Hard times: A dot-com that survived the wave

Published 7:48 am Thursday, October 23, 2008

It was the height of the Internet boom, when dot-com start-ups were hosting epic parties with ice vodka slides and hiring pricey interior decorators to glam up their offices.

Stefan McIntosh was 26 years old. He was young, and money seemed to be flowing like the tide in Puget Sound.

“You didn’t even really have to have a solid business plan,” McIntosh said. “If you had an idea that sounded new and interesting then there were probably people that would fund you.”

McIntosh and a friend decided to strike out on their own. Luminous Creative, a Web design, graphics and branding agency, opened its doors early in 1997. The partners took things six months at a time, reviewing their progress at the end of each increment.

Sure, there was big money to be had. Owners of Web start-ups, often young and brazenly optimistic, offered stock instead of cash to pay for Luminous services.

Sometimes, McIntosh took the bait. But most often, it didn’t feel right.

“There wasn’t a whole lot of substance to a lot of these businesses,” he said.

Many Web companies went public before turning a profit. It was inevitable that the frenzy would fizzle once reality set in, and it did. There’s still something valuable about business done face-to-face, and for erstwhile Web geniuses who had purchased luxury cars and suburban mansions, the sand began to shift.

That’s when McIntosh breathed a sigh of relief. He’d waded through the early years without getting ensnared in greed. Luminous lost out on some hollow tech-bubble stock, but for the most part, emerged unscathed.

More than a decade later, Luminous is on solid ground. Contracts with ESPN, T-Mobile, the city of Everett and other clients bring steady income.

That’s what feeds families, McIntosh said. The dot-com bubble offered little more than empty calories.

Reporter Krista J. Kapralos: 425-339-3422 or kkapralos@heraldnet.com.