Urchin Software Corporation
Encyclopedia
Urchin Software Corporation was a web analytics
company based in Southern California
. In April 2005, the company was purchased by Google
.
, California
. In its original incarnation, the company was called Web Depot, and built/hosted websites for various mostly San Diego companies, including the two largest private employers in the area Sharp Healthcare
and Solar Turbines
.
In 1998, the four principals of the company (Paul Muret, Scott Crosby, Jack Ancone, and Brett Crosby) decided to jettison the hosting and design elements of the business and focus solely on the Urchin software, which had become fairly popular for its speed and efficiency at processing large web server log files. At that time, Honda
had standardized on it, and EarthLink
had just become a customer. Quantified Systems, as the company was then known, raised a round of angel funding from various family members, a small venture capital
firm called Green Thumb Ventures, and friends. The funding round came to approximately $1 million.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Quantified grew rapidly on the strength of both the software and large contracts secured by Giacomino (Jack) Ancone and Brett Crosby. Among their major customers were Earthlink, Verio
, Cable & Wireless
, Rackspace, and the ill-fated Winstar. An office was opened in Tokyo
and employment reached approximately 40 total.
In 2001, the company prepared to take on its A-series venture capital round, which was to be led by InnoCal Ventures and JMI Ventures. However, the September 11 attacks
and other factors caused the funding to collapse. Quantified was forced to lay off approximately 15 employees, close the Tokyo office, and take out a loan from the original investors.
In 2002, the principals decided to revamp all business models and develop an in-house customer relationship management
(CRM) system to keep track of things much more tightly. The Site License Model (SLM) was launched, which entailed a flat monthly rate of $5000 per physical data center, and many large hosting companies were enlisted over the next year. Cashflow positivity was achieved shortly thereafter. At the same time, the sales force was streamlined, base salaries cut, and a strong incentive plan enacted. Sales steadily rose through spring 2005, when the company was acquired by Google.
In 2003, the company changed its name to Urchin Software Corporation ("Urchin")\.
In 2004, the company repaid its angel investor
s the money borrowed in 2001, and became essentially debt-free. Urchin was profitable for its remaining time as an independent entity.
In August 2004 at the Search Engine Strategies trade show in San Jose
, Urchin was approached by representatives of Google Inc. about a possible partnership. Urchin was acquired in April 2005
Approximately 6 months after the acquisition, the Urchin On Demand (hosted) version of the product was renamed Google Analytics
and re-launched on Google infrastructure, where it was offered for free. Due to strong demand, the service experienced overloading and new accounts were restricted for a number of months. After extensive re-engineering, the service was again opened to the public and continued to grow rapidly in popularity. According to a study reported by the New York Times, Google Analytics tracking code is present on over 80% of all domains worldwide, as of June 2009.
Co-founders:
Other employees included:
Web analytics
Web analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of internet data for purposes of understanding and optimizing web usage....
company based in Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
. In April 2005, the company was purchased by Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
.
Corporate history
Urchin was founded by Paul Muret and Scott Crosby in December 1995 in San DiegoSan Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. In its original incarnation, the company was called Web Depot, and built/hosted websites for various mostly San Diego companies, including the two largest private employers in the area Sharp Healthcare
Sharp Healthcare
Sharp HealthCare is a not-for-profit integrated regional health care delivery system located in San Diego. Sharp includes four acute-care hospitals, three specialty hospitals, two affiliated medical groups and a health plan...
and Solar Turbines
Solar Turbines
Solar Turbines Incorporated, a wholly owned subsidiary of Caterpillar Inc., designs and manufactures industrial gas turbines for on- and off-shore electrical power generation, for marine propulsion and for producing, processing and transporting natural gas and oil. Solar Turbines is one of the...
.
In 1998, the four principals of the company (Paul Muret, Scott Crosby, Jack Ancone, and Brett Crosby) decided to jettison the hosting and design elements of the business and focus solely on the Urchin software, which had become fairly popular for its speed and efficiency at processing large web server log files. At that time, Honda
Honda
is a Japanese public multinational corporation primarily known as a manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles.Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, as well as the world's largest manufacturer of internal combustion engines measured by volume, producing more than...
had standardized on it, and EarthLink
EarthLink
EarthLink , is an Internet service provider headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. It claims 1.94 million subscribers.- Business :EarthLink provides a variety of Internet connection types, including dial-up, DSL, satellite, and cable. Both dial-up and high speed Internet access are available...
had just become a customer. Quantified Systems, as the company was then known, raised a round of angel funding from various family members, a small venture capital
Venture capital
Venture capital is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as...
firm called Green Thumb Ventures, and friends. The funding round came to approximately $1 million.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Quantified grew rapidly on the strength of both the software and large contracts secured by Giacomino (Jack) Ancone and Brett Crosby. Among their major customers were Earthlink, Verio
Verio
Verio is a global web hosting provider headquartered in the United States. Incorporated in 1996 in Denver, Colorado, it is currently a wholly owned subsidiary of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Communications, who acquired the company in 2000...
