In 1999 a company's sales team, call center and website each kept their own records of the same customer, and none of them talked to each other. Broadbase sold software that pulled those records into one place and analyzed them. Its pitch was speed: customers could be up and running in less than 30 days. Founded in 1995 by Mark Kremer and backed by Benchmark Capital, the Menlo Park company went public in September 1999.

Data Marts for the Web Era

Kremer started Broadbase in November 1995 as BroadBase Information Systems. Its product, Broadbase EPM, sat on top of a company's existing systems and gave marketing, sales and service managers ready-made analysis of their customers. The bet was that the web would multiply the ways customers reached a company, and that businesses would pay to see them as one person again. Over 80 customers had licensed the software by its IPO.

Boom, Bust, Kana

Broadbase priced at $14 a share in September 1999 and listed on Nasdaq as BBSW. It rode the dot-com boom and bought other customer software firms with its soaring stock. When the bubble burst, its customers cut spending and the shares collapsed. In 2001 Broadbase merged with Kana Communications, a maker of customer service software, and the combined company took the Kana name.

Cover: Kogane Plain in Shimosa Province (Shimosa Koganehara), from the series "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fuji sanjurokkei)", Utagawa Hiroshige. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a broad plain under a wide sky.