A Serial Entrepreneur’s Journey: Wowza CEO David Stubenvoll (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Who were the target audience for this product?

David Stubenvoll: We wanted the interest and attention of consumers in order to sell advertising to various financial players. One of our biggest advertisers were mutual fund companies and brokers.

Sramana Mitra: How did it ramp? How did you get the consumer base to attract the attention of these advertisers?

David Stubenvoll: Honestly, it was a lot of luck. There were a couple of other personal finance sites out there at that time and we were able to stay ahead of the curve and offer premium information for free. It was typical PR. We didn’t do much advertising ourselves. The Internet was very small at that point.

Sramana Mitra: It was very new. People were confused about what’s happening and what it meant to advertise on the Internet. The ad rates were better.

David Stubenvoll: I don’t recall what they were, but they were definitely cheaper.

Sramana Mitra: How much revenue were you able to build up in this mode?

David Stubenvoll: Not very much. We were doing a million and a million and a half in revenue at the time Intuit came. From a building the business perspective, we relied on venture capital. We relied on people giving us money. We relied on there being hype. We honestly got lucky that Intuit came along at that time. It was one of these crazy things where, from our very first phone call to signing the deal, it all happened in two weeks.

Sramana Mitra: What year was this?

David Stubenvoll: 1996.

Sramana Mitra: So in 1996, Intuit bought you. Everybody moves to California. How long was your Intuit corporate career?

David Stubenvoll: There was a little bit of a time. We stayed in Pittsburgh for a year and a half or more. I became CEO and the former CEO went on to another role at Intuit. Then I spent a year and a half doing Corporate Development and then about another year or so getting payroll launched.

Sramana Mitra: So by the end of the decade, you were out of Intuit?

David Stubenvoll: Yes. I think we started Freeworks in 1999. It was perfect timing before things went south in 2000.

Sramana Mitra: What is the name of the company that you started next?

David Stubenvoll: Freeworks.

Sramana Mitra: What was Freeworks?

David Stubenvoll: Today, we would call it a business process automation. We did expense reports and various sorts of routing for companies. The expense report and payroll are the two big pieces that we did. In the end, today you’d call it a combination of Concur, DocuSign, and pick your favourite payroll company.

Sramana Mitra: How did you get it off the ground?

David Stubenvoll: Four of us were founders. We started working out and just kicking stuff around. We certainly knew tons of VCs. We were talking to a bunch of them and they were like, “You need to get out of a garage. We’ll fund you and get you working.” That was a mistake that I would never ever replicate. We got too much money too early. It was treated more like a venture capital startup than a true business.

Sramana Mitra: How much did you raise?

David Stubenvoll: I think we raised $10 million all in all. The initial raise was $4 million.

Sramana Mitra: This was 1999?

David Stubenvoll: Somewhere around there.

This segment is part 3 in the series : A Serial Entrepreneur’s Journey: Wowza CEO David Stubenvoll
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