Bootstrapping a Blogging Revolution: The Tale of Blogger Company's Meteoric Rise

In the early days of the internet, creating a website required knowledge of HTML and coding. Blogging changed that by allowing anyone to publish content online through easy-to-use platforms. The rise of blogging in the late 1990s coincided with the dot-com boom, when countless internet companies were formed. Seeing an opportunity, a group of friends came together in 1999 to create one of the first blog publishing platforms. That company was Blogger.

Blogger made it possible for anyone to have a blog and share their thoughts online. In an era when the web was still new and mysterious to many people, Blogger opened the doors of content creation and democratized publishing. Its launch marked a pivotal moment, leading to an explosion of personal blogs and online voices. Two decades later, Blogger's founding vision has been fully realized - blogging is now ubiquitous across the web. But in those early pioneering days, the platform's creation was far from certain. This is the story of how Blogger got its start and evolved from a simple side project into one of the most influential sites in internet history.

The Founders

Blogger was founded in 1999 by Evan Williams, Meg Hourihan, and Paul Bausch. The three founders each brought unique skills and experience to the company.

Evan Williams had previously worked at several internet companies in the 1990s, including O'Reilly Media and Intel. He had valuable technical skills and experience building online products.

Meg Hourihan was a programmer with expertise in web design. She helped drive the initial product design and front-end development of Blogger.

Paul Bausch had a background in computer science and web development. He handled much of the back-end coding and infrastructure for Blogger in the early days.

Together, the three founders complemented each other and laid the groundwork for Blogger's success. Evan Williams became CEO, Meg Hourihan was the lead designer, and Paul Bausch managed the technical architecture. Their combined skills in business, design, and engineering were instrumental in turning Blogger into a popular platform for creating and publishing weblogs.

The Original Idea

Blogger's founders, Evan Williams and Meg Hourihan, first crossed paths while working at the web design firm Pyra Labs in the late 1990s. At the time, publishing tools for personal websites were very limited, often requiring knowledge of HTML and web programming.

Williams and Hourihan envisioned a simpler blogging platform that would allow anyone to quickly publish content online. They aimed to make web publishing accessible for non-technical users.

Their initial idea was to create an intuitive interface and WYSIWYG editor to streamline posting blogs. Users could easily format text, add images, and publish posts without touching a line of code.

While services like LiveJournal and Xanga existed, Blogger stood out for its focus on simplicity and ease-of-use. The founders wanted to remove all friction from blogging and let users focus on their content.

The platform was designed for personal publishing and sharing ideas online. Williams and Hourihan recognized the potential for blogging to enable self-expression and connect people across the internet.

Building the Product

The early Blogger team consisted of lead engineer Paul Bausch, designer Evan Williams, and a few others. They worked out of Williams' small apartment in San Francisco in 1999.

Blogger was built using a combination of Python, Apache, and MySQL. The goal was to create an easy-to-use blogging platform where anyone could publish content online.

The first version of Blogger was very simple - it allowed users to write blog posts, publish them instantly, and view blog feeds. There was no WYSIWYG editor yet, so users had to write HTML by hand to format their posts.

Over the next year, the team rapidly iterated on the product based on user feedback. They added rich text editing, custom domains, and comment functionality. By late 2000, Blogger supported full blog feeds and permalinks for each post.

The simplicity of Blogger’s publishing model was revolutionary at the time. The team focused on speed and reliability as core product values. They wanted to reduce the friction of blogging as much as possible.

By early 2001, Blogger had become one of the most popular blogging platforms online. The easy publishing experience attracted all kinds of users, from casual diarists to professional journalists. This organic growth validated the fundamental product idea.

Securing Funding

Blogger's initial seed funding came from a small group of angel investors who believed in the founders' vision for democratizing publishing on the internet. The company raised $500,000 in its seed round which allowed them to build the initial product and start gaining some early users.

The founders then approached top-tier VC firms on Sand Hill Road for a Series A round. After pitching to several firms, they secured $5 million in funding from a prominent VC. This allowed Blogger to scale up their engineering team and roll out new features to attract more users. At this point, Blogger had proven product-market fit and had over 1 million monthly active users.

With rapid growth, Blogger then raised a $20 million Series B round led by a private equity firm, now valuing the company at over $100 million. The founders were deliberate about choosing investors who could provide strategic value in addition to capital. This funding supported even more growth, international expansion, and additional platform capabilities.

Blogger would go on to raise over $50 million more before being acquired by Google in 2003 for $25 million. The founders' ability to pitch their vision and build relationships with investors willing to back their ambitions was crucial to Blogger's rise. Their funding enabled key phases of product development and growth on the path to becoming a pioneering blogging platform.

Launch and Early Traction

Blogger was officially launched in 1999 by founders Evan Williams and Meg Hourihan. After months of development, they were eager to get their platform into the hands of users.

The initial launch was modest, with a few hundred users signing up in the first month. However, word quickly spread among early adopters of blogging who were looking for an easy way to publish online. Within six months, Blogger had several thousand active users creating blogs on the platform.

