Ralph Clark This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. Voyage to the New Economy

   www.fastcompany.com/online/36/ - [Cached]

   Published on: 3/22/2001   Last Visited: 3/22/2001

   In a converted warehouse in Oakland , California , Ralph Clark is getting ready to radically overhaul a page on his Web site -- a site that took him nearly six months to build. For others , this might be a sad moment. But Clark , 41 , is cheerful , almost playful. We tried something that didn't work , he explains. Now we're going to do it right. He is a cofounder and the CEO of BigBow.com , a gift-buying service that uses a combination of Web and email technologies to help parents , coworkers , and relatives pick out presents for people they care about.
   
   BigBow is trying to make it the hard way. Unlike some online gift businesses , it doesn't have lavish backing from Silicon Valley venture capitalists. It doesn't have a multimillion-dollar ad budget or tie-ins to top department stores. BigBow is operating on $ 3 million of venture funding from a Chicago investor -- and about $ 300 , 000 of Clark's own money. But the company has a catchy product line on its Web site and a patent on file for some of its innovative email technologies. It also has a gutsy , multiracial management team that is determined to show that Internet success stories can happen on the wrong side of the San Francisco Bay as well as in Silicon Valley.
   ...
   A dozen years ago , Ralph Clark would have been the epitome of the Organization Man. He sold mainframe computers for IBM in Seattle , working mostly on the Boeing account. He was part of a generation of intelligent black engineers who integrated first high schools and colleges , and then major corporations. By the standards of the time , he was a terrific success. Yet he was starting to get restless. Big companies have great camaraderie , and they can insulate you from a lot of stuff , he says. But they can put you to sleep."For the next decade , he hunted for the right next step , getting an MBA at Harvard , briefly working as an investment banker for Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch , and then joining a series of small California software companies as chief financial officer. He negotiated the sale of one of those companies ( for several million dollars ) , earning a nice windfall for himself -- and the chance to decide at last what he really wanted to do.
   
   ...
   More than a year later , Clark remembers those first few months as a magical time. He , French , and a third cofounder , Matt Strain , mapped strategy over long lunches at a few favorite restaurants that they jokingly referred to as our virtual offices. They drew up business plans that called for a September 1999 launch , 55 , 000 users by year-end 1999 , and $ 4.5 million in revenues by the end of 2000. They were way too optimistic about everything , of course. But they pushed forward , convinced that this was an opportunity to create their ideal company -- one that they had always wanted to work for.
   
   The IBM' me never would have done that , Clark says. But I made a decision : If I'm going to bet on anyone , I'll bet on me. He decided to draw an annual salary of $ 120 , 000 -- barely half of what he had earned in his best year in investment banking.
   ...
   When BigBow needed someone to oversee its computer-programming efforts , Clark set out to recruit Maira Benjamin , an acclaimed black manager in the engineering department at Luna Information Systems , an established Internet-technology company. Clark acknowledged that BigBow was a younger company at a riskier stage of development than Luna. But if Benjamin joined , he said , she would have an opportunity to work on projects that could make millions of consumers happy -- and to show that a multiracial team in Oakland could accomplish truly great things. Just one day later , he got a delicate , handmade , red card from Benjamin that said , simply , Yes. Maira -- your new director of engineering..
   
   As crunch time arrived last winter for BigBow , which still needed to get its Web site up and running , a second migration drama took shape at the company. Clark and Benjamin knew that they needed a lot of computer programmers in a hurry. Rather than hire them full time , they called Vajih Khan , a Pakistani immigrant who , four years earlier , had cofounded his own Internet-consulting firm , NetPace Inc. , in nearby Union City , California. Could he help. The answer was yes. Within days , a half dozen NetPace programmers arrived at BigBow's headquarters. Most of them were Pakistani immigrants , like Khan , and the observant Moslems among them would take periodic prayer breaks. In an attempt to provide his employees with proper prayer space , Clark bought a half dozen prayer rugs and offered them as company perks.
   
   Now Clark is trying to figure out whether he might someday be able to take BigBow public. That may have seemed a realistic goal in February. But with most consumer-oriented Internet stocks having taken a pounding this spring , an IPO is hardly assured. As much as he would like to keep BigBow independent , Clark isn't ruling out the possibility that at some point , it may make sense to sell the company. If BigBow doesn't work out , he says , it would hurt really badly. But it wouldn't be a disaster. I'd find a job working for someone else.

