DoubleClick Expanded Into 25 Countries Before Its First Was Profitable

Kevin Ryan encountered the Internet through a 1994 Businessweek article titled “The Internet.” Before then, his career had moved between finance and operations: he studied economics at Yale, worked in investment banking, and took an operations role at Euro Disney. The project involved managing hotels as part of a launch that Ryan described as 15,000 hotel rooms and 50,000 people a day. He said those experiences gave him a grounding in business and finance, and in the practical demands of running a large operation.

Ryan later returned to New York as CFO of a 180-person division of United Media. He managed 50 people and oversaw both operations and finance. The division was a turnaround, and Ryan said it made substantially more money. The role was a major step up for him: he was now CFO and COO, but he had also decided he did not want to keep working for large companies.

The Businessweek article introduced a different kind of opportunity. Ryan remembers thinking that the Internet could let people communicate, send messages and buy things. The promise stood out even though, as he recalled, there was no browser yet. In 1995, he used United Media’s intellectual property to launch a Dilbert website. Its comic strips, links and store made the new medium a practical business experiment, not just an idea.

The Dilbert site drew substantial traffic, Ryan said, because technically knowledgeable people could access the Internet without a browser. United Media had comics and merchandise to sell, and Ryan began selling advertising as well. The first ad was hardcoded onto the page; IBM bought a two-week placement. Ryan made up the price on the spot because there was no established market for this kind of ad.

The site also sold T-shirts, ties and other merchandise. Within a year, Ryan considered the business successful enough to make a larger proposal to the parent company: invest a couple of million dollars to build an Internet division that could serve other companies. He believed United Media had a head start because it had already built a working site and learned how to sell on it.

A traditional-media executive Ryan described as smart and nice rejected the proposal, saying the company would wait for “the next internet.” Ryan recalled thinking there was no next Internet and that the executive was out of touch with what was happening. He also remembered that the executive was about the same age Ryan is now, 61 or 62.

Ryan took the rejection as a reason to leave, not to abandon his thesis. His conviction came from watching behavior change: more people were getting online, no one seemed to be going offline, and users were beginning to shop and use maps. The larger shift, as he saw it, was that people could buy things and access content from anywhere—capabilities that had not existed before. He considered the direction obvious, even while the market was still early.

Ryan decided to start an Internet company. In a small industry, his year of experience with the Dilbert site made him unusually experienced. People in Silicon Valley wanted him to join existing companies, including Excite; Ryan did not say that Excite itself made him an offer. Instead, he joined DoubleClick, which two technically strong founders had started six months earlier. He wanted to remain in New York and believed the company could succeed.

Ryan joined as the tenth or twelfth employee, initially as CFO, then became president and CEO. Asked what helped him rise into that role, he said he felt like a founder even though he was not technically one. He focused on the company’s success and adapted quickly to making decisions. His financial background—comfort with numbers and with understanding a business’s fundamentals—sat alongside an operational willingness to act before every uncertainty was resolved.

That combination shaped DoubleClick’s expansion. The company opened offices in 25 countries during its first three years, while competitors were in only six. The reach helped it win large clients: Microsoft and Procter & Gamble wanted a partner operating across many countries. Ryan said smaller companies then followed because those large customers were already working with DoubleClick.

The strategy carried risk. DoubleClick entered 20 countries before its first country was profitable. Ryan acknowledged that the approach could have looked reckless if it had failed, and said the company made mistakes along the way. But he connected its eventual position as the world leader in its field to fast decisions, understanding the numbers and willingness to take risks. He estimated that DoubleClick, if still independent, would be worth $100 billion today.