Techstreet: Powered by "What If?" The idea that launched Techstreet began taking shape more than ten years ago, in the corporate library of Steelcase Corporation. There, engineering intern Gregg Hammerman toiled away at his summer job-maintaining thousands of technical specifications.

It was painstaking, time-consuming work, and Gregg was convinced there had to be a better solution. By summer's end, he and fellow University of Michigan engineering student Andrew Bank were asking themselves: "WHAT IF we could find a way to obtain and manage all these documents through a single source?"

It was a "WHAT IF" that refused to go away.

After graduation, the two moved into a tiny Ann Arbor office with $18,000 in start-up capital, an ambitious business plan and an innovative spirit untainted by corporate bureaucracy. In 1996, they launched the first web site in the world to offer on-line purchasing of industry codes and standards.

Since then, Techstreet has grown at a phenomenal pace-fueled by strategic partnerships, financial discipline, unrelenting creativity, a people-first philosophy, and a never-ending "WHAT IF?"

Today, as part of The Thomson Corporation, Techstreet serves more than 150,000 engineers, information and technical professionals each year with information tools that deliver codes, standards and technical books in a fast, friendly and easy-to-use online environment.

But some things haven't changed and never will. We still put customers first. We're still entrepreneurs at heart. And every one of our staff members is still asking...

"WHAT IF?"

View a timeline of Techstreet innovations