Intro Networks

Mark Sylvester created Intro Networks in 2003 as a showcase project for Macromedia at the TED conference. The inspiration was elegantly simple: Chris Anderson, who had just acquired TED, wanted conference attendees to maintain their relationships throughout the year rather than losing them the moment they left. As Mark notes, "the half-life of that, the conference meetup... is by the time you get on the plane, you've forgotten those people's names." He built a platform designed around a matching engine—technology that could intelligently identify the best people to work together based on hard skills, soft skills, experience, and industry expertise.

What started as a technology demo became something attendees fell in love with immediately. "All of a sudden we had people at TED saying, oh, you guys made that thing that connected us, could you make that for us?" Mark recalls. Companies like Polaroid and other major brands reached out requesting custom versions for their own organizations.

The early traction came directly from the TED launch itself. Attendees who experienced the platform organically wanted it for their own enterprises, making word-of-mouth from an extremely high-quality audience (global leaders, innovators, entrepreneurs) the primary customer acquisition channel. Mark's existing credibility as co-founder of Wavefront and contributor to Maya's development also helped establish enterprise trust.

The pricing model evolved around the enterprise reality: individual users won't pay $10/month, but organizations will. So Mark pivoted to selling directly to enterprises on a per-seat basis. TED itself bought 200+ seats; other early customers included NASA (for their Professional Development Network for Teachers, run pro bono), beauty companies with global R&D labs, and organizations focused on economic development and urban health.

The matching engine proved to be the defensible core. A large beauty company, for instance, used it to connect their 25 R&D labs (2,000 employees) globally, enabling conversations about product differences across skin types and ethnicities—insights that wouldn't surface without intelligent matching. NASA used it to keep educators connected on STEM education. Mark discovered that while employees ignored newsletters and blogs, they engaged deeply with podcasts—a realization that led him to add podcasting as a community engagement layer.

The company scaled to 50 customer logos with approximately 150,000 seats and around 1 million in monthly recurring revenue (with some discounts applied). The blended revenue per customer averaged around $20,000 per month. Growth was steady at 15% year-over-year, a "healthy model" in Mark's words, driven entirely by enterprise direct sales and referrals from satisfied customers.

Intro Networks has become a specialized platform for Fortune 500 companies, non-profits, and global organizations seeking to drive cultural change through connection. Mark raised $4.1 million in total capital across multiple rounds to fuel growth and product development. Now in his mid-60s and approaching his 65th birthday, Mark continues to run the company with the discipline of someone who meditates 751+ consecutive days—a practice he credits with keeping him sharp. The company continues to grow and innovate, exploring new ways to keep dispersed teams and communities engaged beyond the core matching and networking features.