Affinity Internet helped small businesses establish an internet presence by selling packaged services that included website design, hosting, and marketing. Conceived in 1998 as a web hosting roll-up, the company raised $60m from 📝JPMorgan, Columbia Capital, and others in a single round and acquired four companies within six months, growing from 0 to 170 employees in the year that followed.
The company built out customer care and data centers, integrated the acquired operations, and raised an additional $13m to buy the hosting division out of a bankrupt CLEC — a move that nearly tripled revenue. Affinity Internet sold to Hostway in 2005, a combination that formed what was then the largest web hosting company in the United States.
I co-founded Affinity Internet and served as CFO, building it alongside my Harvard Business School classmate 📝John McIntyre — we sketched the whole rollup at our 1998 Christmas gathering before raising a dollar.