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July 20, 2000

ClassMates.com

Fast Facts logo

ClassMates.com

WHO:
A Web site founded in 1996 by Randy Conrads

WHAT:
Helps former high school classmates find each another

WHERE:
Renton

Fast Fact #1: Randy Conrads quit a job at Boeing to devote all his energy to ClassMates.com.

Comment: He was a contract manager with 21 years of seniority -- and two college-age children. "When I left, everybody thought I was crazy," says Conrad. Nevertheless, he was convinced he could make money using the Internet to reunite high school classmates. "I believed if you could get big, it would work," he says. After spending 18 months working at Boeing during the day and on ClassMates.com at night, he decided to focus exclusively on ClassMates -- and his wife agreed.

Conrads
Conrads

Fast Fact #2: Conrads got the idea for ClassMates.com after trying to find a long-lost high school buddy.

Comment: The two had performed together in a rock band called The People. Conrads' mother suggested the band's name. Since so many bands at that time had names like The Animals, The Beatles and The Turtles, his mother said, "Why don't you just be people?"

Fast Fact #3: Approximately 7.6 million high school grads are registered at ClassMates.com.

Comment: Although Conrads didn't create his Web site until 1996, he had started compiling his data base in 1994. Inspired by ads in print publications and on the Internet, people would add their names to Conrads' directory and search his data base for their high school contemporaries -- all via e-mail. Before launching the Web site, Conrads had only about 50,000 names. When he responded to search requests, "most often ... it was your own name back at you," he says. But growth snowballed. Today, ClassMates is the largest online community of high school alums and the 68th most popular overall site on the Web, according to Nielson/Net Ratings.

Fast Fact #4: Registration is free.

Comment: Registration allows people to enter their name in the data base. However, to search for classmates, they must pay a $30 annual membership fee. "I've been told from the very beginning that I'll never make it ... because I charge," says Conrads. "But we're the biggest and we're making money."

Conrads says ClassMates' has several hundred thousand members.

Fast Fact #5: Classmates.com turned a profit in 1998.

Comment: "In those days, you weren't supposed to tell anybody that," says Conrads. "The idea was that if you were making money, you weren't going to grow." Of course, there's some truth to that. For the last two years ClassMates has focused on expansion at the expense of black ink. Conrad expects to return to profitability by early next year.

Fast Fact #6: ClassMates conducted two rounds of fund raising last year.

Comment: Angel investors provided $1.5 million and three venture capital firms later supplied $11 million. "We had what the VCs like to call traction," says Conrads, who remains president. "If they put money in, they knew they were going to get growth." Conrads says an IPO remains a possibility.

Fast Fact #7: ClassMates recently acquired Yearbook Archives.

Comment: Yearbook Archives is a collection of high school annuals in which celebrities appear. ClassMates sells copies of the photos, mostly to the print media, but also makes samples available to members on its Web site. In addition, Classmates has a data base of military personnel and is considering adding a directory of teachers. However, it isn't eager to add college grads. Colleges already have well-established alumni associations to help grads stay connected, says Conrads.

Fast Fact #8: ClassMates hosts 30,000 free message boards.

Comment: That's one for virtually every high school in the U.S. and Canada -- including some that no longer exist, says Conrads. Approximately 120,000 people a day use the message boards, he says.

Fast Fact #9: ClassMates.com often receives thank you letters.

Comments: People appreciate being able to renew old friendships, says Conrads, recalling the thrill he got when he finally found his old rock 'n' roll buddy. Conrads says some people have located their birth parents or even gotten married as a result of connections made through ClassMates.

Fast Fact #10: ClassMates hosted a party for 300 members last weekend in Las Vegas.

Comment: "It's an experiment for us to see if we can come out of cyberspace and talk to people in the real world," says Conrads. The party provided people who didn't want to wait for an official reunion a means to hook up with high school friends from around the country. In the future, ClassMates may sponsor similar parties tailored to various regions, says Conrads.



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