Flashline

In 1998, as the dot-com boom was nearing its peak, a founder in Cleveland, Ohio, had his eyes on a different problem. Charles Stack founded Flashline not to sell to consumers, but to solve a growing issue for developers: the inefficiency of writing the same code over and over again. Joined by David Inglis, the company set out to build a platform for software component reuse. The core idea was straightforward. Flashline created a repository where companies could store, manage, and share software assets. This meant a developer at a large enterprise could grab a pre-built, vetted piece of code instead of starting from scratch, saving significant time and money. The company provided the technology to track and govern these assets, a critical piece of infrastructure for the emerging trend of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA). Despite the dot-com crash, Flashline successfully raised capital, securing $11 million in a 2002 venture round. This funding allowed them to build out their product and team. Their journey reached its logical conclusion in August 2006 when enterprise software giant BEA Systems announced it was acquiring Flashline for an undisclosed sum. BEA integrated Flashline’s technology directly into its AquaLogic product suite, rebranding it as the BEA AquaLogic Enterprise Repository. It was a classic strategic acquisition, giving the small Cleveland company's technology a central role inside a major industry player.