Divine interVentures put a red Japanese koi on the cover of its prospectus and a family of startups behind it. Andrew "Flip" Filipowski, who had built Platinum Technology before Computer Associates bought it, founded the Chicago-area company in May 1999. Within a year it had 265 employees and stakes in a web of business-to-business internet companies. In July 2000 it asked the public for money to feed them all, just as the dot-com market began to crack.

Platinum Veterans Build a Family

Filipowski brought Platinum colleagues Michael Cullinane and Paul Humenansky with him as top executives. They called their model the divine family. Associated companies were grouped as infrastructure service providers, market makers and other businesses, and they shared services, staff and customers. Divine took stakes in each one. The bet was that a network of linked startups, run by experienced operators, would grow faster together than any could alone.

Nine Dollars to Bankruptcy

Divine sold 14.3 million Class A shares at $9 each in July 2000 and listed on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol DVIN. The stock sank as the dot-com bust wiped out many of its associated companies. The company shortened its name to divine and bought struggling software and services firms, trying to rebuild as an enterprise technology company. It filed for bankruptcy in February 2003 and sold off its pieces.

Cover: Tobias and the Angel, Jean Charles Cazin. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for an angel (divine).