Internet Entrepreneurs, The

Rapid growth for eBay

The enthusiastic response from web users presented difficult managerial and technical challenges for the young company.

'From an organizational perspective it was very difficult,' recalls Omidyar. 'We grew very, very rapidly in terms of employees, and after the IPO of September 1998 we grew even faster.

'Then there were the acquisitions – we bought a few companies, and integrating them into the core operations is always a challenge for a company. But when you do it in an environment where your core business is growing, say, 10 percent a month or something like that, it's pretty phenomenal, it is challenging.'

Omidyar and his first employee Jeff Skoll, turned to Meg Whitman, a former senior executive with Hambro and Disney, ...