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IBM

The Father of Trusts: How Charles Flint’s IBM Changed Computing

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If you ever owned a desktop, used an ATM or Hard disk, chances are you used an IBM technology. The International Business Machines Corporation or IBM has been in the business for over a century with connections in over 170 countries. This American giant is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of computer hardware. So how did the company grow to become one of the biggest employers in the world? Here’s a look at the growth of IBM, and how the company changed the world.

Nicknamed Big Blue, IBM is a part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and employs over 350,000 employees. The company is a research giant with employees having won Nobel Prizes, Turing Awards, and National Medals. All of this came to be thanks to a serial investor who had great business sense.

About the Founder

Charles Ranlett Flint was born in 1850 in Maine. The family soon moved to New York, where his father worked as the manager of a firm called Chapman & Flint. The family was business was set up in 1837, and served as a mercantile firm dealing in loans and fiscal help. Flint finished his graduation from the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute in 1868, and two years later entered the shipping business. His first venture was as a partner in the firm Gilchrest, Flint & Co., which later became W.R. Grace & Co.
Between the years 1876 and 1879, he also served as the head Chilean consul at New York, and as a consul general for Nicaragua.

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He brought several companies together via a merger and formed U.S. Rubber in 1892. A year later, he helped manufacture naval ships for the Brazilian Republic. He also helped Japan in the First Sino-Japanese War by getting them ships. His business acumen kept growing as he learned the ways of the trade. In 1899, he established American Chicle by merging Chiclets, Beemans, Dentyne and Adams Chewing Gum. He also played a part in the forming of American Woolen in the same year. But his greatest invention came a decade or so later.

Beginnings of IBM

Flint changed the way the world worked by forming the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company in 1911. The company came to be via the merger of four different companies. This Goliath would later grow to become IBM, the company that revolutionized the field of personal computing! A decade later, CTR would rename itself International Business Machines, and the rest is history. Flint continued to work as a part of the board of directors at IBM until 1930.

Growth of IBM

Initially, the company made machinery like time recorders, slicers, and tabulators. After Thomas J. Watson, Sr became the President, the company went huge, bringing in $9 million, which is worth $130 million today every year.

The company also expanded to Europe, Asia, and Australia. Watson was also responsible for re-christening the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company to International Business Machines. By 1937 IBM’s equipment was helping companies deal with massive amounts of data. They helped the US Government maintain employee records, and the names of Nazi sympathizers, during the 1940s.

Thomas Watson, Sr., stepped down in 1952, after 40 glorious years, and his son took over. By 1956 the company started working on artificial intelligence through IBM 704 and within a year, they developed FORTRAN. IBM was also responsible for the development of the highly successful Selectric typewriter. During the 1960’s IBM helped NASA with their logistics and was a part of the Gemini and Saturn flights.

Computer Revolution

They came out with the first PC in 1964, called the IBM System/360, following it up with the IBM System/370 in 1970. Both these models were responsible for making the concept of mainframe computing popular around the world. In 1993 IBM posted a US$8 billion loss which was the highest loss by an American company at the time. But the company turned its fortunes around through smart decision making.

In 2005 Lenovo acquired rights to IBM’s PC business and switched over to software development by acquiring SPSS Inc. The company celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2011, and bought SoftLayer Technologies, for $2 billion. They are now working in partnerships with several companies such as Apple Inc., Twitter, Cisco, and Facebook.

Flint’s fluency with handling financial dealings, earned him the nickname Father of Trusts. Honestly, if not for Flint, the world would still be decades behind with respect to computing technology. The company he formed changed the way people looked at personal computing. In many ways, Flint was responsible for starting the Digital Age, which we all cherish and celebrate!

In 2005 Lenovo acquired rights to IBM’s PC business and switched over to software development by acquiring SPSS Inc. The company celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2011, and bought SoftLayer Technologies, for $2 billion. They are now working in partnerships with several companies such as Apple Inc., Twitter, Cisco, and Facebook.

Flint’s fluency with handling financial dealings, earned him the nickname Father of Trusts. Honestly, if not for Flint, the world would still be decades behind with respect to computing technology. The company he formed changed the way people looked at personal computing. In many ways, Flint was responsible for starting the Digital Age, which we all cherish and celebrate!

Open DNS Logo

Serving Up Those Domains: How This Company Got So Big It Caught Cisco’s Attention

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The Internet is an ever-changing environment with a lot of features and threats. Since the internet age started, more services have been shifting to digital platforms to grow and expand. Therefore, companies that provide services related to the internet have grown substantially in the last two decades. Today, we will be looking at one such company. Here’s how OpenDNS grew to become a multi-million-dollar business in the field of domain services.

