Me.dium Inc.

• Author: Peterson, Eric
• Position: TECH STARTUP OF THE MONTH - Company overview

INITIAL LIGHT BULB:

Robert Reich started developing Me.dium's technology in 2004 with the enterprise market in mind. Positioned as a collaborative tool, the application allowed people to see where others were surfing the Web in real time. Then last year, Reich teamed with co-founders David Mandell and Peter Newcomb to start Me.dium after an "a-ha" moment led them to a different market.

"We realized very quickly that the consumer application was much more powerful than the enterprise side," said Mandell, the 30-employee company's vice president of marketing. "Now the enterprise side is completely shut down. We are 100 percent focused on the consumer."

CEO Kimbal Musk, founder of Zip2 and Boulder restaurant The Kitchen, came on board soon after the company was founded. As of February, the company had a base of 12,000 users, a number that is quickly growing.

IN A NUTSHELL:

After users download and install the Me.dium plug-in for their Internet browser, a sidebar reveals other users and the websites they currently are browsing. The users that are visible are selected by matching technology, or else one can look on another tab of their friends. Users can click on other users' icons to surf to their current page; secure sites remain secure, and users control their privacy and anonymity. The plug-in also has a chat component to allow users to communicate with one another as they surf together.

"It's all about revealing the hidden world of human activity behind your browser," Mandell said. "Being around people changes everything, and you've been alone online for too long. With Me.dium for the first time you can really see and interact with the other people out there doing similar things to you. You can bump into and surf with your friends."

However, one needs to have a friend who is already a user to currently become a user.

"It is an invitation-only product and may remain as such," Mandell said. "The scaling issues are tremendous, and we want to make sure the user experience is maintained."

Cathy Brooks, senior analyst with the San Francisco-based Guidewire Group, labeled Me.dium "super cool" and "a valuable addition to people's browsing...