Blog tool writing its own story of success
Los angeles Times
March 7, 2005
by Michael Hiltzik:
The success story of Six Apart
"Movable Type was born in the high-tech bust. The Trotts spent the first two years of their working lives at Silicon Valley start-ups destined for the boneyard. After one Web design firm employing both of them went under, Mena found herself spending more time working on her own weblog, dollarshort.org.The weblog then was a format used mostly by Web designers and software engineers, who viewed it as a kind of private tech-support networking tool. As users' personalities crept into their postings, the format evolved into something indefinably broader.Frustrated by the plain-vanilla character of the earliest blogging tools, meanwhile, Mena had been submitting wish lists of features to Ben, who spent his own spare time implementing them in programming language. "I was her personal engineer." At first they viewed Movable Type as a hobby. They designed it for individual use and planned to distribute it free to friends and associates. In October 2001 they posted a public version online. Within an hour it had been downloaded 100 times."
"Ito and a consultant, Barak Berkowitz, a former executive at Apple Computer Inc., Infoseek and Walt Disney Co.'s Go Network, had concluded that the blog space was worth an investment. Movable Type looked like the best opportunity in the field.Their first lunch meeting with the young couple almost ended the venture before it began. "Ben and Mena had, on paper, everything you do not want to invest in," Berkowitz recalls. "They were inexperienced. They were married to each other. They'd been working by themselves. They had a cult-like status in a community that was very protective of the technology. They had very little motivation to do something big. Both their fathers were lawyers." The Trotts, for their part, weren't even sure they wanted to own a business. As lunch wrapped up, Berkowitz remarked that they didn't seem to have much ambition. He didn't know it at the time, but his remark got under their skin.Within a week they were back in touch. Ito's firm, Neoteny Co., put up $1.2 million as seed money. A later investment round brought in $10 million from Menlo Park-based venture firm August Capital. Berkowitz eventually moved up from a board seat to chief executive."
March 7, 2005
by Michael Hiltzik:
The success story of Six Apart
"Movable Type was born in the high-tech bust. The Trotts spent the first two years of their working lives at Silicon Valley start-ups destined for the boneyard. After one Web design firm employing both of them went under, Mena found herself spending more time working on her own weblog, dollarshort.org.The weblog then was a format used mostly by Web designers and software engineers, who viewed it as a kind of private tech-support networking tool. As users' personalities crept into their postings, the format evolved into something indefinably broader.Frustrated by the plain-vanilla character of the earliest blogging tools, meanwhile, Mena had been submitting wish lists of features to Ben, who spent his own spare time implementing them in programming language. "I was her personal engineer." At first they viewed Movable Type as a hobby. They designed it for individual use and planned to distribute it free to friends and associates. In October 2001 they posted a public version online. Within an hour it had been downloaded 100 times."
"Ito and a consultant, Barak Berkowitz, a former executive at Apple Computer Inc., Infoseek and Walt Disney Co.'s Go Network, had concluded that the blog space was worth an investment. Movable Type looked like the best opportunity in the field.Their first lunch meeting with the young couple almost ended the venture before it began. "Ben and Mena had, on paper, everything you do not want to invest in," Berkowitz recalls. "They were inexperienced. They were married to each other. They'd been working by themselves. They had a cult-like status in a community that was very protective of the technology. They had very little motivation to do something big. Both their fathers were lawyers." The Trotts, for their part, weren't even sure they wanted to own a business. As lunch wrapped up, Berkowitz remarked that they didn't seem to have much ambition. He didn't know it at the time, but his remark got under their skin.Within a week they were back in touch. Ito's firm, Neoteny Co., put up $1.2 million as seed money. A later investment round brought in $10 million from Menlo Park-based venture firm August Capital. Berkowitz eventually moved up from a board seat to chief executive."
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