Clark, Jim

views updated

Clark, Jim

(1944-)
myCFO, Inc.

Overview

James Clark is one of the most renowned and successful engineers and serial entrepreneurs of the Silicon Valley phenomenon. Clark is credited with co–founding and walking away from a trio of billion dollar companies: Silicon Graphics, Netscape Communications, and now WebMD. Clark is arguably the father of the modern–day Internet. After leaving the first company he created, pioneering the use of 3–D graphics, he and programming whiz Marc Andreessen sparked the Internet revolution with their Netscape Navigator browser. This browser software transformed the Internet from an elite domain of technocrats to a vastly important worldwide mass media. Now Clark's springboarding to services that take advantage of the worldwide web. First, he co–founded WebMD, a high profile web–based service for healthcare management. His latest start–ups include myCFO, Inc., a personal money management service; Shutterfly, an online photography site; and DNA Sciences, which studies genetics.

Personal Life

Clark and his third wife, Nancy, live in Woodside, California, and have two children. He lectures widely on technology and business developments in the computer field at major conferences and universities throughout the world. He received the Research Society of America's Annual Gold Medal in physics in 1970, the Annual Computer Graphics Achievement Award in 1984, and the Arthur Young and Company and Venture magazine's Entrepreneur of the Year award in 1988.

In the spring of 1996, Clark, who likes to sail and fly planes, began working with veteran yachtsman Paul Cayard to create a state–of–the–art racing yacht to win back the America's Cup for the United States at the turn of the century. The vessel, dubbed the Hyperion, is one of the largest sailboats in the world and is completely computerized with 25 Silicon Graphics workstations. It was during the building of Hyperion that Clark became enchanted by a Lunstroo Schooner and decided that his next yacht would have to be a modern classic. Clark then commissioned Athena, also from the Royal Huisman Shipyard, at 292 feet, and the massive vessel is scheduled for completion in 2004.

A native of Texas, Clark showed little academic promise as a child. He grew up in a single–parent home with few financial resources. He was a self–described hoodlum and was eventually expelled from school. When he joined the navy, Clark again found himself at odds with authority: he marked every question "yes" on a multiple–choice exam, since each one seemed at least partly correct. The navy accused him of trying to fool the computer that graded the tests. Clark had never heard of a computer before.

During Clark's naval stint, his intellectual talents began to emerge. Though he lacked academic training, he scored highest on a math exam and was assigned to teach algebra. Clark later went on to earn a bachelor of science degree in physics in 1970 and a master of science degree in physics in 1971 from Louisiana State University in New Orleans. As a graduate student, he was awarded the Research Society of America's 1971 Annual Gold Medal. In 1974, he completed a Ph.D. in computer science at the University of Utah. His doctoral thesis, the first implementation of what is today known as "virtual reality," focused on building special purpose hardware for graphics applications. In 1995, Clark received an honorary doctorate of science degree from the University of Utah.

From 1974 to 1978, Clark was an assistant professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz, and in 1979 he became associate professor at Stanford University. Even in the academic world, though, Clark's independent thinking sometimes got him into trouble. After he was fired from one teaching job for insubordination, his second wife filed for divorce.

Career Details

At Stanford, Clark and six graduate students worked at the Palo Alto Research Center on ways to enliven computer images with 3–dimensional graphics. They developed a microchip that Clark called the Geometry Engine. When no existing computer companies were interested in this new technology, Clark and his students, using venture capital, started their own computer workstation company, Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI) in Mountain View, California. The company's graphical systems appealed first to architects and engineers for use in designing buildings, cars, and rocket engines but soon became essential to filmmakers and animators. Silicon Graphics computers were used, for example, to create the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park and the special effects in countless other films. The workstations also were used by defense and aerospace contractors to train jet pilots and tank personnel.

Silicon Graphics thrived and moved into chip development for video game and interactive television markets, but Clark was frustrated in his attempts to accelerate the company's plans to make low–cost, high–volume hardware to connect with the burgeoning information highway. In a highly controversial move, Clark replaced his entire management team in 1984. SGI's profits continued to grow, from $5 million in 1984 to approximately $550 million in 1991. In March 1994, ready to move on, Clark resigned as chairman of the company.

For several months following his resignation from SGI, Clark contemplated investing in a number of business ventures. As he studied the computer technology field, he became fascinated with the Internet. He was especially intrigued with NCSA Mosaic, an exceptionally popular World Wide Web browser software prototype that had been developed by a team of student and staff computer programmers at the University of Illinois and distributed free on the Internet.

In a now legendary e–mail message, Clark, 50, contacted Marc Andreessen, Mosaic's 23–year–old creator, and asked if he would be interested in forming a company to create a commercially viable improved version of the Mosaic browser. In April 1994, Clark invested about $3 million in the new firm, which began life with three employees and offices in Mountain View. The new company originally was called Mosaic Communications Corporation but, after the University of Illinois contested the use of the name, the fledgling firm was renamed Netscape Communications.

