CONTACT:
John Masterson
Modwest
(406) 541-4678
jmasterson@modwest.com
www.modwest.com
WEB HOSTING COMPANY THRIVES AFTER DOT-COM APOCALYPSE
Company uses open-source ammo to compete with Goliath
(Missoula, MT, February 19, 2002) – Rising from the ashes of the dot-com crash, one relative newcomer to the web hosting industry has had no trouble generating actual revenue.
The founders of Modwest first began developing a plan to offer shared and managed web hosting early in 2000, while still employed by large over-funded venture-backed experiments that eventually folded.
Says co-founder John Masterson, “It was a model I knew we could execute well. And powerful open-source technologies allowed us to get our CRM, security, and server administration infrastructure up and running in a matter of weeks.”
Despite a limited marketing budget, Modwest’s customer base has grown rapidly since December 2000, and the company has been going strong ever since.
Building a web hosting firm on a bootstrap budget—combined with the experience of working for a venture-backed managed hosting company with a burn rate of millions per month—taught the team the real value of money.
“We don’t require our customers to subsidize expensive server monitoring packages, for example. It simply makes no financial sense to us, when comparable open-source packages are available for free,” says Masterson.
“In the current economic environment, Modwest understands the importance of time, ease of use, and the bottom line to our customers.”
Relying on innovative combinations of complementary software is only part of the equation however. Modwest is still small enough to move quickly and reply to customer queries in a matter of hours, not days. They've also developed sophisticated technology to maintain a secure and scalable hosting infrastructure.
“We’re planning for continued rapid growth,” says Masterson. “Our customers really seem to appreciate us, and we acquire a large percentage of our new customers every month based on word of mouth alone.”
With a stripped-down business model that’s suited for these leaner times, Modwest may prove to be a classic success story: building a straightforward hosting infrastructure business, operating within their means, and exceeding customer expectations.
About Modwest
Modwest is a provider of shared and managed outsourced hosting services. Founded in early 2000 by Internet veterans focused on user interface design, server administration, web application development, and e-business management, Modwest specializes in open source platform hosting and development. For more information, visit the company’s website at www.modwest.com.
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Copyright 2002, Modwest Inc. All rights reserved.
