Glen Meakem
Founder & CEO of Forever, Inc.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Overview
Work Experience
Founder & CEO
2013 - Current
I thought of the idea for Forever because there was no other place on the internet to permanently organize, save and share all of my family memories. So in 2013, I went to work on building the world's first permanent online media storage and sharing service. Forever is a "place" in the internet cloud where you can collect, organize, save, and share all your memories -- photos, videos, documents, and audio files -- now and for generations to come. Unlike other services, at Forever you own all of your digital content and have complete control over what happens to it during your lifetime and for generations after you are gone. You can save everything in full resolution and our web, mobile and desktop apps are integrated so you can collect, see, share, and curate your memories across all your devices. There is no data mining or advertising on Forever. We offer you security and peace of mind. Forever is your secure, private, and permanent digital home. As CEO, I lead an amazing team of innovators who are building, marketing, operating and managing Forever on a daily basis. My team and I are dedicated to serving our members extremely well, and in the process building a unique, durable, and highly valuable company.
President
2008 - 2015
In 2008, I started a successful, syndicated weekend news talk radio program called "Glen Meakem on the Weekend." As of early 2015, this two hour live Saturday morning program was carried on 16 radio stations, iHeart Radio, and available at glenmeakem.com, with approximately 200,000 listeners each weekend. My radio show was always a part-time effort (a hobby business). After seven terrific years, I stopped broadcasting "Glen Meakem on the Weekend" in order to focus 100% of my professional energy on Forever.com.
Managing Director
2005 - 2012
Co-Founded and built a venture capital firm focused on early-stage technology investing. Our fund, Meakem Becker Venture Capital I (MBVC), was a $75 million, year 2006 vintage, fund which completed its investment period at the end of 2012 and closed successfully in 2020. MBVC performed in the top quartile of all 2006 venture funds. At MBVC, my partners and I invested successfully in a number of technology startups, including Kiva Systems (sold to Amazon in 2012), Hotpads (sold to Zillow in 2012), Shipwire (sold to Ingram Micro in 2013), CloudMeter (sold to Splunk in 2013), and Schoology (sold to PowerSchool in 2019).
Co-Founder and Executive Chairman
2003 - 2004
Managed our Board of Directors, guided company strategy and maintained relationships with key enterprise customers. Work resulted in sale of company to Ariba, Inc. for approximately $500 million.
Co-Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
1995 - 2004
FreeMarkets was a leading B2B e-commerce company. We helped major companies save huge amounts of money by automating and improving their industrial sourcing processes using the Internet and supporting professional services. Our clients included United Technologies, Emerson, General Motors, Royal Bank of Scotland, Tata Motors, China Light and Power, Alcoa, and many others. I co-founded the company in early 1995. leading strategy, financing, the specification of our early software, marketing and sales. By 1999, my team and I had grown the company to over $1 billion in transaction volume on our site and over $20 million of GAAP revenues. We took the company public in December 1999 in a record setting IPO and quickly achieved a market cap of over $10 billion. FreeMarkets survived the year 2000 technology bubble burst, growing to close to $200 million in revenue by 2002. I was succeeded as CEO in 2003 and we merged the company into Ariba in the summer of 2004.
Second Lieutenant, First Lieutenant, then Captain
1986 - 1996
Commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the US Army Reserve after graduating from Harvard. Then attended Engineer Officer Basic Course full-time, graduating at the end of 1986. Served Four years in active reserve units, then volunteered and served in the Persian Gulf War (Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm). Was a Combat Engineer Platoon Leader during the war in northern Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Promoted to Captain after returning to the United States and served in the Reserve until 1996.
Manager, Corporate Business Development
1994 - 1995
Worked on Jack Welch's staff as a member of GE's internal consulting team. Most important project was the creation and leadership of the "GE Global Electronic Marketplace" -- the world's first downward price auction marketplace on the Internet.
GE Intelligent Platforms is a global provider of software, hardware, services, and embedded computing platforms.
Associate
1992 - 1994
Worked on and led consulting projects for major corporations in the energy, insurance, consumer products, and technology industries. Clients were based in the United States and Mexico. Topics included purchasing and supply management, business strategy, and operations improvement.
Product Management Positions of Increasing Responsibility
1987 - 1989
I worked in Product Management for what was then called Kraft General Foods. Receiving classic consumer marketing training, over the course of two and a half years, I directly managed or influenced volume forecasting, pricing, advertising, changes to positioning, and new product introductions for Jell-o gelatin and pudding and various sub-brands and line extensions.
Education
MBA
1989 - 1991
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) cum laude
1982 - 1986