What the Company Does

OpenDNS stands for Open Domain Name System. The company provides features such as protection against phishing content filtering. OpenDNS also has a product named Umbrella, which has tools providing cloud computing security. This product suite protects enterprise companies from all kinds of digital attacks including phishing, malware, and botnets. OpenDNS handles over 100 billion DNS queries daily and boasts of more than 85 million users around the world.

About the Founder

David Ulevitch grew up in Del Mar, California and showed an early interest in computers. He worked for a regional ISP, named ElectriCiti before starting high school. It was from here that he picked up his interest in network administration. While Ulevitch was at Washington University, he created EveryDNS to manage his DNS needs. The company grew from being a project to a company with over 100,000 users. In 2010, Dyn, Inc acquired EveryDNS. 

Launching OpenDNS

Launched in 2006, OpenDNS came to life due to the efforts of computer scientist David Ulevitch. The initial funding for the company came via venture capitalists like CNET founder, Halsey Minor. Later that year, they launched PhishTank. The service allows users to submit suspected phishing sites. The other members could then review these sites and decide whether it was a scam. 

In 2007, OpenDNS started a domain-blocking service to help users block and allow access to various sites. The categories of sites blocked worked on individually managed blacklists and whitelists that the company controlled. A year later, OpenDNS made the list community-driven allowing subscribers to suggest websites. If the site suggested got enough votes, then the site became a part of the blacklist, and subsequently blocked. By 2014, the list had grown and included over 60 categories. The former head of VMware, Nand Mulchandan joined OpenDNS as CEO in 2008, replacing David Ulevitch, who became the CTO. He resumed as CEO again in late 2009.

Continued Success 

Two years after launching the free DNS-O-Matic, they launched a premium service called Home VIP. The same year, in 2009, DNS started its foray into the world of enterprise network security through OpenDNS Enterprise. The suite included access managers, audit logs, statistic reports, and customized block page URLs. This product expanded in 2012 through the launch of OpenDNS Insights.

The new service integrated with Microsoft Active Directory, allowing admins granular control. The World Economic Forum named them a Technology Pioneer in 2011. Former CTO of Websense joined OpenDNS as CTO in 2012. Later that year, the company launched the Security Labs for research. They raised over $35 million via a Series C funding led by Glynn Capita, Northgate Capital and Cisco. 

Forming Umbrella

Their biggest launch came in 2012, in the form of Umbrella. The software helped enforce security guidelines for roaming devices like laptops, iPhones, iPads, and tablets. A year later, they came out with the OpenDNS Security Graph to further extend Umbrella. The same year, they introduced the Investigate feature which allowed teams to compare traffic data. Another feature came in 2014 via Intelligent Proxy, which provides proxies for suspicious domains.

Merger with Cisco

Owing to their massive success, industry giant Cisco acquired them in 2015, for US$635 million. The entire deal occurred via an all-cash transaction, and also included incentives for OpenDNS. After the acquisition, the company’s services became Cisco Umbrella, whereas home products remained under the OpenDNS name. Cisco clarified that they would continue developing cloud-based OpenDNS products. The company also mentioned that all existing services would be continued. After the acquisition, Ulevitch became the Senior VP and GM of Cisco’s Security Business in 2016. Two years later, he joined Andreessen Horowitz as a Partner. The company also mentioned that all existing services would be continued. After the acquisition, Ulevitch became the Senior VP and GM of Cisco’s Security Business in 2016. Two years later, he joined Andreessen Horowitz as a Partner. 

Ulevitch grew OpenDNS to become the world’s largest DNS service provider. The acquisition by Cisco is a testament to their growth and success in the field of security architecture.

MOZ

The Wizards of Moz: Success Story of Moz

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Moz began as an SEO service in 2004, but over time, grew to become one of the world’s leading SaaS companies. So much so, that they even launched their own Pro app! Started by a mother-son duo, Moz sells marketing analytics and SEO management software to their subscribers. So how did this mother and son, revolutionise the world of SEO marketing? Here’s a look at how the idea for Moz took shape, and the impact it made.

The Idea Hits

Rand Fishkin was an entrepreneur with a penchant for web design. In 2001, Fishkin realised the importance of organic search and web traffic. He learned about a variety of search engines like MSN Search, Yahoo!, and Google. This helped him develop SEO strategies and digital marketing analysis for clients. Eventually, as the demand for SEO specialists rose, so did Fishkin’s thirst for knowledge regarding the same.

