LoudClick: Our Story
Happy Together
Maybe some history would be in order. Alex Huff (LoudClick CEO) started in the technology business many years ago in a land far, far away....yup that's how geeky he can be. Seriously, having spent loads of time in the computer lab at university, Alex starting his tech journey in 1996 building websites. He played the whole "you tell me what you want/I'll build you a website/you'll try to make it happen" game for several years quite successfully. He created lots of great things and learned lots of skills but it always nagged him that it took so much effort to: a) find the right tech people to get the job done and b) have people feel comfortable with their website - enough to participate in its care and feeding.

Along the way, he met Kristin Hortenbach (LoudClick President), a smart as a whip (with a tongue to match) education student. Kristin finished her Masters and started the whole teaching gig while occasionally helping Alex with various projects - mostly helping people learn how to use Alex's latest and greatest idea.

Also along the way, Paul Konrardy (LoudClick COO) came into the picture as a client. His extreme yes-I-can-turn-on-a-computer-and-that's-about-it technical skillset provided both Kristin and Alex a good laugh (and they still do enjoy torturing him) but also a great opportunity to see what a novice could do given the right tools.

Here's where we enter into the technology which led to LoudClick. Paul's non-profit organization had an urgent need to get its message out while relying on an individual who may not have the necessary technical skills (but could write pretty well and was willing to learn). With the product at the time (a precursor to LoudClick which shared the same basic technology), there was the ability to have a non-technical person take the job of webmaster and make it happen without a ton of training. However, it took lots of time and money to set up and maintain.

Once up and running though, we were off and running on a 3 year adventure. The organization's website began with about 50 pages and grew into a behemoth of some 5000 pages (someday we may throw all the stats together - for now let's just say it was hugely successful and often described as the best website in its industry).

Of course that amount of information could not be gathered alone - it took a team of several people. The beauty of the system that became LoudClick (and what LoudClick now offers) was the ability to share publishing rights with several people. This allowed the organization to have several people adding current information simultaneously - an almost impossible task for one individual to do. LoudClick takes this relatively easy-to-use shared publishing capability, adds automated set-up/delivery and voila' - a system that allows everyday people to build websites together without a bunch of technical skill. LoudClick goes a long way toward solving one of the web's biggest problems - access.

Eventually, when the stars aligned, Kristin was ready for a new challenge, Paul was available and Alex was going nuts with great ideas so the time came for the team to create the vision Alex had come up with so many years before: LoudClick. They found lots of helpers along the way including generous investors, an amazing technical development group and off they went...happy together. (yes, I am off to the dentist to get rid of the cavity that last super sweet statement gave me...;-)