Five Questions For: Goowy's Alex Bard

By Stephen Bryant (Original article) April 25, 2006 Interview: Goowy.com's CEO talks about the webtop's new features and receiving financing (not to mention free tickets) from Mark Cuban.

Remember way back in 2005, when Web 2.0 was the hottest buzzword and companies were falling all over themselves to make AJAX desktops? While most of those companies offered similar features—inbound RSS feeds, drag-and-drop modules—a company named Goowy offered users something different. Instead of building an AJAX start page, Goowy developed a Flash-based "webtop" that offered e-mail, video games, and robust customization options for power users. The goal, said CEO Alex Bard, was to design a Web-based system that wouldn't just be a start page, but an immersive online environment. That strategy seems to have paid off so far. Goowy, which has less than 10 employees, boasts about 100,000 active users. And on April 25, Goowy announced a new feature set, and said that it received a first round of funding from investors led by Mark Cuban. The amount of funding was not disclosed. We caught up with Alex Bard to talk with him about Goowy's new features and their funding. Click to view edited version of that conversation.

Comments

[Danny]

I found a link to your site on the Flash website and I've been using the service since. It's really great and I always get the feel you're improving the site, even though there are a few difficulties with the school's ability to keep Flash 8 installed. (I have to install it every time before I login but download time is low usually so it's worth it. I still have yet to see if the Flash 7 version works better.) (yeah I'm a high school freshman) And with it there are some problems with content fitting into the window. But Goowy shows promise of surpassing Hotmail, etc. in functions, if you haven't already. If the free service on Hotmail allowed POP3 then I'd use you exclusively. You rock! Thanks.