After a while, he became not just proficient, but an authority on SEO. So. In 2004, he began SEOmoz as a way of helping people figure out the secretive world of SEO. The SEOmoz blog helped bring in a constant stream of clients. Since then, the once-struggling blog has become an SEO empire, bringing forth and introducing a slew of products. Read on to see how Moz grew from being a small experiment to one of the biggest SaaS companies in the world.

Humble Beginnings

Founded by Rand Fishkin and Gillian Muessig in 2004, Moz functions as a consulting firm which later became a software developer. The company now boasts of a massively successful online service, with a community of over 1 million digital marketers. The company started as SEOmoz in 2004, and three years later had their SEO-Pro app. In 2007, Moz launched a set of SEO-based tools and resources. This helped generate half their total revenue by the end of the year.

Towards the end of 2007, Ignition Partners and Curious Office, chipped in $1.1mm to help Moz grow. With a conversion rate of over 56%, Moz grew tremendously in the following years, and their subscribers grew with them. A year later, in 2008, they launched Mozscape which served as a scalable online crawl. The company was also able to grow its traffic at 54% during that same period.

Change of Hands

They even invented the TAGFEE code, and soon hit 5000 subscribers. In 2010, Moz became an Inc. 500 list website. In August of the same year, they launched their web app and followed it up in 2012 by acquiring Followewonk. The company received its first funding in 2007 and tried twice again in 2009 and 2011 to raise capital. The Foundry Group and Ignition partners helped them raise $18 million in 2012. Following this, Foundry employee Brad Feld Moz’s COO, Sarah Bird joined the board. This came as a result of Gillian Muessig stepping down from the helm the same year. Between 2008 and 2011, Moz grew from being a $1.5 million company to generating $11.4 million in revenue.

A Family Deal

Muessig co-founded Moz along with her eldest son, Rand Fishkin in Seattle 15 years ago. Since leaving the company in 2012, she worked as an advisor for various companies. She also sits on multiple boards, including Soro and Brettapproved. She is also the CEO of the venture capitalist firm Outlines Venture Group and co-founder of the Sybilla Masters Fund along with Microsoft veteran Alka Badshah and Anne Kennedy. In the early days of the company, Muessig’s youngest son would come to the office after work and did small duties for her. Her daughter too was huge support for her, being her cheerleader, always reassuring and comforting.

New Tools and Prolonged Success

The company rechristened itself Moz in 2013 and began to get more involved in inbound marketing. Later that year, they launched Moz Analytics, which used inbound marketing strategies to improve brand marketing. They followed this up, by launching Moz Local in 2014, which served as a platform to manage listings online. The company celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2014 by crossing 15,000 subscribers.

Their SEO Toolbox offers a variety of tools such as the Term Extractor, Trust factor and mozRank, which works like the Google Page Rank. An SEO audit tool, named YOUmoz, helps users learn about new trends in SEO. In 2014, Rand stepped won as CEO but continued to work at Moz in various other roles till 2018. With almost 85% of their users finding them through social media and organic search, Moz is a true social media sensation.

Moz currently has over 36,000 customers and 160 employees. Annual revenues are in the high 40’s with the company bringing in over $42 million in 2017. This was a steep rise from the $38 million they made the year before. Over the years, Moz has evolved to become a one-stop solution for all SEO and marketing needs, and the future looks brighter than ever before for the SaaS giant.

product hunt

Launch and Scavenge Every Day: Success Story of Product Hunt

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Product Hunt entered the internet space in 2013 and is a website that allows users to share and discover new products, virtually every day. Founded by Ryan Hoover, and backed by Y Combinator, it allows users to submit products, and then issue polls much like Reddit. So, how did this innovative idea come to be, and what is the future of Product Hunt?

About the Founder

Ryan Hoover comes from an entrepreneurial household, wherein his parents ran their businesses. This gave him an early start in life as they encouraged him to start new projects and generate new ideas. He held several jobs before founding Product Hunt. This even includes running a gumball machine in his parent’s video game store when he was eleven. It was through such experiences that he learned to manage expenses and save money. He has also worked for a website that makes banner ads, done freelance yard work, and worked at a home improvement store.

After graduating from the University of Oregon, Hoover an internship at a startup which became a full-time job as a product manager in Portland. In 2010, he moved to San Francisco and joined the start-up PlayHaven as their tenth employee. Afterwards, he helped Nir Eyal write his book Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products. Soon after, he founded Product Hunt, and the rest is history.

