Prior to establishing EarthLink, Sky was a businessman in the arts industry. He founded the Mocha Gallery, which sold art pieces and coffee at the same time. However, the art sales part of the business soon dissolved after only 6 months of operations, but the coffee side remained. Interestingly, Sky would still be connected to the arts industry as opened a design company that provided services to some of the worlds’ top entertainment clients such as Sony Pictures and Warner Brothers.
It was in 1993 when Sky was introduced to the Internet. Realizing that the internet had a huge potential for business, Sky sought funding for another company to be called EarthLink. Initially, EarthLink provided internet services in California. By 1995, the company started to provide services throughout the country. In an effort to make the company stronger, Sky went into a partnership with Apple, and EarthLink became a preloaded ISP on all of the Apple Mac products.
The success of EarthLink as the leading ISP in the US, led to Sky Dayton’s other ventures in the tech industry. Sky also founded Boingo, a company that operates the world’s largest connection of WiFi hotspots.
Sky Dayton’s success with EarthLink, Boingo, and other companies he founded, led him to several awards. Among them are Entrepreneur of the Year from Lloyd Greif Center; the Dream Keeper Award from the I Have a Dream Foundation; and one of the Top 100 innovators from MIT Technology Review.