The numbers behind the story.

A cash-flow business that grew a 60,000-account base over five years — adding accounts every single month — then sold at the top.

65,920

Total active accounts

$12.85M

Q4 annualized run-rate

60%^†

Calgary market share (est.)

56%

Revenue from business

April 2000

Sold to PSINet

Growth & Revenue

Built without external financing — growth funded entirely by cash flow.

The Climb

CADVision added accounts every single month — from its 3,000th subscriber in June 1995, past 10,000 in early 1996 and 38,000 by the end of 1997, to 65,920 accounts by the end of 1999.

The Run-Rate

By Q4 1999 the company was billing $3,437,329 a quarter; net of GST that’s about $12.85M a year — and roughly 56% of it came from businesses, not consumers.

Actually Profitable

Unlike most ISPs of the era — which burned investor cash to grow — CADVision made money from early on, on no external financing. Pre-tax cash flow climbed from $89K in 1995 to $1.3M in 1997; its profitability, the SaleBook noted, was “in marked contrast to most other ISPs.”

The Exit

CADVision sold to PSINet Canada — the deal closing in April 2000, the year its founder was named Entrepreneur of the Year.

Revenue and total accounts, 1995 → 2000

Fiscal-year revenue (left, September year-end) and total active accounts (right, actual month-end figures) · hover or tap any point for the exact number

Revenue — FY actuals & Q4-99 run-rate $12.85M · left axisTotal accounts 65,920 · month-end · right axis

In the first quarter of 2000, CADVision billed $3.54M — its strongest quarter yet — on a base of roughly 66,000 active accounts. Weeks later, in April 2000, PSINet acquired the company — built from a university dorm on nothing but cash flow, and sold on a multiple of that annualized Q4 revenue.

Q4 1999 — revenue by product line

Quarter total $3,437,329 · dial-up still led, but broadband + hosting were already 46%

Dial-up

$1,829,95453%

ADSL

$1,078,56331%

Hosting

$470,42814%

Other

$58,3842%

$0$500K$1M$1.5M$2M

Accounts by service

Active accounts by service, December 1999 — dial-up, dedicated DSL, and hosting made up the paid base; the rest were free bundled email boxes (65,920 total)

Dial-up

39,33260%

21,08332%

Hosting

3,6245%

ADSL

1,8813%

010K20K30K40K

Revenue is on the Company’s September fiscal year, all actuals: FY1995–FY1997 as published in the Ernst & Young SaleBook (Table 14, cash received); FY1998–FY1999 are Internet fees collected per the Company’s ACCPAC year-end statements ($9,430,359 and $10,855,732 — the SaleBook’s FY1998 forecast of $9.40M proved accurate to within 0.3%). The $12.85M is the annualized Q4-1999 run-rate, net of GST — the figure the PSINet purchase price was based on.
† Estimated Calgary market share, February 1998, on a subscriber-count basis — from the Ernst & Young SaleBook (Figure 2).