How it Works

Every day, the product which has the most votes becomes the daily winner and ends the day on the top of the list. Products usually fall under four main categories- hardware and software products, games, books and podcasts. All members of the community can submit products, and all it takes is a title, URL, and tagline. The website also sends out a daily newsletter highlighting the best product of the previous day.

Starting Strong

The website began as a simple mailing list utilising Linkydink. The idea took off, and a week later, the email list had over 100 participants. Two weeks, they had more than 170 subscribers and 30 contributors. A year later, they had Y Combinator backing them, thanks to the uniqueness of their idea. Nathan Bashaw and Ryan Hoover built the website over their Thanksgiving break in 2013. Meanwhile, Hoover was working on a community strategy to build Product Hunt’s online presence.

A year after launching, they went in for a funding round. Andreessen Horowitz helped them raise over $6.1 million. A year later, they won a Crunchie award for being the best new start-up on the block. The same year, the website started their podcast. However, they ended it soon as it was distracting users from the website’s main objective of introducing products.

A Resounding Success

By 2016, Product Hunt was so popular, that it had helped in discovering over 100 million products made by more than 50,000 companies. The same year, AngelList acquired the company for more than $20 million. A couple of months later, they redesigned their homepage and even launched an app for iOS users. In 2017, they launched Ship, which was a set of tools for creating demand for products. A year later, they launched a news aggregator called Sip. Recently, they launched a Launch Day initiative to help makers monitor their product on the website with ease.

Product Hunt has been so successful that the team even published a book, titled How to Build a Career in Tech. Ryan is behind one of the most unique and popular websites in the world, and the future looks bright for him, and his wacky idea. While the initial inspiration was to explore new technology, Product Hunt now helps entrepreneurs around the world launch their products with ease. With over 1 million registered users and more than 20,000 products launched on, it is safe to say that Product Hunt is here to stay!

yahoo

Goodbye Yahoo: yahoo to shut down community website

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If you grew up in the ’90s, chances are that you have used a Yahoo account at some point. The 2000s saw the rise of Yahoo as a big shot with several well-run communities and networks. Since then though, its popularity has dwindled thanks to stiff competition from social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.

However, Yahoo recently released a notice in early October stating that it is closing down the Yahoo Groups website. A popular website back in the day, Groups presented a mix of community forums and mailing lists that people don’t use now. Here’s a look at everything you need to know about the notice, and its impact.

End of an Era

The notice said that users could add new content up to Oct. 28. Following this, on Dec.14, all content will be wiped for good. Therefore, the company has given users time till 14th to back-up their data, and save what they have uploaded. Everything from files, photos, links and polls to attachments will be cleared off the site.

What will remain is the option for users to communicate with their group members through email. However, the website will continue to live but all groups will be private and admins will only have access to limited settings and functions. Yahoo did not clarify why Groups was shutting down. Groups had always been an extension of real-life communities, helping to bring people together across various common interests and friends. The notice also has a link explaining how to save user data. But before that, what exactly was Yahoo Groups?

History of Yahoo Groups

Launched in 2001, Yahoo Groups came when the dotcom boom was at its peak and during its heyday had millions of users. The online discussion portal faced severe competition from the rise of social media sites such as Facebook and Reddit. As people switched to other such platforms, Groups fell behind and was left with a few loyalists. So much so that, several groups on the website have not been upgraded in years! While certain forums on the website are new, it does not provide the kind of interface that Facebook or Instagram does, and hence struggled to retain users.

Rise of Yahoo Groups

Yahoo Groups was once a very popular forum which helped people with common interests connect for almost two decades. At the height of its popularity, that is during 2010, Yahoo Groups boasted of over 115 million active users. To help people build and maintain virtual relationships, the website had over 10 million groups.

Due to a large number of users, Yahoo had enough power to make over 100 carriers and mobile manufacturers pre-install their apps on new devices. To keep Facebook at bay, Yahoo promoted new and unique features such as subgroups, and private chats. But despite their best efforts, Yahoo was fighting a losing battle. With Instagram exploding around that time, users quickly migrated to rival platforms. Hence, it is safe to the say that the shutdown as imminent, being a long time coming!

How to Save Files

To save their data, Yahoo users can download it from their Privacy Dashboard. The notice also links to a Yahoo web-page that explains how to download your data and save it. However, the process is quite cumbersome as you have to individually download each file or photo. Users also have the option of requesting a complete download to the company. This request will take up to 30 days to process, and the download will be available only after that. Afterwards, the group will have only basic communication features. Functions such as attaching photos, polls, links and calendar will be lost forever.

