In the News

SecondFloor Wins Prestigious BASES e-Challenge

July 1, 2007 - When J.J. McCarthy (Stanford Graduate School of Business) and Michael Kassoff (Stanford PhD Student, Computer Science) decided to enter the BASES e-Challenge, they had no illusions of actually winning first place. “We were very focused on building the company, and we worried it would become too much of a distraction. It was only at the last minute that we decided to enter,” recalls Michael Kassoff, co-founder and CTO. “The primary attraction of the contest in our minds was the opportunity to vet our business plan with so many of the area’s best entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. That we ended up winning the $25,000 and the trophy at the end was really a pleasant surprise,” adds J.J. McCarthy, co-founder and CEO.

Vet the plan, they did. J.J. and Michael, along with their third co-founder, Dr. Michael Genesereth, iterated with prospective clients, advisors, and investors over the nine-month contest, launching an alpha version of their service in the Fall of 2006. According to McCarthy, “the most valuable thing we did in those early days was launch something. In hindsight, it hardly mattered what we launched: it only mattered that there was something to act as a straw man in our conversations with future clients and business partners.” Apparently, all of those conversations have paid off. By the time the company arrived to present its business plan pitch in the BASES finals, it already had 17 active clients and significant interest from several venture firms, including every firm that was represented on the judges’ panel.

What’s next for SecondFloor? “Now the real fun begins,” says McCarthy. “Hopefully, we’ll raise a little money, keep improving our service, and convince manufacturers and retailers that SecondFloor is the place to be.”