The story of dot-com boom and bust and boom! And starting again with Passle - the Expert to Expert marketing platform

1. The story of two brothers
and Passle
By Tom Elgar
#mystartupstory

2. This is me, Tom, leaving Nichestream
– my web development company –
for the last time EVER in 2001.
We’d been smashed up
in the dot-com crash

3. This is me, Tom, leaving Nichestream
– my web development company –
for the last time EVER in 2001.
We’d been smashed up
in the dot-com crash
I’ve just turned off the lights.

4. This is me, Tom, leaving Nichestream
– my web development company –
for the last time EVER in 2001.
We’d been smashed up
in the dot-com crash
I’ve just turned off the lights.
But forgot the awning –
better do that first.

6. My brother, Adam, and I have
worked on a lot of projects

7. When I was about 12, Our mother said she would give us
£100 to paint this barn with wood-preserving creosote. At
least a week of hard, dirty work.

8. But if you pilfer a spray can and mix the
creosote with petrol, you can spray it
on in about 3 hours…
When I was about 12, Our mother said she would give us
£100 to paint this barn with wood-preserving creosote. At
least a week of hard, dirty work.

9. But if you pilfer a spray can and mix the
creosote with petrol, you can spray it
on in about 3 hours…
When I was about 12, Our mother said she would give us
£100 to paint this barn with wood-preserving creosote. At
least a week of hard, dirty work.
… and go back to watching TV.

10. But if you pilfer a spray can and mix the
creosote with petrol, you can spray it
on in about 3 hours…
When I was about 10, Our mother said she would give us
£100 to paint this barn with wood-preserving creosote. At
least a week of hard, dirty work.
Our mother still is was LIVID.
… and go back to watching TV.

11. They actually make it
now commercially.

12. Although probably not
simply by mixing
creosote with a gallon of
lethally explosive petrol.
They actually make it
now commercially.

13. When I was 14, we had an idea for a children’s drawing game.
Using stencils of body parts you could make up different
characters (mostly based on the drawing of Albert Uderzo)
We called them the AniMates.

14. When I was 14, we had an idea for a children’s drawing game.
Using stencils of body parts you could make up different
characters (mostly based on the drawing of Albert Uderzo)
We met the toy companies, but they said using
stencils was too complicated for little children.
Which is a shame ‘cause they worked well.
We called them the AniMates.

15. Later – somewhat by accident –
I got a job teaching Economics
and History in Zimbabwe.
When they realised I couldn’t
teach, I got a call from Adam
(who now worked for a
conference company) to run
this exhibition.

16. As it turns out, ‘The Biggest
Internet Event in Africa’ in
1996…
Later – somewhat by accident –
I got a job teaching Economics
and History in Zimbabwe.
When they realised I couldn’t
teach, I got a call from Adam
(who now worked for a
conference company) to run
this exhibition.

17. As it turns out, ‘The Biggest
Internet Event in Africa’ in
1996…
…wasn’t really ‘THAT’ big.
Later – somewhat by accident –
I got a job teaching Economics
and History in Zimbabwe.
When they realised I couldn’t
teach, I got a call from Adam
(who now worked for a
conference company) to run
this exhibition.

18. And when Adam did his
next conference – now as a
spin off company called
Streamingmedia Inc. – I
coded their website and
marketing tools…
Then I learnt to code.

19. And when Adam did his
next conference – now as a
spin off company called
Streamingmedia Inc. – I
coded their website and
marketing tools…
Looks pretty hopeless now
but, the clever bit was…
Then I learnt to code.

20. And when Adam did his
next conference – now as a
spin off company called
Streamingmedia Inc. – I
coded their website and
marketing tools…
Looks pretty hopeless now
but, the clever bit was…
Then I learnt to code.

21. And when Adam did his
next conference – now as a
spin off company called
Streamingmedia Inc. – I
coded their website and
marketing tools…
Looks pretty hopeless now
but, the clever bit was…
Then I learnt to code.

22. San Francisco, 2000
So instead of:
1. Buying a mailing list
2. Printing flyers
3. Sending them
4. Hoping for the best

23. San Francisco, 2000
Streamingmedia Inc. created a community
around the emerging streaming technologies.
We spoke to THE RIGHT 25,000 people each day.
The competition spoke to THE WRONG 100,000
PEOPLE, at huge expense, twice a year.
So instead of:
1. Buying a mailing list
2. Printing flyers
3. Sending them
4. Hoping for the best

24. Nowadays it’s called ‘Content Marketing’.
We just thought it was very clever indeed.
Either way, Streamingmedia won.

25. Nowadays it’s called ‘Content Marketing’.
We just thought it was very clever indeed.
Either way, Streamingmedia won.
Streamingmedia Inc. sold to Penton
Media for $100m in late 2000.

26. And all coded from this little
shop in Oxford, UK! 

27. Then we set up Serverside Group, which
puts pictures on payment cards

28. I thought it would be great for small business
logos, but actually it was mostly dogs and kids

29. But there are lots of dogs and lots of kids, and
we started to do lots and lots of cards

30. But there are lots of dogs and lots of kids, and
we started to do lots and lots of cards

31. And we signed up lots and lots of
the world’s leading banks.

32. We wanted to make Serverside
the content hub for our niche
– so we started a blog.

33. But writing content was always the second priority for
the senior management and sales guys.
We wanted to make Serverside
the content hub for our niche
– so we started a blog.

34. We tried to outsource our content writing, but the
agency didn’t really understand our weird little niche.
So the content was BORING.

35. One day we walked our little blog out in
to the snow… And shot it.
We tried to outsource our content writing, but the
agency didn’t really understand our weird little niche.
So the content was BORING.

36. One day we walked our little blog out in
to the snow… And shot it.
We tried to outsource our content writing, but the
agency didn’t really understand our weird little niche.
So the content was BORING.

37. By now we were doing well, and other companies
started to copy us (but we had the patents)
so we went at ‘em! A bit like this…

38. Eventually we knew more about
plastic cards than any man
should reasonably know.
So we sold to Gemalto N.V. in 2009. The
$9bn gorilla in our field.

39. It was so easy and useful.
And we thought:
Do you know what?!
Later while working on a different
idea… we started using a
bookmarklet to capture web
content for our research.

40. That could be really powerful

41. You could highlight the key point

42. Comment with
your own views

43. And bring to life with the tweets of others

44. It takes no time at all to make
a post, giving you an easy,
effective way to blog

45. It takes no time at all to make
a post, giving you an easy,
effective way to blog
So you can rapidly build an
online presence which reflects
your knowledge and experience

46. longer than a tweet, shorter than a blog