Melissa Chang
Founder & President
melissa.chang@pureincubation.com
Melissa Chang has been an Internet entrepreneur for 10 years, and her career boasts an impressive track record of innovation and early entry into various Internet markets and models.
Chang started her online career as the Executive Editor for Publish magazine, where she converted a print magazine about graphic design to an online, revenue-producing Web site centered on the Internet communication market. In 2001, she helped to found the eBusiness Communication Association, one of the first social networking sites on the Internet that encouraged collaboration and communication between high-level eBusiness and IT professionals.
From there, Chang co-founded Internet start-up Connexus Media, where she served as Vice President of Product Development. Connexus was comprised of a network of more than 50 vertical Web sites in various IT niches that utilized technology buying guides, lead generation tactics and dynamic directory technology to build an audience. It was with Connexus that Melissa became an expert in vertical and paid search business models, search engine optimization techniques, audience development and international outsourcing.
Ziff Davis acquired Connexus in 2004, and Chang became the director of product development for the Ziff Davis Web Buyer’s Guide, an online directory of IT products, services and resources, a product that she and her team built from scratch. The WBG serves more than 1,000,000 technology buyers with more than 70,000 information resources, including detailed product information, white papers, case studies, product reviews, lab reports, podcasts and webinars. She helped grow the WBG from $0 to $7 million per year in revenue before leaving to found Pure Incubation in 2007.
Early in her career, Melissa was the Managing Editor for Let’s Go, a travel guide series that relied heavily on user-generated content and was run solely by entrepreneurial Harvard students. She got her introduction to the IT market through a stint at IDG’s Network World magazine. Melissa is a graduate of Harvard University.
Barry
Harrigan
Chairman
barry.harrigan@pureincubation.com
For the past 25 years, Barry Harrigan has split his time between starting and operating his own ventures and working as an intrepreneur for some very special corporate sponsors. His focus is on Internet & media businesses and on demand creation strategies for Information Technology and other complex sales.
Barry is currently working as a mentor, strategic advisor and chief agitator to many smart entrepreneurs and operators. He focuses primarily on emerging companies that can benefit from his experience and where he can create substantial value. Harrigan is focused on servicing select markets - including Internet, media and technology companies - where he is an advisor, board member or investor. He is also the Chairman of Pure Incubation, an early-stage Internet company that has created platform technologies to support the social buying process for media companies.
Previously, Barry worked as the SVP Strategy & Product Development at Ziff Davis Enterprise. In this corporate role, Harrigan definited the business strategy for ZDE across all product lines, including: Internet [eWeek.com and 30 additional sites], Demand Generation [video, strategic content services, eSeminars, Virtual Trade Shows, Lead Generation Services, WebBuyersGuide], face-to-face events, and print media [eWeek Magazine, Baseline, CIOInsight - and their digital editions], International extensions, content licensing, the development of a Technology Suite (SPARK, ACCELERATE & SCORE), and related professional services.
Barry founded the Web Buyer's Guide in 2005 to establish the world's most comprehensive information service serving IT buying research. The WBG now serves more than 1,000,000 technology buyers with more than 70,000 information resources, including detailed product information, white papers, case studies, product reviews, lab reports, podcasts and webinars.
Barry founded Connexus Media, Inc.in 2002, which was a roll-up strategy designed to acquire and launch vertical market technology Web sites, newsletters and buyers guides. Barry established more than 50 technology media properties before selling the firm to Ziff Davis Media in 2004.
Barry has served on advisory boards for many of the world's leading technology firms, including Apple Computer and IBM. He has inspired innovation and thought leadership in the areas of marketing communications and media with a passion for entrepreneurship and emerging technologies. Barry's track record for innovation can be traced throughout his career.
Barry was President and CEO for International Data Group's Publish Media business unit. Barry focused on launching new business programs designed to meet the information needs of Internet strategists and an emerging e-Business market. Barry created a successful turnaround strategy by re-positioning IDG's Publish brand; then founded the e-Business Communication Association which attracted 500,000 world-wide members and created the company's first lead generation services. Barry had earlier founded the National Association of Desktop Publishers, Desktop Publishers Journal and Publishing and Multimedia, which chronicled these technologies for more than 10 years before being combined with IDG's Publish Magazine.
Earlier in his career, Barry was a successful entrepreneur and business operator focused on the development of marketing service firms. Barry served as President of MarketLynx, a $50MM database marketing, lead generation and custom publishing company where his clients included B2B marketing firms American Express, Dun & Bradstreet and Lucent Technologies; and as the lead executive in the launch for Nynex's first online Yellow Page business directory - BigYellow.com. Barry also founded Self Employed Professional and CASHFLOW magazines which were later combined with INC Magazine; Advanced Computer Graphics Inc, to reduce the complexity of the print production process; and Studio Direct Inc, the first commercial digital photo studio and catalog production facility to accelerate the sales cycles, most notably, for CitiBank, Gerber and Reebok, where he reduced catalog production cycles from many months to a few days.
Barry earned a BS in marketing and a BA in communications from Babson College in Wellesley, MA, and studied sociology and psychology as a graduate student at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA.