"In 2005, Alfresco was the first open source software company in
the UK to capture venture funding, for its collection of enterprise
document management applications. John Powell, formerly the COO of
Business Objects, and John Newton, founder of Documentum, got
together to launch Alfresco because they wanted to create a
business that would have 'global reach,' according to Powell. Right
from the start, Powell and Newton knew that the best way to do that
was to create and market an open source product.
"Powell says he knew that building a company that reaches to the
four corners of the Earth would be difficult 'when you've got big
heavyweight US companies like EMC and Oracle out there to squash
any little startup...'"