, Cable & Wireless
Cable & Wireless
Cable & Wireless Worldwide PLC is a global telecommunications company headquartered in Bracknell, United Kingdom. Cable & Wireless specialises in providing communication networks and services to large corporates, governments, carrier customers and resellers...
, Rackspace, and the ill-fated Winstar. An office was opened in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
and employment reached approximately 40 total.
In 2001, the company prepared to take on its A-series venture capital round, which was to be led by InnoCal Ventures and JMI Ventures. However, the September 11 attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
and other factors caused the funding to collapse. Quantified was forced to lay off approximately 15 employees, close the Tokyo office, and take out a loan from the original investors.
In 2002, the principals decided to revamp all business models and develop an in-house customer relationship management
Customer relationship management
Customer relationship management is a widely implemented strategy for managing a company’s interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes—principally sales activities, but also those for marketing,...
(CRM) system to keep track of things much more tightly. The Site License Model (SLM) was launched, which entailed a flat monthly rate of $5000 per physical data center, and many large hosting companies were enlisted over the next year. Cashflow positivity was achieved shortly thereafter. At the same time, the sales force was streamlined, base salaries cut, and a strong incentive plan enacted. Sales steadily rose through spring 2005, when the company was acquired by Google.
In 2003, the company changed its name to Urchin Software Corporation ("Urchin")\.
In 2004, the company repaid its angel investor
Angel investor
An angel investor or angel is an affluent individual who provides capital for a business start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity...
s the money borrowed in 2001, and became essentially debt-free. Urchin was profitable for its remaining time as an independent entity.
In August 2004 at the Search Engine Strategies trade show in San Jose
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
, Urchin was approached by representatives of Google Inc. about a possible partnership. Urchin was acquired in April 2005
Approximately 6 months after the acquisition, the Urchin On Demand (hosted) version of the product was renamed Google Analytics
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a free service offered by Google that generates detailed statistics about the visitors to a website. The product is aimed at marketers as opposed to webmasters and technologists from which the industry of web analytics originally grew. It is the most widely used website...
and re-launched on Google infrastructure, where it was offered for free. Due to strong demand, the service experienced overloading and new accounts were restricted for a number of months. After extensive re-engineering, the service was again opened to the public and continued to grow rapidly in popularity. According to a study reported by the New York Times, Google Analytics tracking code is present on over 80% of all domains worldwide, as of June 2009.
Principals and key personnel
- Scott Crosby, President and VP of Sales. He was later Enterprise Business Development Manager at Google, and Senior Program Manager at Google. He is currently COO of Euclid Inc.
- Brett Crosby, VP of Business Development and Marketing. He is now a Director of Product Marketing at Google.
- Jack Ancone, Chief Financial OfficerChief financial officerThe chief financial officer or Chief financial and operating officer is a corporate officer primarily responsible for managing the financial risks of the corporation. This officer is also responsible for financial planning and record-keeping, as well as financial reporting to higher management...
and VP of Corporate Development. He is now Principal, New Business Development at Google. - Paul Muret, who wrote the first version of the Urchin softwareUrchin (software)Urchin is a web statistics analysis program developed by Urchin Software Corporation. Urchin is used to analyze web server log file content and display the traffic information on that website based upon the log data....
in 1997 and was Chief Executive Officer of the company. He is now a Director of Engineering for Google.
Other employees included:
- Paul Botto, Sales Team/Bus. Dev Lead. He was later head of analytics business development at Google, then the VP of Sales at Brickfish.
- Hui-Sok "Nathan" Moon, Engineering Lead. He is now a Software Engineer at Google.
- Rolf Schreiber, Chief Integration Engineer. He is now a Software Engineer at Google.
- Jason Senn, Partner Manager and Head of Channel Sales. He is now Enterprise Channel Development Manager, Analytics, at Google.
- Doug Silver, head of internal systems, most notably customer relationship management. He is now a Systems Administrator at Google.
- Jonathon Vance, co-Engineering Lead. He is now a Staff Software Engineer at Google.
- Mike Chipman, Senior Account Executive. He left Google in August 2005 to start Actual Metrics.
- Bill Rhodes, Software Engineer. He left Google in April 2008 to become Director of Development for Actual Metrics.
- Bartholomew Fromm, Systems Administrator. He is now a Manager in Site Reliability Engineering at Google.