The simplicity and ease of use of Blogger generated significant buzz in the blogging community. Here was a tool that allowed anyone, even with limited technical skills, to start and maintain a blog. No need to deal with hosting, domains or complex software. This opened up blogging to a whole new segment of casual internet users.

Tech media outlets began taking notice of Blogger as adoption accelerated. Stories started popping up in tech publications like Wired, praising how Blogger was making blogging accessible. This media coverage only amplified interest and drove more user signups.

Within a year of launch, Blogger had firmly established itself as the leading blogging platform, disrupting the status quo of how people published on the internet. The trailblazing founders had successfully created a viral product that resonated with an emerging community of bloggers and readers. While challenges lay ahead, the launch and initial traction exceeded expectations, setting the stage for future growth.

Growth Challenges

The early years of Blogger were filled with tremendous growth, but this brought its own set of challenges. As more and more people signed up to create blogs on the platform, Blogger struggled to keep up with demand. Their servers were often overloaded, leading to slow page loads and frequent downtime. This frustrated many users who depended on the service to share their thoughts and connect with readers.

While trying to stabilize the infrastructure, Blogger also faced stiff competition from other blogging platforms that were emerging such as WordPress and Tumblr. These sites offered their own unique features and drew users away from Blogger. There was an existential crisis brewing about whether Blogger could keep up with innovation. Some pundits even predicted the demise of Blogger in the face of nimbler competitors.

However, the founders were determined to power through these obstacles. They made major investments in scaling up the infrastructure and rearchitecting the platform to sustain higher traffic volumes. On the product side, they rapidly built out features to match what other platforms offered, such as custom domains, premium themes, and multimedia embeds. This war on two fronts - technical and product - allowed Blogger to overcome the scaling challenges and remain competitive despite intensifying rivalry. The growth pains made the company stronger in the long run.

Key Milestones

Blogger experienced rapid growth in its early years. Just one year after launch in 2000, the company reached 300,000 registered users. By 2003, that number had jumped to over 1 million users.

Some key milestones in Blogger's growth include:

• 2004 - Blogger was acquired by Google. This provided more resources for product development and helped boost Blogger's user base.

• 2006 - Blogger launched its mobile blogging platform, allowing users to post from their phones. This opened up blogging to even more people.

• 2007 - Page views on Blogger reached over 4 billion per month. The platform was continuing to gain significant traction.

• 2011 - Blogger redesigned its dashboard and launched new templates to improve the blogging experience. This helped retain existing users.

• 2014 - Users created over 1 million new blogs per day on Blogger, showing the platform's dominance.

• 2021 - Blogger hits 250 million monthly active users, cementing its place as one of the world's most popular blogging platforms.

Through key acquisitions, product launches, and continual improvements, Blogger solidified its position as a leading blogging platform. It enabled millions of people to share their stories and perspectives with the world.

Impact and Legacy

Blogger has had a profound and lasting impact on the internet and content creation. It helped pioneer the concept of blogging and made it easy for anyone to share their thoughts online. This ushered in a new era of user-generated content and democratized publishing.

Before Blogger, creating an online presence required technical skills beyond most people's capabilities. Blogger changed that by providing a simple interface and tools. This enabled people across all backgrounds to make their voices heard. It gave rise to a vibrant community of bloggers covering every topic imaginable.

Blogger played a key role in the rise of blogging's popularity in the early 2000s. It provided an outlet for creativity and self-expression to flourish. The platform cultivated a generation of influencers and helped shape online culture. Many prominent bloggers got their start on Blogger before branching out.

The service fostered a sense of community, with features like follower counts and comments. Bloggers supported and learned from each other while finding their niche. Blogger created connections and conversations that otherwise wouldn't exist. It brought people together across geographical boundaries.

While blogging has evolved, Blogger's legacy lives on. The platform made sharing ideas online accessible for all. It proved the power of user-generated content and personal publishing. Blogger demonstrated that anyone has something valuable to contribute on the internet. Its influence reshaped the web and still impacts how people create and consume content today.

Present Day

Blogger has come a long way since its early beginnings in 1999. Today, it is owned by Google and continues to be one of the most popular blogging platforms on the web.

Blogger currently has over 200 million users worldwide. It offers users a simple yet powerful blogging platform to share their thoughts, ideas, stories, and more. The service is free to use and allows users to fully customize the design of their blogs.

Some of Blogger's key features today include:

• Custom domains - Users can connect their own domain names to their Blogger sites.

• Mobile support - Blogs are optimized for viewing and creating content on mobile devices.

• International availability - The platform supports blogs in numerous languages.

• Template customization - A variety of free templates allow users to tweak designs.

• SEO options - Features like meta tags and sitemaps help with search engine optimization.

• Community - An active community forum provides tips and support.

While many new blogging platforms have launched over the years, Blogger has retained a strong user base. Its simplicity, free access, and integration with Google services continue to make it a popular choice worldwide. With ongoing development and innovation, Blogger is poised to remain a key player in the blogging space for years to come.