Don dodge on the next big thing11/28/2022 ![]()
Onfolio is a productivity tool for serious web researchers and bloggers, and is sold over the web directly to users. Brightcove is almost like eBay for video content, providing a market and infrastructure for producers and consumers.Ĭomparing the business models of Onfolio and Brightcove is interesting. Consumers can search and find the video content that interests them and build a relationship directly with the content producers. Video content owners are no longer beholden to the networks for distribution. #DON DODGE ON THE NEXT BIG THING TV#Brightcove provides an environment for independent video producers to deliver their content directly to consumers, bypassing the traditional TV networks and channels. Jeremy saw broadband video heading the same way as web site development ten years earlier. He spent the next year as an EIR at General Catalyst, a major Boston VC firm. Jeremy left Macromedia two years after the merger. JJ tells me he has some new products in the wings for bloggers. #DON DODGE ON THE NEXT BIG THING TRIAL#You can see for yourself, download a free 30 day trial here. The tool is just brilliant and an absolute necessity for anyone who does extensive web browsing and research. Onfolio also tapped into the emerging blog market. He started Onfolio to help users search, filter, and find useful content on the web. JJ took some time off and then decided that he couldn't shake the entrepreneurial bug. JJ left the company while Jeremy stayed on as CTO of Macromedia. Allaire decided to join a bigger player to weather the storm and merged with Macromedia in January of 2001 in a transaction valued at $400M, a 20% premium over their stock price. As we all know the tech stock market crashed losing over 80% of its value in 18 months. They hired over 100 people in 5 months and ramped up revenues from $70K to over $100M in less than 5 years.Īllaire went public in January of 1999 and by March 2000, the peak of the NASDAQ market, their market cap reached $2.5B. They raised a second, and last, round of $15M to fund growth. The landlord turned them down.they were too small. They went to Silicon Valley and put down a deposit on some office space. Polaris suggested that they need to move to Silicon Valley, Seattle, or Boston to get the best people and grow the company. They connected with Polaris Ventures in Boston and raised their first round of $2.5M. The web was taking off and they knew they needed to get big fast to compete with the big players. They grew to 12 people in Minnesota and were generating positive cash flow right away. This synergy, and constant feedback loop, is what propelled Allaire in the early days. JJ decided to build some web development tools for his own use, while Jeremy decided to build a web threaded discussion application. This was back in the early days, circa 1992, before Netscape and other web tools existed. #DON DODGE ON THE NEXT BIG THING SOFTWARE#JJ was interested in software programming and Jeremy was interested in the social aspects of the web. JJ and Jeremy were students at Macalester College in Minnesota. The rules and competitors are constantly changing Hire a great management team, give up control if necessary.Pace your growth and capital consumption to match the market.It is all about a GREAT user experience.Lead the market, don't create the market.Be the technical leader, but not too far out front.Lessons for entrepreneurs from listening to the Allaires Dan Bricklin, of Visicalc fame, graciously recorded the Fireside Chat which can be found on his web site. I had the opportunity to listen to them there and extend our discussion over dinner last night with my colleague, Mark Barry. #DON DODGE ON THE NEXT BIG THING SERIES#JJ and Jeremy were the featured guests of the MITX Fireside Chat Series at Harvard last night. Allaire is most famous for Cold Fusion, the first application development platform for dynamic data driven applications. Allaire, now part of Macromedia, was generating over $100M in annual revenue and reached a market cap of $2.5B. Jeremy's new company, Brightcove, is a revolutionary approach to empower small and large video producers to build broadband businesses while giving viewers more choices and control over their use of video and television.Īllaire Corp was the early innovation leader in web application development and held on to their lead to build a very successful company. JJ has an exciting new company called Onfolio which provides a set of tools for web researchers and bloggers to easily collect, organize, and share web content. Allaire Corp was a huge success, but they didn't stop there. JJ and Jeremy Allaire started Allaire Corp to develop great tools, and later a platform, for web application development. ![]()
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