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In late 1998, Mounir Elabridi and Ahmed Kerfati got serious about their Internet start-up. Since then, they've wasted little time in chasing the well-trod path of Internet scale-up.
The pair have built their Harrisburg-based company, Webclients.net, from a two-person sideline into an operation that employs 40 people.
Matching the real world growth, Webclients has built a considerable presence on the Internet, where it matches advertisers with web sites willing to host ads.
Expansion so far has been self-financed, said Kerfati, who befriended Elabridi when the two Moroccans were students at Florida Atlantic University, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Eyeing continued growth, Elabridi and Kerfati are seeking outside financing for the first time. They have hired international accounting firm KPMG, which has an office in Harrisburg, to assist in the search.
They'll use the money to more than double staff, find a second office in Harrisburg and open sales offices in New York and San Francisco.
Then, in 2001, Kerfati and Elabridi expect to take the company public.
As it grows, the online ad agency, along with its numerous competitors, is helping blaze new roads in the targeting of consumers over the Internet.
Those roads have already had their fair share of selfinflicted bumps, largely from...