Kevin Ryan, former CEO of DoubleClick online advertising firm and one of the original 1990’s Internet pioneers, has been on a tear of late.
Last week, Ryan’s Web 2.0 social shopping start-up ShopWiki secured a $6.2 million round of private equity funding from Generation Partners.
(See Kevin Ryan ShopWiki interview, “DoubleClick veteran Kevin Ryan wants to pay you $50 for your video" and “ShopWiki attracts $6.2 million in funding”)
Today, Ryan is announcing $6 million in funding from Greylock Partners for his Internet infrastructure start-up, Panther Express.
At Panther Express, Ryan is partnering with fellow DoubleClick veteran Dwight Merriman, as he partners with Merriman in ShopWiki. ShopWiki and Panther Express, however, are run independently as separate, stand alone businesses.
In conjunction with the funding, Bill Helman, General Partner of Greylock Partners, will join Panther’s Board of Directors. Helman said of Panther Express:
Panther Express is superbly positioned in a valuable and growing market. Businesses small and large are understandably eager to embrace a viable low-cost option for content delivery. With an outstanding team and a novel cost-saving infrastructure, Panther is a compelling alternative to existing CDNs.
While ShopWiki targets Web 2.0 social consumer intangibles such as “community” and “sharing,” Panther Express targets the straight forward needs of Web-based businesses to optimize their content delivery.
I spoke with Ryan about his plans for the Panther Express content delivery network.
At Panther Express, Ryan applies Internet infrastructure lessons learned at DoubleClick. According to Ryan:
Panther Express brings ten years of Internet delivery best practices to a CDN with top-tier performance and lowest-in-market costs. We allow companies who rely on the Internet to focus on growing their businesses, not their infrastructure and technology costs.
Panther Express presents a succinct value proposition to client prospects:
High-performance worldwide static content delivery services at lowest-in-market prices
Easy, risk-free business terms: no annual terms or monthly minimums, half page user agreement, best price guarantee
World Class Support - all experts
Platform leverages latest technologies, cost efficiencies and advances, architecture started with a clean-slate for better pricing and performance
Details of the Panther Express infrastructure and business development strategies follow.
SYSTEMS
Linux
High ratio of memory to machine
Node Configurat: 16GB RAM, 800GB RAID, dual Opteron CPUs
Backend system redundancy across multiple locations
No software license costsNETWORKING
37 globally distributed points of presence
17 gbps of bandwidth capacity
13 domestic and international ISPsDNS
Anycast from each PoP – high performance DNS routing
Excellent DNS performance and availability (esp. for DDoS attacks)BUSINESS TERMS
No annual terms
No monthly minimums
Half page user agreement
Best price guarantee
No exclusivity
