About Borgy101

My name is Todd Borglund. I'm originally from Westborough Massachusetts and currently live in Worcester (MA). I've been involved in the internet since 1995 designing, developing, implementing, and managing web sites in some capacity or another.

I grew up in Westborough (MA), which is approximately 40 miles west of Boston. Westborough was a rural farm town when I was a kid. Local airport, local farms, and a population hovering around 10,000, it was a town on the brink of of expansion, partly due to it's location between major routes. Today it's full of strip malls, multiple Dunkin' Donuts, and technology companies.

Once in my early twenties, I moved to Worcester (MA). I've lived in a few places/states since then but I'm currently back here (in Worcester). Worcester at least gives the luxury of being close to all points in Massachusetts.

Career Beginnings

My work career started in 1985 working for 'Prime Computer' (based in Massachusetts). I started out as a 'Spool Room Operator' which in laymen's terms means take the printouts off the line printers. I moved up to 'Computer Operator' then 'System Administrator.' Prime Computer manufactured Mini-computers, or smaller versions of Main-frame computers. At the end of 1980's the company was a victim of a corporate takeover attempt, recession, and the inability to look forward and change their gears torwards PCs. I was laid-off in 1990 (seventh wave).

After the layoff and comtemplaing my next career move, I took a job building and maintaining tennis courts. 12-16 hour days doing manual labor was actually fun and a nice change from sitting in front of a computer. I enjoyed working outdoors but being exhausted and covered in paint every night became old quick.

In 1992 I interviewed and accepted a job working for a software support company called Corporate Software. They offered outsourced customer support for 3rd party companies. I was part of a support group that performed outsourcing support for Microsoft (we were Microsoft to the consumer). I took CS calls supporting Dos v5.0 installs and maintenence. The group was part of a 3-month test plan for Microsoft to see if outsourcing their support would work. It did and Microsoft began off-loading all their customer support to companies like us.

I spent the next seven years at Corporate Software. In 1994 through a buyout by R.R. Donnelly, Corporate Software became Stream International. I was ther until 1997 and my final position was 'Senior Graphics Support Representative'. I managed the graphics group which provided software support to coporations and supported products ranging from Microsoft Frontpage to Adobe Photoshop to QuarkXpress to CorelDraw on both PC and Macintosh platforms.

I received invaluable knowledge and experience at Stream and most importantly met some great people. The average life span of a CS representative back then was 3-6 months. I enjoyed helping people with their computer problems which led to my longevity at the company.

Starting on the Web

During my last years at Stream, I was one of three guys to start an outside web development company. PigMellon Page Publishers was the name of the company and I was in charge of UI development. The other two took care of implementation and accounts issues. We all played multiple roles being a company of only three people. Here's a short list of some of the accounts we developed web sites for:

The web sites were architected, designed, and deployed between late 1995 through early 1997. Most of them have been redesigned or don't exist due to business reasons. PigMellon was a great experience in learning how to deal with clients directly and being able to utilize my customer service experience to the outside business world.

I left Stream in August of 1998 to work for a company called Tech2000. My role was 'Web Developer'. I worked with designers, HTML producers, and programmers to build web sites. The company initially created web sites for energy companies like 'Bay State Gas'. With the explosion in popularity of NASCAR, they quickly moved into auto racing. Tech2000's signature web site was GoRacing.com. They had the latest racing news and updates for not only NASCAR but many other racing leagues as well. IRL, CART, F1, and World of Outlaws to name a few.

When I started I was working on a web site for 'MotorUp', which was an automobile engine additive. I also was the site lead for Providence Energy's website, working with LBC Design (Providence RI) on the UI and content. It was a great experience working with a big energy company and at the same time working with art school graduates.

As 1998 came to a close I was working on SpeedMall (shopping site), Dario Franchitti's web site (CART driver), JD American (work clothes site), and 'Start Me up' (emergency jump-start product). I was usually working on 3-5 projects at a time. I learned how to handle multiple web-related tasks and streamline production for speed and efficiency.

I received my first taste of the marketing side of the business through promotional web sites. 'Superman Racing' and 'Air Jamaica Beach Bash' were purely promotional sites. I dealt with DC Comics and NASCAR on the Superman site. The site's purpose was to promote and sell NASCAR collectible cars throughout the race year. The Air Jamaica site promoted a celebrity vacation package through Air Jamaica airlines. NASCAR drivers and other related big names in the business attended the trip along with regular folk.

