MFG.com

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MFG.com, Inc.
Type Private
Founded 2000
Headquarters Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Key people Mitch Free, Founder, President, CEO, and Chairman
Leigh Kinnebrew, CFO
Sherwin Krug, Global Business Development
David Crowder, Technology
Adam Oaks, Sales
Steve Pateuk, Global Buy-side Operations
Steve Roth, CMO
Kai Deininger, MFG.com Europe
James Jin, MFG.com China
Industry Manufacturing, Internet
Employees 160 (2007)
Website www.MFG.com

MFG.com is a new manufacturing marketplace, headquartered in Atlanta, GA USA. Privately held, it was founded in 2000 by President and CEO, Mitch Free. The focus of MFG.com’s solutions is to connect the capabilities of regional and global suppliers with the sourcing needs of design engineering and procurement professionals. In 2005, Jeff Bezos personally took an equity stake in MFG.com via his private investment company, Bezos Expeditions.

Contents

[edit] Company History

MFG.com was founded in 2000, many entrepreneurs were rushing to the Internet to create B2B eMarketplaces that would connect buyers and suppliers. Many of these marketplaces were able to raise funds from outside investors who saw significant potential upside in this new business model. This was due in large part to the financial valuations and multiples that the capital markets were placing on related companies in their Initial Public Offerings (IPOs). But the great majority of these efforts would either merge or close their doors within a matter of years because of a lack of activity between buyers and sellers. Some would have enough buyers. Some would have enough suppliers. But few could match the buying and selling needs of both equally important groups of users.

MFG.com began during this time, but had little in common with its other marketplace peers. It also did not raise significant amounts of outside capital until later in its growth cycle (which forced the management team to create a financially viable business model from the very beginning). Outside of these factors, MFG.com was able to build a high growth business in an environment where the odds were against marketplaces in general for a number of reasons.

First, MFG.com focused on the buying and selling of non-catalog custom manufactured parts. These were often highly engineered precision metal, plastic and rubber components produced on demand by machine shops, molders, fabricators and contract manufacturers in a highly fragmented market where both buyers and suppliers had a difficult time identifying each other. Examples of direct materials frequently sourced on MFG.com include parts and assemblies that are machined, fabricated, forged, molded, cast, stamped or extruded as well as made to order electronic components.

Second, MFG.com focused on building liquidity on the buy-side by not charging users to source from the marketplace (the business model, which continues today, has suppliers paying an annual subscription fee). While not charging buyers for the use of the site, MFG.com nevertheless did actively market itself to both design engineers sourcing small quantities or prototype parts and procurement professionals sourcing parts in production quantity to build commerce and traction.

Third, MFG.com enabled transparency into the buying and selling process by providing an intuitive experience to both sets of users that incorporated community feedback. Especially for middle-market companies – who often lacked large design and purchasing teams – this process for sourcing complex parts would greatly streamline how companies identified suppliers while also providing a sense of security that who they were buying from could meet their requirements based on past performance.

All of the factors have contributed to helping MFG.com build a viable, growing marketplace model in an environment where so many other B2B exchanges did not survive. On September 5, 2006 MFG.com acquired Geneva, Switzerland based SourcingParts.com, a B2B marketplace and software provider in the European market. Together, both companies represented over $5 billion in transacted volume in the previous 12 months at the time of the acquisition. With operations in Europe and Asia, MFG.com continues to expand globally today.

Most recently in 2008, MFG.com unveiled MFG.com Textiles that brings together both buyers and suppliers of apparel and home textiles to source and manufacture textiles. The expansion into the textiles industry broadens MFG.com's domain expertise in the field of manufacturing, adding to its existing market leadership and success with standard and custom parts. MFG.com is an unrivaled powerhouse in the manufacturing world, serving as the platform by which the manufacturing industry conducts business.

[edit] Business Processes and Techniques

Manufacturing processes and techniques typically sourced on MFG.com include the following:

[edit] Significant Milestones

2000 – The first RFQ was posted on MFG.com

2000 – MFG.com partners with Thomas Publishing

2001 – MFG.com partners with Gardner Publications

2002 – MFG.com acquired Quote Source Corporation

2003 – MFG.com launches version 4.0

2004 – 30,000th RFQ is sourced

2005 – Jeff Bezos of Bezos Expeditions, LLC invested in MFG.com

2006 - Acquired Switzerland-based SourcingParts.com

2006 - 100,000th RFQ was sourced, total value sourced $4 billion

2006 - Opened wholly-owned foreign entity (WOFE) in Shanghai, China

2007 - Germany-based European Founders Fund invested in MFG.com

2007 - MFG.com opens its marketplace to Standard Part RFQs to allow for distribution of pre-manufactured parts

2008 - MFG.com launches MFG.com Textiles to expand into the manufacturing of apparel and home textiles

[edit] Global Expansion

MFG.com Inc. supports over 10 languages and 11 currencies with customers from over 100 different countries around the world.

[edit] MFG.com Inc. Board of Directors

Mitch Free, MFG.com (Chairman)

Steve Campbell, Bezos Expeditions, LLC

Alain Nicod, VI Partners

Larry Cheng, Fidelity Ventures

[edit] References

 The references in this article would be clearer with a different or consistent style of citation, footnoting, or external linking.