White Collar Reset: What's next for What'sNext.com

I first learned about What's Next? in 2006 when it offered me what I thought at the time would be my next job. I was working as an editor at a national men's magazine and, having survived several regime changes that had put all but a handful of my peers out on the street, I liked the symmetry of joining a magazine devoted to helping people like me figure out their second acts. What's Next asked me to just hold off giving notice until it finalized the contract with the major media company that had agreed to pony up the $4 million (on top of the $750,000 it had already raised) that would bankroll the venture. "Don't worry, it's just a formality," they said.

When the deal fell apart, I was disappointed, but not as disappointed as the three veteran former publishing industry executives who had devoted the previous 24 months of their life to getting the project off the ground. One of whom, it turned out, was my neighbor.