Takeover and Promises

Verizon acquired Yahoo in 2017 in a deal that was worth $4.48 billion and created Verizon Media. Verizon Media too failed to compete against Google and Facebook and is being forced to cut their budget and staff. Strangely enough, the notice regarding Yahoo Groups went away quietly, only being mentioned in small support documents. However, as a sign of good faith, Jason Scott from The Internet Archive has promised to save as much content as possible. So maybe it might not all be lost forever.

Yahoo had previously removed their application GeoCities, taking with it 7 million websites. Digital archivists tried then as well to save whatever they could. Also, before that, they had winded up their Maps site in 2015, and their messenger last year! Sadly, each shut down such as this leads to the erasing of internet history, making it a pivotal moment. While many of you might not have used it in its full capacity, you might have been part of a fan club or movie club. Make sure you do visit one last time before Yahoo effectively erases that part of your childhood.

Eventbrite

Eventbrite, manage events in a better way

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What was the last time when you heard about an international event management company? Big companies may hire employees separately for this purpose, but most of the independent organizations cannot afford that. We, especially in our college life come through the term “event management” very often. Event management is considered as an appreciable skill. Especially in a metropolitan city, where numerous events take place every day, there is a sheer need for event managers. But, to organize an event, promotions are needed as well.

Eventbrite, an US-based event management company meets all the requirements needed to organize an event. The company was founded in 2006 with the motive to help people surf events around the city. The website also provided the feature of creating events, promoting them along with online ticketing for the events. The founders of Eventbrite are Renaud Visage, Julia Hartz and Kevin Hartz.

Renaud Visage

Visage is a Cornell University graduate who acquired a degree in Engineering. Visage joined Geomatrix as a Project Engineer after a couple of years since his graduation. In 2000, Visage became the Director of Engineering for Zing Networks and left the company after a year.

He became a Venture Partner at Index Ventures after which he became a very prominent Investor. He invested in many companies which include Snips, Mobius Motors, Hokodo, Engineer.ai etc. He is also a Board Partner of Point Nine Capital. Even after Visage co-founded Eventbrite in January 2006, he still serves as an Investor. He is also a mentor at StartupBootcamp.

Julia Hartz

Julia went to Pepperdine University and acquired a Bachelor’s degree in Telecommunication. After graduation, Julia joined MTV as a Development Executive followed by contributing to FX Networks. She left FX Networks in 2005 and co-founded Eventbrite next year. She is the current CEO of the company and also a member of the Board of Directors.

Hartz is a very significant figure in the women entrepreneurial world. She has been featured in the Fortune magazine as one of the most powerful women entrepreneurs. Julia is also an investor and she was featured in the Forbes.

Kevin Hartz

Brought up in California, Kevin holds a Bachelor’s degree in Arts from Stanford University and a Master’s degree from University College, Oxford. Kevin started his career as a Product Manager in Silicon Graphics. Kevin co-founded a start-up, ConnectGroup which was later acquired by LodgeNet. Before co-founding Eventbrite, Kevin along with Alan Braverman founded Xoom.

The crisis

The three founders chose the wrong time to launch Eventbrite. During the 2000s, an aura of the economic crisis was spread around the globe. None of the venture capitalists wanted to invest in any new start-ups creating a really difficult situation for Eventbrite. But, luckily the three of them were well-experienced. Visage knew how to be more strategic and play tactically without enough funding.
Eventbrite started emphasizing more on SEO and reach out to people through unique contents. The marketing strategies of Eventbrite played the ace and they were finally able to conduct Series A funding at the end of 2009.

Strategies

In the beginning, Eventbrite launched a 100% free business model which lured a good number of customers. Eventbrite proposed this model for the so that the organizers can test the managing system of Eventbrite and then get start paying for it. After Eventbrite started making progress, many organizers shifted from free to paid model to have better access and services.
In 2008, the company launched its application which solely served the purpose of surfing events. With time, more people signed up and the demand rose drastically. This led Eventbrite to launch the feature of online ticketing and earn through it.

The Success

Once Eventbrite started landing investors, the list expanded day by day. Eventbrite closed their Series E funding by raising $50 million from Tiger Capital in 2011. Another $60 million was raised by the company from the same investor in 2013. Some of the major investors of Eventbrite include Sequoia Capital, Tiger Capital etc. In 2017, the company raised $134 million from Series G funding. The next year, Eventbrite filed for its first IPO worth $200 million. According to 2018, the company’s annual revenue sums up to $291.6 million. Eventbrite made some significant acquisitions including Nvite, Ticketfly, Picatic and Pandora.

Today, apart from managing events on the land of the US, it has offices in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Argentina, Netherlands, Brazil and Australia.