E-commerce has been a passion of mine for 20 years.
In the early 90s, before the Web, I used an Internet BBS at Bindco (my prior company) to receive on demand printing and fulfillment orders from my clients.
In the mid 90s, Bindco manufactured the physical browser software required for the Web pioneer Mosaic (which became Netscape) to launch the World Wide Web. Since Bindco had already been using the boring Internet for e-commerce, I immediately realized that the Web would revolutionize e-commerce just like the GUI did for DOS.
Shortly after Mosaic’s launch, I met Bill McKiernan who had recently started CyberSource to provide Web-based order processing and software downloads. We quickly partnered and began offering turnkey solutions using their e-commerce technology and Bindco’s manufacturing and fulfillment. One of our projects, HP’s first e-commerce site, was so successful that it was featured in Time and Business Week.
In 1999, e-commerce was an integral part of my Gung-Ho ”virtual company” model which utilized the Internet to integrate our clients’ orders with our disparate brick-and-mortar suppliers to provide best-in-class software manufacturing and fulfillment solutions.
In our first year, we developed our GENIE system and processed over 20,000 H&R Block orders comprised of more than 2,200,000 TaxCut software kits in more than 150,000 shipping cartons with a variance in only 5 kits – better than 99.99999% fulfillment accuracy.
Today, Gung-Ho is launching its own e-commerce microsites within vertical niche markets.
The first site launched, BusinessPlanPrinting.com, provides on demand, low cost, premium quality, simply elegant, professional business plans that “stand out from the crowd” and help entrepreneurs bring their ideas to life.
The second site, Physical River, provides an automated process to manufacture and ship our clients’ manuals and discs to their customers that order them on an optional basis. We manage the entire process, our clients get a hassle-free revenue stream, and their customers get the physical products they desire.
