Eric Chouinard

La vision c'est où on se voit dans le futur et la mission, c'est comment on fait pour s'y rendre.

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Articles traitant de ‘formatek’

juin 29

Made in iWeb (part 2)

 

In my previous post, I explained how the idea of iWeb originated; from my days as an accounting student to my first job connecting companies, and I left off at the inception of Formatek; the company that would eventually become iWeb.

Early in 1996, Formatek offered many services related to the Internet, including training, website design (well, web page at that point), hardware sales, custom software, and a few other services that companies were willing to contract us for.

The Infonet company started by Martin Leclair

The Infonet company started by Martin Leclair

Martin Leclair, with whom I co-founded iWeb, was a collaborator on many of these projects. After a few months, Martin and I started to realize just how well we worked together. Martin, though sometimes a little introverted, has always had a more cerebral approach, thinking of new ways to offer the best web services and working on « what’s next ». As a (complementary) contrast to Martin’s abilities, I was more extroverted, and much more interested in developing the business side of things, like financing and management.

By the end of 1997, Martin and I decided to focus more on a specific « niche » market, web hosting. Specifically, web hosting in French. We knew that as a small group of individuals, we would have a hard time competing against the big IT companies unless we had an edge, and the opportunity to meet the needs of francophone customers was right there.

One of the fisrt french portal in the world in 1996

One of the fisrt french portal in the world in 1996

We also knew that one day, everything would eventually be digital; it was the beginning of MP3 music/Napster, digital cameras, online games, VOIP telephony, IMS (chat with ICQ), etc. We had to get started right away!! Early in 1998, to test our market, we launched boutique-iweb.com which offered 4 test services; Web hosting, HTML training, toner and finally, IT books. The big winner, as you might guess, was Web hosting

Once we saw the results, we decided to merge all the companies we were operating; Formatek.qc.ca, Infonet.qc.ca, and WebDepart.com, to officially launch iWeb-hosting.com in 1998 and create iWeb technologies! In early 99, we created the current version of the company, iWeb Group (here is the press release, it was only published in French, sorry)

Next time, I’ll tell you the first years of iWeb, now that we were focused on web hosting!

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juin 9

Made in iWeb (part 1)

 

I think it might be interesting to explain the story of how iWeb came to be, so I guess this post will be part 1 of the story.

logowwwThe company was officially incorporated in 1996. Before this, however, my entrepreneurial spark was lit in University, while studying management accounting at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM). I chose this degree because I didn’t really know what i wanted to do in the future, but I knew that management and practical accounting would help me get around in almost any environment.

In 1995, my university decided to link to McGill University through the Internet, which is where I had my first experience with the Internet. E-mail, Gopher, Newsgroup, Telnet and of course the the Web (www!). I was totally excited by this new media which could share and communicate with the world! So I went to the orientation people at the university and asked to change programs, from accounting management to computer science. The orientation person explained that I would lose all my credits from 2 years of school, and suggested that I complete my program while taking optional courses related to computer – which made a lot of sense to me, so I did.

g1_109After a few courses, I knew it wasn’t enough, so I decided to find a summer job, somehow related to the Internet. I found a job with Industry Canada; I was in charge of the « Connected Students » program. The goal of this program was simple: connecting companies to the Internet and use the web to find potential customers and suppliers and of course, to get them to start using e-mail! With a team of about ten students, like myself, we connected over 1000 companies to the Internet.

After the summer of 96, before I returned to University, I received several requests from the companies we connected, who were looking for more services from us, including training, on using the web pages and other stuff. So in October 1996, the company now known as iWeb, (originally called FORMATEK) was founded!

Next time, I’ll tell you about the first years of FORMATEK, before it became iWeb.

Cheers!

EC

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