Original Godfathers of San Diego Tech

By Andrea Siedsma

Photos: Neal Bloom

Urchin Software, WebSideStory, MP3.com – these were some of the original godfathers of San Diego’s tech community during the region’s dot-com and startup explosion in the mid-1990s-to-early 2000s.

These fast-growing and sometimes notorious companies carved a path for future generations of successful tech companies that still call San Diego home. Indeed, the local tech mafia family keeps growing. The “Dons” who ran the close-knit San Diego tech community back in the day have continued to create, lead, or invest in ideas that have turned into some really sweet companies – from analytics to AI, digital media and entertainment, social networking platforms, digital health, a $1 billion real estate investment platform, and more.

As a homage to our ongoing tech “mafia” series, we decided to get these OG’s together and have some fun. Take a look at the photo galleries below.

Urchin Software/Google Analytics

Launched in 1995, Urchin Software Corp. was run by a group of 20-something analytics pioneers in a small office in San Diego’s Little Italy neighborhood.  The company was acquired about 10 years later by Google and relaunched as Google Analytics. Read their story here.

Click on and scroll through the Urchin mafia photo gallery below.

L to R: Paul Muret, Brett Crosby, Scott Crosby (not pictured: Jack Ancone)

MP3.com

Well, what can we say about MP3.com that hasn’t been said already?  Read our multi-part series on MP3.com and the digital music scene amped by the radical entrepreneurs and the culture they created locally. Part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4.

Click on and scroll through the MP3.com mafia photo gallery below.

L to R: David Gilby, Bruce Worman, Josh Stephens, Greg Flores, Chris Montgomery, Sander van Zoest, Derrick Oien, David Podolsky, Dan O’Neil, Michael Robertson

WebSideStory

WebSideStory’s analytics pioneers rose out of the dot-com bust of the early 2000’s and went on to build some extraordinary companies. Read part 1, part 2 and part 3.

Click on and scroll through the WebSideStory photo gallery below.

L to R: Mike Anderson, Ray Rauch, Chris Reid, Meyar Sheik, Ali Behnam, Agnes Barrelet, Blaise Barrelet (not pictured: Jeff Lunsford)

Big shout out to the Red Tracton’s Steakhouse in Del Mar for letting us do a tech mafia takeover for some of these photo shoots. Also, props to photographer extraordinaire Collin Chappelle for his amazing editing skills.

Editor’s note: Want to know what other “mafia” groups are still strong-arming the SD tech scene? Stay tuned to Fresh Brewed Tech and we’ll tell you.

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