Viant

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Viant Inc. was a San Francisco-based internet consulting firm, founded in April 1996, that became one of the most successful web consulting firms during the early stages of the internet era. The company was founded by Eric Greenberg, and Co-Founders Robbie Vann-Adibé and Dwayne Nesmith as Silicon Valley Internet Partners (SVIP).

It was one of the first consulting firms to attempt to integrate the disparate disciplines of strategy, creative and technology into a single value proposition and project approach. Such blended multi-disciplinary approaches have since become common.

Image:SVIP Logo.JPG

Original SVIP Logo.

With investment from Mohr Davidow Ventures, Trident Capital and Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers it grew rapidly. Initially it was incubated out of the offices of CKS Group (prior to its merger with USWeb) in Campbell CA.

An external CEO was recruited in Mid 1996 – Robert Gett from Cambridge Technology Partners, at which point corporate functions moved to Boston. Eric Greenberg left the company in early 1997, and subsequently founded Scient.

The company changed its name to Viant in the spring of 1998. Its Bay Area offices relocated in 1998 to the South of Market area in San Francisco - 650 Townsend Street.

Image:Viant Logo.JPG

Original Viant Logo.

Viant grew organically in the following years, with offices "spawned" by sending multi-discplinary teams from other offices into new geographies, including locations in New York City, Dallas, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Munich, and others.

The company went public in June 1999. By Dec 1999 it enjoyed a stock price of US$105 per share and a market capitalization of over US$2bn.

Co-Founder Robbie Vann-Adibé left the firm in June 2000.

1 Staff
2 Infrastructure
3 Incubation
4 End of Viant
5 External links

[edit] Staff

At the time of the IPO in June 1999, the management team was reported as:

Robert ("Bob") Gett, President & CEO
Tim Andrews, Chief Technology Officer
Richard ("Rick") J. Chavez, Chief Strategy Officer
Frank Dudley, Chief Creative Officer
Diane ("Di") Hall, Chief People Officer
Dwayne Nesmith, Chief Financial Officer
Michael Tubridy, VP, Finance & Treasurer
Sherwin Uretsky, VP, Worldwide Sales
Michael Keany, VP, London General Manager
Ed Mello, VP, Dallas General Manager
Paul Michaud, VP, New York General Manager
Chirag Patel, VP, Boston General Manager
Lance Trebesch, VP, Los Angeles General Manager
Robbie Vann-Adibé, VP, London General Manager
Xavier Y. Zang, VP, San Francisco General Manager

[edit] Infrastructure

Viant invested in a set of systems for Staffing and Project management and also Knowledge Management. These systems were sold in a deal with a start-up company Portera, which in turn were sold to Exigen and became the basis for its Professional Services Automation (PSA) business.

"Exigen Group Acquires Portera's Professional Services Automation (PSA) Business"

[edit] Incubation

As part of its activities, Viant worked with a variety of venture backed start-ups, incubating them by providing infrastructure, staffing to build the offering and other related services. Viant's activities in this area were quite successful with many of these companies surviving long after Viant.

(incomplete)

Sputnik 7 [1]

Ecast [2]

Della and James (became part of wedding channel) [3]

[edit] End of Viant

The internet downturn hit the company hard forcing layoffs in 2001 and 2002. The company was sold in September 2002 to divine (corporation) the company founded by Andrew Filipowski