By December 1994, Netscape had released its revolutionary browser, Netscape Navigator. Almost immediately, the new browser became the industry standard. Within only one or two months, Netscape claimed 70 percent of the browser market. It offered users speed, sophisticated graphics, and a special encryption code that secured their credit card transactions on the Internet. At first, the new browser faced virtually no competition; within a brief period, however, Microsoft rushed to jump on the Internet bandwagon and soon released its own browser software.

With Netscape's Navigator freely available to the public via downloading from the Internet, how does the company make a profit? It charges fees to create and maintain web servers for the sophisticated software businesses. The fees range from $1,500 to $50,000 for server versions of Navigator, depending on the complexity of a company's home page and the range of services provided to its customers. For businesses designed to conduct much of their business on the Internet, Netscape provides databases of online customers and the ability to secure credit card transactions. Netscape also offers users the option of purchasing the software and thereby receiving customer service.

Though Clark remained actively involved with Netscape, he picked an executive team to manage the company. James Barksdale, whom Clark recruited from McCaw Cellular, AT & T's wireless services division, became head of the company while Andreesen continued with research and development.

The company continues to race to keep ahead of industry giant Microsoft, which introduced its own browser, Internet Explorer, in 1995. Explorer also can be freely downloaded and comes bundled with the Microsoft Windows operating system. Netscape remains at the head of the pack, however, and solidified its lead when it became a subsidiary of America Online (AOL) in 1999. Netscape was the first browser to introduce Java, the programming language that animates web sites. It has also expanded its product line to include software that runs inside internal corporate networks.

Clark himself told the story of Netscape's birth and growth in his 1999 book, Netscape Time: The Making of the Billion–Dollar Start–up That Changed the World. Critics enjoyed the book's sharp writing and its insights into the machinations of the corporate world.

Chronology: Jim Clark

1944: Born.

1974: Completed Ph.D. in computer science at the University of Utah.

1981: Founded Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI).

1994: Resigned from SGI and formed Netscape Communications Corporation.

1995: Netscape stock jumped from $28 to more than $74 a share in one day.

1995: Developed Netscape Navigator, an Internet browser program.

1995: Stepped down as chief executive of Netscape but remained chairperson of the board.

1996: Founded Healtheon Corporation, an Internet–based health care service.

1998: Healtheon acquired ActaMed, an electronic databank, and Metis, a developer of online healthcare information services.

1999: Netscape acquired by America Online; announced merger of Healtheon and WebMD; negotiated successful I.P.O. for Healtheon.

1999: Authored Netscape Time: The Making of theBillion–Dollar Start–up That Changed the World.

In June 1996, Clark launched another successful company—Healtheon Corporation, which offers information services online to help medical insurance companies and employers better manage their paperwork. Healtheon reported $13.4 million in sales for 1997, a 21.6 percent growth from the previous year. In 1998, Healtheon acquired ActaMed and Metis, both Internet–based, health–related companies, and the following year the company announced plans to merge with WebMD, an online provider of medical information, in a deal reported to be worth more than $3.5 billion. By 1999, when Healtheon went public, the company was worth almost $100 million. Clark abruptly left WebMD in 2000.

Clark was key in the development of a new breed of serial entrepreneurs. Starting up companies, taking them public, and then leaving them, once considered a sign of failure, is now part of a booming trend in Silicon Valley. His newest project, announced in 1999, is my-CFO.com, a web site that will provide online financial services to its members. Clark expects myCFO.com to streamline tax preparation, pay bills, and provide quick financial updates. The service is available to individuals with assets of $100 million or more.

Social and Economic Impact

When Netscape made an initial public stock offering of 3.5 million shares on August 9, 1995, an unprecedented stock frenzy ensued. Investors bought the stock in record numbers. Opening at $28 a share, the stock closed at $74, making Netscape's market value $2.3 billion in just one day. By 1999, Clark's personal fortune was worth about $3 billion. That year, he donated $150 million to Stanford University—the biggest single gift in the university's history—for the creation of a biomedical engineering and science center. The Clark Center will occupy 225,000 square feet and will be located across the street from the William Gates Computer Science Building.

Leaving SGI was a risky move for Clark, who left behind 40,000 shares of stock. Speaking to Industry Week, Clark recalled, "It seemed a little crazy. No one thought you could build a business around the Internet, but my instincts were if there were 25 million people using it, there was a business to be built." Giving away the software to Netscape Navigator also proved to be a revolutionary idea. "People knew then that I was certifiably nuts—starting this company, hiring a bunch of students, and now giving the software away," Clark said.

By following his instincts, Clark built companies that generated huge profits and transformed business and technology. Silicon Graphics changed the way visual information could be communicated, paving the way for 3–D images and movie special effects. Netscape Navigator was instrumental in making the Internet user–friendly and helped to create the first online generation. Online functions that have become a part of daily life owe much to the pioneering talent of Jim Clark.