Web Dev Empire Builds $15M

James Altucher shares how he built and sold a web development company during the early days of the internet in the mid-1990s.

"I was working at HBO making their website in 1995, earning $40,000 a year. At that time, companies didn't even know what this internet web thing was. Here's what would happen: American Express would call Arthur Andersen, their accounting firm, and say 'Can you make us a website?' Arthur Andersen would say 'Sure, we're going to charge you millions of dollars.' Arthur Andersen would then call another software consulting company, who would charge them a million. That company would call me because nobody knew how to make websites in 1994-1995.

My brother-in-law and I would get paid $250,000 to make American Express's website. We made websites for HBO, Warner Brothers, Sony, Disney, BMG, all the record labels - every gangster rap record label: Bad Boy, Loud Records, Jive, Death Row, Interscope. We did the movies for The Matrix and many others.

The websites were very heavy in design - big heavy images and animations using Flash. They weren't as functional or easy to navigate as websites are now, but they were admired back then.

I sold the company to a business that was rolling up web agencies in 1998. Their stock went from 3 to 48, and I cashed out at the peak with about $15 million in actual cash. I was smart enough to know the web design development business was going away because they were teaching how to make websites in junior high school classes, so I got out at the right time."