publications events
04/17/2000 – Amazing Growth
Growth of Grass Valley Firm Amazes Founders
April 17, 2000—Grass Valley, CA
The silicon revolution has hit the gold country.
In an old, unassuming brick building on Mill Street, hanging lights cast circles of dim illumination on the figures below: website designers and builders, hovering over their screens, more of them each month. tristream, a small internet marketing and communications firm, has experienced dazzling growth.
In sixteen months tristream has expanded from 7 employees to 31, a pace that threatens to burst the walls of their already cramped office space, four times as large as the previous one. "We outgrow each space long before we think," reflects Joseph Selbie, CEO. "Our revenues have more than quadrupled."
Not long ago tristream (under the name Trillium) occupied a small storefront opposite the Holbrook Hotel on Main Street. Now it occupies a vault-like area behind Jack’s Internet Cafe.
"This phenomenal growth has been fueled by Silicon Valley dot-com fever," said Joseph. "We’re hiring so fast and rearranging so often that we’ve put everything on wheels. An employee can move his work space in half an hour."
While tristream has attracted local clients (notably Telestream, Inc.), most of the company’s business comes from the Bay Area. In February tristream opened its San Francisco field office to expand its services there. There is certainly no relocation planned, however.
Bill Fehr, SVP of Client Services, says that tristream is here to stay. "It's the trees. It's the rivers. It's the people. Grass Valley provides a pool of talent that is truly world class. Tristream people come from San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles; from Harvard, NYU, and the Art Center College in Pasadena."
The firm is expanding its available space at home and looking for a 3-4,000 sq. ft. space in San Francisco by this summer. "We expect to have 50-60 employees by the end of the year," says Joseph. Another underestimate?