Matt Cutler and Eric Richard, NetGenesis

For Matt Cutler and Eric Richard, both 27, choosing the name NetGenesis for their technology venture made perfect sense. After all, they both have been plugging away on computers since before the Web became popular.

"My family bought an Apple IIe when they were brand- new," Cutler says. "Like Eric, I've had a computer since I was about 10 years old."

Prior to starting NetGenesis in 1995, Richard worked at IBM's Almaden Research Center. Cutler ran IT support for an insurance company in Connecticut while still in high school. The two met at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and formed NetGenesis before they graduated in 1995.

"We had very early exposure to the Internet," Richard says. "We wanted to educate companies on the Web and how to use it."

Richard took the position of NetGenesis' CTO and Cutler became chief e-business intelligence officer. In the beginning, Cutler says there was some skepticism about younger IT architects. But eventually, the issue became knowledge, not age.

"We said, 'This is going to be enormous--we should start a business,'" Cutler recalls. "We were making these wild predictions in meetings, saying someday everybody is going to have an e-mail address on their business cards."

Initially, NetGenesis focused on consulting services, which Cutler calls "forever ago" in IT history. Then, in 1996, NetGenesis added software solutions. The company's flagship product, also called NetGenesis, collects and analyzes e-customer data. Coupled with the company's professional services division and Analytics Consulting group, NetGenesis is helping to transform raw data into marketing initiatives and customer-management strategies for clients.

The company has aligned with IBM, Netscape, Oracle and Sun Microsystems and generated annual sales of $6.7 million. That's an increase of 251 percent from one year ago, and Richard and Cutler are brimming with excitement about what the next decade will bring for them and NetGenesis.

"This industry is never boring because there are always new things to learn and new challenges," Richard says. His advice for those who wish to follow in his footsteps: "Don't go into IT because it's big business. Do it for the challenge of creating something new."