Founders at Work.pdf

C H A P T E R
15
Paul Graham
Cofounder, Viaweb
Paul Graham and his friend Robert Morris started
Viaweb in 1995 to make software for building online
stores. A few days into writing the first prototype,
they had a crazy idea: why not have the software run
on the server and let the user control it through their
browser?
Within weeks, they had a web-based online store
builder they could demo to investors. They launched
at the beginning of 1996.
Viaweb was one of the first companies to deliver
on the Web’s promise of creating a level playing field.
Using Viaweb’s software, small businesses could make online stores as good as
those built by big catalog companies. And many did: by 1998, Viaweb Store was
the most popular e-commerce software.
Viaweb was acquired by Yahoo in June 1998 and renamed Yahoo Store. In
2005, Graham cofounded Y Combinator, a seed-stage investment firm.
Livingston: You had a different startup before Viaweb, didn’t you? Can you tell
me a little about that?
Graham: Before Viaweb we had a startup called Artix. We were going to put art
galleries online. The problem was, art galleries didn’t want to be online. They
still don’t want to be online. We spent a long time trying to convince these
people to use something they didn’t want before we had the idea that maybe we
should make something people actually did want.
Livingston: You scrapped Artix and switched to making software for websites
for online stores?
Graham: Yeah. Actually, it’s pretty similar software. We realized that if we
could write software that could generate sites for galleries, we were only a shopping
cart away from generating online stores. Everyone seemed to want online
stores, so why not just do that instead?
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