John Little '80 was working on a project at the computer science building in the spring of 1977 when a 13-year-old boy took him across Olden Street to demonstrate the newest computer technology — the Internet's predecessor, the Advanced Research Project Agency's Net, which is also known as the Arpanet.
Dialing up on a primitive machine and using a simple modem, Little was amazed at their ability to access several government-run information resources.
As soon as Little realized what he was seeing, he knew that the technology would some day change the world. Eighteen years later in 1985, Little changed the world himself when he founded Portal Software, Inc., the world's first Internet startup, before the Web was even invented.
"We were the first . . . in any field," he said of his company, which sells billing software to Internet-based companies and offers other services. "The first 12 years were pretty slow, but the last three were explosive."
University support
The University was a contributor to Portal's initial success, investing $4.5 million of endowment money in January 1998. However, the University's shares in Portal have grown to a worth of $260 million, by far its largest and best performing investment made to date, managing director of Nassau Capital William Stewart said.
Stewart met Little at the Accel Partners CEO Conference in December 1997 and said that Portal had everything that they look for in a company. "The company is the dominant provider in a large market. [Little] is a great CEO, and he also had assembled a terrific management team underneath him," Stewart said.
With more money behind it, Portal experienced some success, but it remained a small company and did not go public until last May when, according to Little, its management, strategies and goals were in place.
"I wanted to be able to make our mistakes in private," he noted. "We were a very mature company by the time we went public. Our market capital was the same as Netscape's at the time."
Little said his strategy paid off, as Portal's value has increased more than 10 times since its initial public offering. The company employed 371 people in May of last year — today, Portal employs 701 workers, including 356 employees with options worth $1 million or more, Portal public relations representative Gina Mozingo said.
"Everybody who was with us at the beginning of last year really made out, even the receptionists," Little said. "We say that after 15 years, we're an overnight success."
Starting out
Little was always interested in new technology, and although he began learning about computers in the Boy Scouts, his first opportunity to use one was at the University. And he has given back to his alma mater with the endowment's phenomenal success.
"I'm trying to get [the University] to change my report card, or at least name the stadium after me," Little quipped.
He remembers seeing the Arpanet for the first time as a sophomore at the University. "It could provide instant connectivity to everyone on the planet," he said. "My question was what could I personally do with it."
It was in the early 1980s when Little traveled to France and discovered "the missing piece" to his personal challenge in a company called Mini-tele, which was completely independent of the Internet. The company had set up terminals in French households that served as electronic phone books and also provided advertisements, combining the delivery of information to consumers with publicity for businesses.
"Mini-tele allowed people to make money instead of the government controlling everything," Little explained.
According to Little, Mini-tele rapidly expanded its services beyond electronic phone books by providing additional consumer resources. He thought the Internet would eventually do the same thing.
"I thought that the only way that people would get involved was in anticipation of returns in the future," Little said. "New companies would continue to spring up and create competition."
Little wanted to develop a program that would be "the gateway for all businesses to get connected to the network," he explained. Portal does just that by offering information services about customers who visit its clients' Websites. In addition, Portal allows its clients to communicate more easily with the customers.
The software keeps track of the number of times a user hits an Internet service provider's Website and enters his name and password.
"It's something that nobody thinks about, but everyone needs," Little said. "Companies don't realize they need it. Then they're desperate, and they come to us. Desperation is always a good way to sell things to people."
Portal is now bigger than all its competitors combined and connects the people in the Internet and communication business in more than 30 countries, including US West, MCI Worldcom, NTT in Japan and Deutchtele in Germany.
'Computer stuff'
Little graduated from the University as a computer science major but said he took as few computer classes as possible because he wanted to receive a well-rounded liberal arts education.
"It was a smart thing to do because I am doing something that nobody's ever done before," he said. "Most of the computer stuff is out of date by the time you graduate."
After graduation Little was hired as a consultant for Bell Labs — a hotbed of technological innovation at the time — where he worked on developing video text that would display computer information on a regular television.
However, realizing that he was 14 levels from the top — and he wasn't even at the bottom — he learned that he did not want to continue working for a sizeable company. Little was self-employed for four years and finally decided to rent a truck and drive across the country to Silicon Valley in California.
"It is an amazing place, everything you need is right there," Little said. "I have never seen another place like this in the world."
Still working to make money as a consultant in Silicon Valley, Little and Phil Sih '79, who later left to work on his own, started Portal as a side project. To Little and others working close to the development of the Internet at the time, it seemed like it would take off "any day." But some were not so sure.
"People would be very polite but would admit that they thought we were all crazy," he said.
At Princeton, Little was a member of the re-founded University Elm Club and participated in the karate club and orchestra.
He will visit campus April 5 to give a lecture titled, "All I needed to know I learned at Princeton, or after 15 years in business I'm an overnight success," as part of the Gilbert Lecture Series.
G.F. Beckwith Gilbert '63 established the series in 1988 in order to bring entrepreneurs in leadership positions to the University to speak about their companies. Last year, the series sponsored a speech by Meg Whitman '77, CEO of eBay. The speech will be in McCosh 10 at 7 p.m.
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