Summer 2004
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Summer 2004 |
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By David Piker A dream that started eight years ago in an entrepreneurship class at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology has turned into a $41.5 million business deal for four young Rose-Hulman alumni. Scott Loughmiller, Jeff Ready, Mike Olson and Phil White earlier this year sold their anti-spam company, Corvigo, Inc. in Mountain View, Calif., to Tumbleweed Communications. Corvigo was created after Loughmiller, Ready and Olson developed their first company, Aureate Development in Terre Haute. That venture moved to Indianapolis and later to California. Loughmiller and Ready graduated from Rose-Hulman in 1996. Olson received his Rose-Hulman degree a year later. Also involved in the creation of Corvigo was 1998 Rose-Hulman graduate Phil White who is now a software architect for Tumbleweed Communications. The company, in Redwood City, Calif., is a provider of secure Internet messaging software products. Corvigo created patent-pending intent-based filtering, artificial intelligence technology that eliminates junk e-mail. The company's customer base includes over 100 businesses. Corvigo's Linux-based, anti-spam appliance, MailGate, was rated as the best of its kind against major competitors in real-world testing by InfoWorld trade magazine in February. "We invested in Corvigo after we concluded that their MailGate anti-spam appliance was the most effective and easiest-to-employ solution," said Mark Kvamme, partner at Sequoia Capital and Corvigo board member, in a statement released by Tumbleweed Communications. "Combined with Tumbleweed's security expertise and marketing leadership, we feel that the Corvigo product line has the potential to dominate the anti-spam market." Loughmiller, Ready, and Olson showed early indications of talents that would lead to their recent success, according to Rose-Hulman Professor tom Mason, who teaches entrepreneurial and economics courses, and serves as director of the college's engineering management graduate program. "From the time they were in my entrepreneurship class, Scott and Jeff had the 'right stuff' to be technical entrepreneurs," Mason recalled. "They were technically competent, motivated to be successful in business and, along with their friend Ehren Maedge, they made a great team." "They had the confidence to create a business even before graduation, yet they had enough humility to listen to advice and look for people like Mike Olson, who are very smart," Mason stated. Mason stated on of the most important attributes of this group of young entrepreneurs is that they realized almost instinctively that technology-based business was all about the customers, not the technology. Loughmiller and Olson also participated in the Ewing Marion Kauffman Entrepreneurial Internship Program at Rose-Hulman. The internship provides undergraduates with the opportunity to report directly to a chief executive officer, chief technical officer or chief engineer at an emerging, technical growth company. "The Entrepreneurial Internship Program makes this career path a rational decision, instead of a roll of the dice," stated Olson, research and development architect at Tumbleweed Communications.. The Rose-Hulman graduates moved their first company, Aureate Development, which provided Internet access and consulting services, to California's Silicon Valley in 1999. "Rose-Hulman was very supportive of our efforts from providing us with business advice, to sharing contacts, and even providing us with temporary office space to get started," stated Ready, who is now vice president of marketing for Tumbleweed Communications. "We were given encouragement to follow our chosen career path to become entrepreneurs. I believe this speaks not only to the college's efforts to foster entrepreneurship, but also to the overall Rose-Hulman theme of being student-focused throughout the undergraduate experience," he said. Olson said the team's years together have been an advantage: "Scott, Jeff and I have been working as a team since we were in classes together. Having that experience has been a huge advantage for us. We know implicitly who is responsible for getting what done. It makes organizing and managing a startup almost effortless." "We still apply the principles we learned while working on our senior project to our everyday work experience," Olson said. "I never doubted we would succeed," Olson said. "Looking back, I think that's a crucial part of our success. We weren't afraid to try."
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