Raskin also details how Akamai’s relentless demands on Lewin nearly destroyed his marriage. For instance, we learn how the prospect of landing as a customer kicked off an internal debate on the wisdom of working with adult-entertainment businesses. She’s talked to dozens of colleagues and family members, and occasionally roots out some unexpected details. Lewin came through with a new method for delivering Web pages and was headed for a round of West Coast sales calls when he climbed aboard Flight 11. Just as important, the company needed to replenish its client list. To survive, Akamai needed a superior way to manage data traffic. Meanwhile, rival firms had begun to mimic Akamai’s performance-boosting technology. The very next year, the air began seeping from the tech bubble Akamai’s share price began to slide, and dozens of small “dot-com” businesses who’d signed up as customers started going bankrupt. Less than a year later, Akamai began selling stock to the public on paper, the company was worth $13 billion, and Lewin himself held a $1.8 billion stake. Lewin, now married with two young kids and desperate for money, was especially eager to make something of his innovation.Īn effort to win $50,000 in an MIT contest for new business ideas fell short, but Lewin and Leighton did end up making crucial contacts who’d help finance a company based on their technology.Īkamai launched in late 1998, just as Internet usage was entering the mainstream of American life, and investors backed even the silliest Internet start-ups with billions of dollars. Both men realized it was too good an idea to languish on a whiteboard. There he teamed with professor Tom Leighton to develop mathematical models for efficiently routing vast quantities of Internet data. After the army, Lewin studied at Israel’s scientific university Technion, then returned to the United States to pursue a doctorate from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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