When Alex Welch (B.S., ‘99) interviewed for a student job at the Morgan Library in fall 1997, he did so on the top floor, because flood water from that July was still in the building.
Applying for a library job had been a practical decision. “I needed help paying for food,” Welch said. “I thought working on campus would be best. At the library, I could pick late shifts, when it was okay to do schoolwork.”
During his first year at the library, Welch worked at the Help Desk where he helped students access the library’s resources.
His second year, Welch joined the library’s IT team, where he learned to build IT infrastructure and scale computer networks. For a business student with a focus on computer information systems, it was the perfect first internship in IT, and gave him a solid foundation for his career after graduation.
At the library, Welch also met his future wife, Katy (B.A., ’00), a fellow student worker.
Investing when everyone was running for the hills
After graduation, Welch had 15 job offers. Thirteen were rescinded, though, because the Dot-Com bubble had just burst. Tech investors were losing money, companies were scrambling, and employment prospects for new computer information science graduates were grim.
But Welch saw a glimmer of hope in the tech industry’s downturn. “The early 2000s was the best time to build something. The best time to invest is when everyone is running for the hills.”
While working at a local telecommunications company, he created his first business.
“I wanted to solve a simple problem for my family and friends: how to share photos online.” So, Welch started a business to help people share photos.
He pivoted from a focus on photo sharing to image hosting. He saw that telecommunications companies were trying to drive down the cost of bandwidth to almost nothing. Fewer companies would want to host images, since there would be less profit.
From spare bedroom to boardroom
In 2003, Welch started his second company, Photobucket, an online image and video hosting service, in a spare bedroom. “Everyone was telling me it would never work,” Welch said. But it did.
One reason for Photobucket’s success is that it capitalized on growing frustration with auction sites and early social media sites, which restricted how many images and videos users could upload.
In 2006, technology news outlet Tech Crunch reported Photobucket served more than 50 billion image and video requests per month. In 2007, Photobucket was sold, and Welch left in 2009. Photobucket grew to 100 million users and 150 employees.
Secrets of success
Reflecting on his success, Welch says he’s most proud creating Photobucket and completing college at CSU. “I’m proud of building a company and changing the lives of so many people online when the internet was new,” he said.
Now a board member of the Green and Gold Foundation and a stalwart supporter of CSU, Welch believes his time as a library student worker and a business student contributed to his success. “The computer portion of my job at the library connected directly. It was my first internship in IT.”
After gaining experience building and growing companies, Welch said he appreciated the breadth of his business classes at CSU. His advice to today’s students? “Don’t focus on the grades. Step back, get a good education. College is about learning to learn.”