Endurance International Group

A unique cloud-based platform, coupled with an innovative spirit, enabled us to grow to nearly two million customers and become one of the world's largest and most profitable providers of online services for small- and medium-sized businesses.

From very humble beginnings in 1997, when Ravi Agarwal, Alex Coisman and Hari Ravichandran founded the company in a one-room basement office, Endurance has traveled a long and sometimes difficult road. We have met and overcome many obstacles. With team work, extra effort and a never-say-die attitude we have survived, endured and prospered.

Fueled by venture capital, we had more than 100 employees and hundreds of thousands of paying and non-paying customers by the end of 2000. Unfortunately, like so many dot-com start-ups, we did not have a sustainable business model. In late 2000, when the Internet bubble burst, our future was anything but certain.

Surviving the Dot-Com Bust

In 2000, we retrenched to about 20 employees. Those were difficult times. There were many days when we thought about throwing in the towel, as so many other dot-coms had done. But there was something within this team of 20 that would not allow us to give up.

Changing Our Model, Laying the Foundation for Our Future

By early 2001, we were reinventing ourselves around a sustainable business model of paid online services, with a focus on website hosting. At the time, free hosting was available all over the Internet. We knew we had to offer something unique if we were going to get people to pay us. We called the three-month effort to build and launch all the tools and systems necessary to support a full pay-per-service model "Operation Endurance."

In preparation for Operation Endurance, we began building scalability and flexibility into our nascent platform, customizing it for various pricing and product offers and preparing for incremental growth.

We eliminated our free offers and converted more than 15,000 customers to the paid hosting model in just a few short months. At that time, we began discussing ways to rapidly and profitably augment our customer base.

Refining our Platform for Growth by Acquisition

Six months after Operation Endurance, we completed our first customer acquisition and began developing a methodology for transferring customers onto our platform.

It was at this time that we started building our platform in earnest. As we went through that first migration, it became clear that we were building something that was unique and unmatched in the industry—a proprietary platform that could support distinct brands, product offerings and pricing strategies through a shared, highly efficient backend.

We learned a lot during that time, and we have added to that base of knowledge during each of the more than 35 subsequent migrations.

Over the years, we have successfully migrated account bases that number in the hundreds to those that number in the hundreds of thousands. Our ability to effectively manage migrations, big and small, continues to set us apart in the industry.

It also provides an incredible opportunity to analyze and adopt strategies from successful businesses in our industry.

Going Organic

It was through a merger with a division of United Web in 2007, and the involvement of founders Thomas Gorny and Tracy Conrad, that Endurance attained the knowledge and skills to begin a path of aggressive organic growth. After spending more than five years honing our acquisition and migration skills, our team was ready to begin marketing directly to small- and medium-sized business owners through our cache of well-known brands.

The combination of acquisitive and organic growth made us the fastest growing company in the industry. During this time, we spent a great deal of time and effort getting to know our customers and began using that knowledge to diversify our product portfolio.

Broadening Our Offerings through Customer Touchpoints

We rang in 2008 with a deep commitment to diversifying our product line and playing a larger role in helping our business customers succeed. By then, our platform was highly evolved, enabling us to integrate new applications (both proprietary and external) and introduce new services to our customers.

We have been able to grow our applications and services business tremendously. Whether it's website-related applications, marketing consulting, security services, communications or one of our more than 60 other offerings, we are quickly becoming a staple in the management of our customers' businesses. Today, up to 40% of our base has purchased two or more products and the average revenue per customer has increased dramatically.

Personalization and the Future

With more than 4 million domains under management, Endurance now has the privilege of serving nearly 2 million small-business customers, providing multiple online services and acting as a trusted IT advisor. Our global team of 1200 full-time employees and contractors spans the USA, Canada, Philippines, India, United Kingdom and Ukraine.

While larger than the old band of 20, the commitment to our customers and high performance standards remain unchanged. Our entire team works relentlessly to help our small-business customers succeed. We add nearly a million new small businesses a year; and each day, we look for new and innovative ways to help them leverage the web to run their businesses better.

As we move forward, we are beginning to provide customers with more personalized market information and applications that address their specific vertical business needs, along with ways to increase revenue and achieve success via the Internet. We are developing strong relationships with open source providers that will enable us to launch several new, integrated applications. We will harness the power of our platform and knowledge of individual customers to make these tools accessible to customers so they can more effectively manage their businesses and increase their revenues.