile takeover bid," he recalls. Baum
and his team flew to Ohio, where they proceeded to spend 19 of the next 21 days.
"The client had a guesthouse that was 200 yards from the office," he says. "We
would get up at 7:30 in the morning and go to bed at 2 every night."
After nearly two decades at Goldman Sachs, essentially his
entire career, Baum realized he needed a change. He also reflected on the events
of 9/11, during which Baum was working in Lower Manhattan. "I was there on 9/11
and knew a number of people who were not so fortunate on [that day]," he says.
"I had a wonderful career there that could have gone on for many more years, but
I had basically been doing the same thing for 17 years."
Baum, now 42, left the investment bank in May 2003, knowing
only that he wanted to work in a "radically different" environment, but one
where he could be as passionate as he once was about the M&A sector. He also
sought a career that would allow him more control over his schedule. "I had 17
years in the client-services business. The phone would ring at 7 pm, and I was
on the first plane the next morning. I really didn’t want to do that."
He spent the next six months "vegging," spending time with his
wife, Andrea, and their three young children, until an opportunity literally
landed in his mailbox. Baum, who lives in suburban New Jersey, had been a
subscriber to a small golf travel newsletter, Golf Odyssey,
published in Virginia. The publication offers reviews of golf resorts and
courses around the world. One day he received an issue and showed it to his
wife. "I said half-jokingly, ‘This would be a good business for me.’" An avid
golfer, Baum had taken trips based on the newsletter’s recommendations—and had
been impressed by the publication’s accuracy.
With a few pen strokes, baum went from a power-player in one of
America’s most lucrative sectors to an unknown publisher in a rather mundane market. |
Even with his well-honed acquisition skills, it took Baum
months to gently cajole the owner, a beer distributor in Charlottesville, Va.,
to sell. Finally, in April 2005, Baum wrote a check (he refuses to reveal his
purchase price) and became the owner of Golf Odyssey. With a few pen strokes,
he went from a power-player in one of America’s most lucrative businesses to an
unknown publisher in a rather mundane market. Golf Odyssey had
roughly 800 subscribers and no marketing plans when he acquired it, Baum
says.
The optimist in Baum saw a chance for a quick fix that would
turn the publication into a relatively stress-free moneymaker. But the reality,
as many first-time publishers bemoan, has been vastly different. "Here I was
thinking I was getting this very simple, monthly newsletter that couldn’t be
that hard to produce," he says. "We had a small subscriber base, but we needed
to figure out how to ramp up some marketing and make it work."
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