Moviefone Co-Founder Answers Your Questions

Does Russ Leatherman's name ring a bell? Maybe not. But to anyone who dialed 777-FILM this weekend to scope out show times for Spiderman 3, his voice certainly should. Leatherman, co-founded Moviefone in 1989, sold the company to AOL in 1999 for nearly $400 million, and continues to serve as the voice of a movie listing and ticketing service that reaches some 20 million people per month.

Now, Leatherman has offered to answer an Inc. reader's question. To those of you looking for help with your company-wide Pirates of the Caribbean screening, please just call the number. However, for advice on how best to wrangle partners (in the early days, Leatherman had to scramble to sign up theaters weary of his new tickets-by-phone service) or how to sell out to a big company (it's tough for me to imagine a better exit strategy than Leatherman's current line of work), he's your guy.

Send your questions to askinc@inc.com and we'll print the best one, along with Leatherman's advice, in the Ask Inc. section of our August issue. (This month hip-hop mogul and serial entrepreneur Russell Simmons tackles a question on how best to mix business with philanthropy. Check it out if you still haven't.)

Senior contributing writer Max Chafkin has profiled companies such as Yelp, Zappos, Twitter, Threadless, and Tesla for the magazine. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. @chafkin