January-February 2005

Spotlight: John Hanke and Keyhole

Keyhole’s mission is nothing less than to make the whole earth available on the net. Its founder and CEO is Haas alumn John Hanke.

John is a “serial entrepreneur.” While still an MBA student at Haas, John (Haas MBA ’96) helped start Archetype Interactive with classmate Steve Sellers, creator of the first Internet multiplayer game, Meridian59, where he coined the term “Massively Multiplayer Internet Game.” After Archetype Interactive was acquired by 3DO, John and Steve co-founded Big Network which pioneered Java-based online games and was acquired by eUniverse.

In 2000 John co-founded Keyhole with a talented group of former SGI engineers. Keyhole delivers a 3D digital model of the entire earth via the Internet. Looking for personnel to help him grow his company, John remembered to look back to his years at Haas. Joining him at Keyhole were classmates Ed Ruben and Noah Doyle, who is now head of Strategic Marketing.

If you'd like to take a free spin and see if you can find your house, go to www.keyhole.com. In October 2004 Keyhole was acquired by Google for an undisclosed sum. Congratulatons to John, Ed and Noah.

Noah Doyle, John Hanke and Ed Ruben celebrate Keyhole's success at the November UC Berkeley Entrepreneurs Forum

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