I developed and designed web sites for race drivers Rusty Wallace, Dale Jarett, Bobby Labonte, and Bobby Labonte. The sites were designed to download quickly and be compatible with version 3.x browsers. Internet user demographics in 1998-1999 called for web sites to deliver information simply and fast.

In early 1999 Tech2000 was bought out by Action Performance Companies and became 'Action Interactive'. By late summer, Action Performance wanted to move the Boston operations to Arizona due to operating cost. I decided not to take the package that was offered and stayed back east.

After 'Action Interactive', I had an offer in San Francisco to be the 'Site Producer' for startup company called 'CornerHardware.com'. The company was going to sell hardware online and the offer was generous. So I convinced my wife to move out to the west coast with me and took a chance.

Dot-com Boom and San Francisco

I came out to San Francisco in late November 1999 and my wife followed in late December. We found a small one-bedroom apartment in the Bernal Heights section of the city and we lived there ever since.

Cornerhardware.com launched their web site in January 2000. The year 2000 turned out to be horrible for startups in terms of financing and building a business model that worked. Cornerhardware.com survived the year and had a decent business model working by the end of the year.

I built and managed a crew of five people to help with all the content (over 1200 pages) and database images (over 37,000 products). We updated the site weekly and worked with a Quality Assurance crew on any fixes that needed to be made to the web site. Project management, performance reviews, and meeting with department heads were just a few of the tasks that made up my workload.

I worked with partners such as AOL, Yahoo, Homestore and others on integration with our site. Ad banners, co-branded headers, and tracking code integration were some of the modules that we dealt with on a daily basis.

Cornerhardware.com was bought out by 'iFloor.com' in early 2001.

In the Spring of 2001 I was lucky and found a job in San Francisco working for Spa Finder which was based in NY city. Lucky because 2001 is regarded as the beginning of the end for the intial dot-com boom. And San Francisco was experiencing an exodus of jobs and people due to online companies folding. Most of the companies had bad business plans and/or were VC-funded.

Spa Finder was (and still is) the 'spa' bible for 'Day' and 'Vacation' spas. It's yearly spa guide was considered the best in the industry. The small team I worked with was in charge of upgrading their online presence and creating a connection between the print database and the online website. Once the intial website npresence was upgraded, the plan was to close the San Francisco office and move online operations back to NYC. That happened the following year in June of 2002. I stayed on (in San Francisco) to help the web design firm '300 Feet Out' implement the new UI. This took a couple of months and I was finished.

After Spa Finder, I moved back East to be close to my family. At the time the online job pool had dried-up in Silicon Valley. It wasn't any better in Massachusetts.

2004 until Now

From August of 2002 until August of 2004, I did side web work but spent my days working as a carpenter's assistant and roofer. The job market for online help was in terrible shape, especially in Massachusetts.

I finally landed a job in 2004 working for CXO Media, initially working as an Online Producer. It was an opportunity that allowed me to learn a little about the print business (magazines) and experience the relationship between art, design, editorial, and IT.

At CXO Media I went from producer to Online Production Manager managing a small group of producers. We were responsible for updating/maintaining three websites: CIO.com, CSOonline.com, and CMOmagazine.com. I was also part of the initial implementation of blogs and RSS on the websites.

Sadly in June of 2006 I was let go when a plan was in place to merge ComputerWorld with CXO Media. Both companies were under the IDG umbrella and there was overlap between the two online groups.

A couple of months later, after doing contract work for Boston University, I interviewed and was hired by Checkerboard, a stationery manufacturer. Checkerboard is a 'Mom & Pop' stationery manufacturer with about 130-150 employees located in West Boylston MA.

I did a little bit of everything at Checkerboard including design, production, project management, and marketing. I maintained/updated five websites: eInvite.com, OutVite.com, Pal.einvite.com, Checkernet.com, and Brujo.einvite.com. Here's breakdown of the websites:

I spent approximately two and a half years at Checkerboard. I'm thankful for the opportunity and learned a great deal not only about stationery but about 'event' based products and consumer behavior related to these events.