E.piphany's co-founder Steve Blank later wrote a famous book on how startups find customers. His own company sold software to do just that for large ones. It pulled data from a company's existing systems, built a profile of each customer, and let marketers design campaigns around what they found. When it went public in September 1999, every big business wanted to know its customers online the way a corner shop knew its regulars.

From Data to Campaigns

Eliot Wegbreit and Steve Blank started the company in November 1996 as Epiphany Marketing Automation. It took the name E.piphany in April 1999. Its E.4 System gathered customer data that was scattered across a company's software and outside sources. Marketers could see who bought what, then plan and run campaigns aimed at each group. E.piphany sold licenses to large and medium businesses, plus consulting and support.

Sixteen Dollars, Then a Long Fall

E.piphany priced its IPO at $16 a share on September 22, 1999, and listed on Nasdaq as EPNY. The stock soared in its first months, as investors chased anything tied to the web. It fell hard after the crash, and larger rivals like Siebel and Oracle crowded the market. In 2005 SSA Global, a business software maker, bought E.piphany, and the company left the public market that September.

Cover: Adoration of the Magi, Francesco Brizio. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for the Epiphany (the Magi's moment of revelation).