case study · 1997 — 2002

Intira Corporation

Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Intira — St. Louis · New York · California

Founded Intira to add data centers onto the SAVVIS network design — and built the first company ever to sell cloud computing as a service ('Netsourcing'), running customers' infrastructure end to end.

⊕ The mandate

First ever to sell cloud computing as a service (Netsourcing)
Raised CAPCO seed funding led by Stifel Nicolaus
Closed $30M financing from Ascend and Cascade Communications
Built 3 data centers (Missouri, New York, California); $1.7M/month revenue

⚔ The hard problem

Funding and building three data centers and an entirely new 'cloud-as-a-service' business model — one of the most capital-intensive bets in early hosting.

◆ Outcomes

The original cloud-computing-as-a-service company
Intira → Data Return → Terremark (NASDAQ: TMRK) → Verizon for ~$1.6B
Design, topology, and GTM strategy stayed intact for 15+ years

⚙ Focus areas

Data Centers
Cloud as a Service
Netsourcing
Enterprise Infrastructure