Alex Algard

Alex Algard is an Internet entrepreneur. He is the founder and former CEO of Hiya, Ekata and the founder and former CEO of Whitepages.com, and CarDomain.

Alex Algard
Born1974 (age 48–49)[1]
Stockholm, Sweden
Alma materStanford University
OccupationBusinessman
Known forCo-founder of CarDomain.com (1998)
Founder of Whitepages.com (1996)
CEO of Hiya (2016)

Biography

His father was Swedish and his mother was Korean.[2]

Algard has a BA degree in Economics (1996) and a MS degree in Engineering (1998) from Stanford University.[3][4]

Career

Algard founded Whitepages in 1996 after purchasing the domain name for $900. He began the business by developing an online database of public phone directory information. The website began generating revenue through advertisements, that reached $66 million a year by 2008.[5] Algard also created an Internet community called CarDomain Network with a high school friend in 1999.[6] The site facilitated communication between niche car enthusiasts.[7]

In 2010 Whitepages' two biggest clients, Yellowpages.com and Superpages.com, cut their expenditures after Google ventured into local business searches. Subsequently, when profits plummeted, the company's investors became agitated, and Algard bought out Whitepages' investors for $80m. Algard pledged his assets, savings accounts and his family's home to the bank to raise the extra $30m in capital required for the buyout. In the spring of 2016, Algard created a new company to identify mobile phone spammers and robocalls and to ensure that important calls were not missed.[8] He named the organization Hiya. Deals with T-mobile and Samsung, as well as a Balderton Capital-led series A round followed.[2][9]

Personal life

When he was a teenager, his family moved to Vancouver, B.C.[10][2]

References
  1. "Algard, Klas Alexander Companies House Profile". Companies House. Retrieved 2022-11-01.
  2. Feldman, Amy (August 23, 2016)"Alex Algard Risked Everything To Turn His Struggling Firm, Whitepages, Into A Growing Tech Company Forbes.com". Forbes. Retrieved Apr 26, 2017.
  3. Feldman, Amy (September 9, 2016). "White Pages Founder Alex Algard Gives Up CEO Slot There To Focus On Caller ID Spinoff". Forbes.
  4. Day, Matt (September 16, 2016). "Whitepages gets new CEO as founder steps down to focus on spinout company". Seattle Times.
  5. Broberg, Brad (September 30, 2007). "Founder returns to Whitepages.com". GeekWire.
  6. Fried, John (2006-01-01). "Things I Can't Live Without: Alex Algard". Inc. Retrieved 2022-11-02.
  7. Tedecshi, Bob (2006-10-25). "Where Car Nuts Chit Chat and Share their Photographs". The New York Times. Retrieved 2022-11-02.
  8. Fund, Brian (2019-01-29). "Report: Americans got 26.3 billion robocalls last year, up 46 percent from 2017". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2022-11-02.
  9. Feldman, Amy (2017-10-19). "At Whitepages, Alex Algard Bought Out His VCs. Now At Hiya He's Raised $18M To Fight Phone Spam". Forbes. Retrieved 2022-11-02.
  10. Feldman, Amy (August 3, 2016). "Alex Algard risked everything to turn his struggling firm Whitepages into a growing tech company". Forbes.
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