2. 2. The CRIB: Creating Commerce of Color

   www.thecrib.org/organization/p - [Cached]

   Published on: 2/13/2001   Last Visited: 12/16/2001

   Ralph Clarke - CEO, BigBow.com

3. 3. Voyage to the New Economy

   learning.fastcompany.com/onlin - [Cached]

   Published on: 9/29/2000   Last Visited: 1/30/2001

   In a converted warehouse in Oakland, California, Ralph Clark is getting ready to radically overhaul a page on his Web site -- a site that took him nearly six months to build. For others, this might be a sad moment. But Clark, 41, is cheerful, almost playful. We tried something that didn't work, he explains. Now we're going to do it right. He is a cofounder and the CEO of BigBow.com, a gift-buying service that uses a combination of Web and email technologies to help parents, coworkers, and relatives pick out presents for people they care about.
   
   BigBow is trying to make it the hard way. Unlike some online gift businesses, it doesn't have lavish backing from Silicon Valley venture capitalists. It doesn't have a multimillion-dollar ad budget or tie-ins to top department stores. BigBow is operating on $ 3 million of venture funding from a Chicago investor -- and about $ 300, 000 of Clark's own money. But the company has a catchy product line on its Web site and a patent on file for some of its innovative email technologies. It also has a gutsy, multiracial management team that is determined to show that Internet success stories can happen on the wrong side of the San Francisco Bay as well as in Silicon Valley.
   ...
   A dozen years ago, Ralph Clark would have been the epitome of the Organization Man. He sold mainframe computers for IBM in Seattle, working mostly on the Boeing account. He was part of a generation of intelligent black engineers who integrated first high schools and colleges, and then major corporations. By the standards of the time, he was a terrific success. Yet he was starting to get restless. Big companies have great camaraderie, and they can insulate you from a lot of stuff, he says. But they can put you to sleep."For the next decade, he hunted for the right next step, getting an MBA at Harvard, briefly working as an investment banker for Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch, and then joining a series of small California software companies as chief financial officer. He negotiated the sale of one of those companies (for several million dollars), earning a nice windfall for himself -- and the chance to decide at last what he really wanted to do.
   
   ...
   More than a year later, Clark remembers those first few months as a magical time. He, French, and a third cofounder, Matt Strain, mapped strategy over long lunches at a few favorite restaurants that they jokingly referred to as our virtual offices. They drew up business plans that called for a September 1999 launch, 55, 000 users by year-end 1999, and $ 4.5 million in revenues by the end of 2000. They were way too optimistic about everything, of course. But they pushed forward, convinced that this was an opportunity to create their ideal company -- one that they had always wanted to work for.
   
   The IBM' me never would have done that, Clark says. But I made a decision : If I'm going to bet on anyone, I'll bet on me. He decided to draw an annual salary of $ 120, 000 -- barely half of what he had earned in his best year in investment banking.
   ...
   When BigBow needed someone to oversee its computer-programming efforts, Clark set out to recruit Maira Benjamin, an acclaimed black manager in the engineering department at Luna Information Systems, an established Internet-technology company. Clark acknowledged that BigBow was a younger company at a riskier stage of development than Luna. But if Benjamin joined, he said, she would have an opportunity to work on projects that could make millions of consumers happy -- and to show that a multiracial team in Oakland could accomplish truly great things. Just one day later, he got a delicate, handmade, red card from Benjamin that said, simply, Yes. Maira -- your new director of engineering..
   
   As crunch time arrived last winter for BigBow, which still needed to get its Web site up and running, a second migration drama took shape at the company. Clark and Benjamin knew that they needed a lot of computer programmers in a hurry. Rather than hire them full time, they called Vajih Khan, a Pakistani immigrant who, four years earlier, had cofounded his own Internet-consulting firm, NetPace Inc., in nearby Union City, California. Could he help. The answer was yes. Within days, a half dozen NetPace programmers arrived at BigBow's headquarters. Most of them were Pakistani immigrants, like Khan, and the observant Moslems among them would take periodic prayer breaks. In an attempt to provide his employees with proper prayer space, Clark bought a half dozen prayer rugs and offered them as company perks.
   
   Now Clark is trying to figure out whether he might someday be able to take BigBow public. That may have seemed a realistic goal in February. But with most consumer-oriented Internet stocks having taken a pounding this spring, an IPO is hardly assured. As much as he would like to keep BigBow independent, Clark isn't ruling out the possibility that at some point, it may make sense to sell the company. If BigBow doesn't work out, he says, it would hurt really badly. But it wouldn't be a disaster. I'd find a job working for someone else.