Marchex was barely a year old when it went public. Its five founding officers, led by Russell Horowitz, had already built and sold one internet company: Go2Net, which merged into InfoSpace in 2000. They formed Marchex in Seattle in January 2003, put up the first money themselves, and bought two search marketing firms that same year. By its March 2004 IPO, Google's own offering was months away, and paid search ads were the hottest part of the web.

Buying Its Way In

Marchex grew by acquisition from day one. It bought Enhance Interactive, formerly ah-ha.com, in February 2003 and TrafficLeader in October 2003. Both helped merchants buy and manage search ads and pay-per-click listings. The founders still owned 71 percent of the company in late 2003. Horowitz had been chairman, CEO and CFO of Go2Net. The bet was that a team that had already ridden one internet wave could buy small search firms cheaply and stitch them together.

From Clicks to Calls

Marchex priced at $6.50 a share on March 31, 2004, and listed on Nasdaq as MCHX. It kept buying, including a large portfolio of web domain names. Over time it moved away from search ads toward call analytics, software that listens to and scores the sales calls that ads bring in. In 2026 it agreed to buy Archenia, Inc. Marchex is still public on Nasdaq.

Cover: March, Francesco Bartolozzi. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for an allegory of the month of March (Marchex).