FastWeb + Larry Organ, Leon Heller, Bob Michelson, Tom Lubin, Mark Ward

FastWeb.com provides a free search for students to find college scholarships, internships and degree programs that match their criteria. More than 32 million students have created accounts since the web site's inception.

FastWeb began as a product of Student Services Inc, a company founded in 1993 by Larry Organ. Student Services was a direct-mail scholarship search. For a fee, college students mailed in a completed questionnaires and received back a list of scholarships they were be eligible for. FastWeb was launched as an online version of this service in 1995. A year later Leon Heller and a group of investors bought the company from its founder. In 1999, FastWeb acquired FinAid.org. Tom Lubin became president of FastWeb and developed a CPA (cost per action) advertising model, propelling the company to profitability.

In 2001 FastWeb was bought by Monster Worldwide (which was then known as TMP Worldwide) for $60 million. FastWeb’s CPA advertising model was applied to Monster’s network of Internet properties including Monster.com. Today, more than 1 in 3 college students use FastWeb’s free online scholarship search, and the Chicago-based team led by Mark Ward manages various advertising-based businesses for Monster.

Dimensions:  ~75 people x  11 years x $NDA but parent company, Monster, had $1B in 2005
Funding: Founders then group of private investors in 1995
Customers: Students trying to choose a college, pay for college, or choose a career
Location: Chicago [Downtown] + www.fastweb.com