Adrian Tear

Category: First Virtual Group plc

  • ExactMedia

    ExactMedia

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    ExactMedia Limited was co-founded in 2000 with the involvement of Adrian Tear and Tony Sellen – through their incubator, First Virtual Group plc – and others in the media, public relations and Internet industries.

    At the dawn of targeted advertising on the Web, ExactMedia incentivised consumers to complete demographic and interests questionnaires while providing a performant ad server that could also target advertisements based on users’ answers.

    Adrian designed a Question Engine which could define questions and scripts (sets of questions) in the database.

    The questions, or scripts, could be embedded within the GoldenCarrots website to collect user data.

    The various components of the offering, although well-developed, never really took off, leaving this as yet another development in the What might have been category.

    When you remember that Google bought DoubleClick for $3.1 billion in March 2008, and that Momentive (the maker of Survey Monkey) was acquired for $1.5 billion in May 2023, the failure to commercialise ExactMedia may be considered somewhat unfortunate…

    We were definitely on to something!

  • LeadHat

    LeadHat

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    Lead Hat Limited offered Internet and Web consultancy, design, hosting and web applications development.

    The website was one of several designed around this time by Pete McDonagh at Codesign.it, who Adrian had met while working on the 2000 London Election project.

    With a strong technical offering, Lead Hat offered a number of computing technologies for website development, including:

    • ColdFusion
    • Microsoft Active Server Pages
    • PHP
    • Microsoft SQL Server
    • MySQL
    • Oracle
    • C, C++

    Owned 20% by FirstVirtual Group plc the company started offering web development services in 2000, just a few months before the ‘dot com crash’ of March to October that year partially wiped out demand for its services.

    Despite the ‘dot com crash’ Lead Hat picked up some good clients and had notable success with:

    • 2001 UK General Election – A website developed in partnership with the Daily Telegraph newspaper to cover the UK General Election of that year.
    • Wild Bunch – A website and content management system for the film distribution company.

    In 2002, having had a lean time in the web development services business, Adrian Tear and Tony Sellen abandoned this sector in favour of developing consumer websites of their own.

    The new business, Allegran Limited – founded in 2002, went on to develop lottery, dating and property websites. It was sold to Daily Mail General Holdings three years later in an eight figure deal.

  • First Virtual

    First Virtual

    Visit now!
    , ,

    FirstVirtual Group plc was a ‘technical incubator’ established by Adrian Tear and Tony Sellen following their exit from Business Geographics Limited in 2000. The business aimed to take shareholdings in exchange for development work; sweat for equity.

    The website was one of several designed around this time by Pete McDonagh at Codesign.it, who Adrian had met while working on the 2000 London Election project.

    The ‘dot com crash’ of March to October 2000 didn’t exactly help First Virtual Group along but two projects did get off the ground:

    • Lead Hat Limited – An investment in a web development company led by Adrian Marshall.
    • Exactmedia Limited – An investment in an online marketing and rewards company.

    Faced with the partial collapse in demand for online development, and difficulty in fund-raising, Tear and Sellen abandoned the concept of web development for third parties’ and set about developing profitable consumer web sites for themselves.

    The new business, Allegran Limited – founded in 2002, went on to develop lottery, dating and property web sites. It was sold to Daily Mail General Holdings three years later in an eight figure deal.

  • Lead Hat Limited

    Lead Hat Limited

    , , ,

    Founded by Adrian Marshall in 2000 and 20% owned by FirstVirtual Group plc, Lead Hat Limited started offering database-driven web development services in 2000, just a few months before the ‘dot com crash’ of March to October that year partially wiped out demand for its services.

    Lead Hat Limited was a full service Internet agency providing everything from server hosting through to brand management, system design and implementation.

    Despite the ‘dot com crash’ Lead Hat picked up some good clients and had notable success with the 2001 UK General Election website, a fine arts auction website and a database-driven website for film distributors Wild Bunch.

    • UK General Election – 2001

      UK General Election – 2001

      The 2001 United Kingdom General Election was held on Thursday 7 June 2001. Having produced a ground-breaking website for the 1997 UK General Election, Adrian and his colleagues were keen to repeat the exercise for 2001. Some of the data from 1997 could be re-used in the 2001 website, e.g., to calculate swings, while a…

    • LeadHat

      LeadHat

      Lead Hat Limited offered Internet and Web consultancy, design, hosting and web applications development. The website was one of several designed around this time by Pete McDonagh at Codesign.it, who Adrian had met while working on the 2000 London Election project. With a strong technical offering, Lead Hat offered a number of computing technologies for…

    In 2002, having had a lean time in the web development services business, Adrian Tear and Tony Sellen abandoned this sector in favour of developing consumer websites of their own.

    The new business, Allegran Limited – founded in 2002, went on to develop lottery, dating and property websites. It was sold to Daily Mail General Holdings three years later in an eight figure deal.

  • First Virtual Group plc

    First Virtual Group plc

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    Following their exit from Business Geographics Limited in 2000 Adrian Tear and Tony Sellen went on to co-found FirstVirtual Group plc.

    FirstVirtual Group aimed to be a ‘technical incubator’ taking shareholding in exchange for development work; sweat for equity.

    The ‘plc’ (Public Limited Company) in the company name sounded grand but wasn’t. The company was not listed on any stock exchange and, at the time, it was much easier to establish a plc at Companies House, even though the filing requirements were more onerous.

    • First Virtual

      First Virtual

      FirstVirtual Group plc was a ‘technical incubator’ established by Adrian Tear and Tony Sellen following their exit from Business Geographics Limited in 2000. The business aimed to take shareholdings in exchange for development work; sweat for equity. The website was one of several designed around this time by Pete McDonagh at Codesign.it, who Adrian had…

    • LeadHat

      LeadHat

      Lead Hat Limited offered Internet and Web consultancy, design, hosting and web applications development. The website was one of several designed around this time by Pete McDonagh at Codesign.it, who Adrian had met while working on the 2000 London Election project. With a strong technical offering, Lead Hat offered a number of computing technologies for…

    • ExactMedia

      ExactMedia

      ExactMedia Limited was co-founded in 2000 with the involvement of Adrian Tear and Tony Sellen – through their incubator, First Virtual Group plc – and others in the media, public relations and Internet industries. At the dawn of targeted advertising on the Web, ExactMedia incentivised consumers to complete demographic and interests questionnaires while providing a…

    The ‘dot com crash’ of March to October 2000 didn’t exactly help First Virtual Group along but two projects did get off the ground:

    • Lead Hat Limited – An investment in a web development company led by Adrian Marshall.
    • Exactmedia Limited – An investment in an online marketing and rewards company.

    Faced with the partial collapse in demand for online development, and difficulty in fund-raising, Tear and Sellen abandoned the concept of web development for third parties’ and set about developing profitable consumer websites for themselves.

    The new business, Allegran Limited – founded in 2002, went on to develop lottery, dating and property websites. It was sold to Daily Mail General Holdings three years later in an eight figure deal.