The Google of Engineering Content? - ' Extreme Makeover ' (
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EXTREME MAKEOVER
Perhaps the most important
change GlobalSpec has made
came in 2004, when Killeen and
Schneiter lit on an idea that would
take the company to another level:
Engineering Web, a vertical search
engine that indexes hundreds of
millions of pages of engineering
content from the open Web as well
as from a variety of proprietary
content publishers.
Killeen and Schneiter envisioned
Engineering Web as a platform
that would serve as an online
community for engineers—"the
place," Killeen and Schneiter called
it. This was an ambitious undertaking.
The company drew down
another $1.5 million in venture
money, bringing the total it had
received from Warburg Pincus to
$31 million. It was also time-consuming
in that GlobalSpec had to
partner with numerous technical
organizations such as Micropatent
(now part of the Thompson
Group), which retains a large database
of patent information, and
HIS, which maintains databases on engineering standards, to
make their databases available on Engineering Web.
"This is all about building a community over time," Killeen
says. "We didn't expect an immediate financial windfall. We
also wanted the community to become scaled enough and
vibrant enough so our users will say, 'It's a real place.'"
It was a year and a half before GlobalSpec began rolling out
its next commercial offering, a suite of product area-specific
e-newsletters supported by advertising. It also began selling ads
on its Web site. "We went to the community and said, 'Take a
look at our newsletters,'" Killeen says. "'Would you object to
seeing relevant ads flow through the site?' If we had that at the
beginning, it would have been beyond annoying."
By gaining the trust of the community first, GlobalSpec
ensured that the newsletters would be readily accepted. In
18 months the company built up to 5.8 million subscriptions
including 2.3 million unique subscribers, Killeen says.
In June, the company launched Industrial Ad NetworkSM,
an online banner ad network designed to reach the manufacturing,
industrial, technical and engineering communities.
GlobalSpec has been profitable since early 2006. It has an
I/PRO-audited Web site with more than 3.6 million registered
users worldwide, a five-year revenue growth rate of 69% compounded
annually; a user community that's growing by more
than 80,000 new registrants a month; and 225 employees.
"People often refer to us as the Google of engineering content,"
Killeen says. "I can't think of higher praise."
GlobalSpec Base Case
Headquarters: 350 Jordan Road, Troy, NY 12180
Phone: (518) 880-0200
URL: www.globalspec.com
Business: GlobalSpec is a specialized vertical search,
information services and e-publishing company serving
the engineering, manufacturing and related scientific
and technical markets.
CEO: Jeffrey Killeen
CTO: Stephen MacMinn
Financials in 2006: NA (privately held)
Challenge: To be recognized by the worldwide engineering
community as the preeminent online research
resource
BASELINE GOALS:
Add 80,000 or more new registrants each month
Have 3,000 advertising clients by the end of 2007
Increase number of registered users to 6 million
within the next few years
Projects: Processes 
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