Lakefront Software, Inc., was incorporated in 2004.
We're headquartered near the shores of Lake Washington in
Seattle, WA.
We focus on leisure consumer software, and are passionate
about making software more fun and more useful for everyday
tasks around the home.
The founder and president, Steve Murch, has over twenty
years' experience in personal computing and the Internet, and
worked for Microsoft Corporation from 1991-1997 in leading roles
on several products, including Microsoft Access, Microsoft
FoxPro, Cinemania, and several games for the PC.
Steve led several breakthrough innovations in software and
e-commerce over the past two decades:
- In the early 1990's, Steve was a founding product
manager of Microsoft Access. He helped launch Microsoft's
entry into the personal relational database market, serving
as product manager for Microsoft Access 1.0, Access 95,
Access 2.0 and FoxPro. Steve led the developer relations
and international rollout efforts as well as other broader
marketing programs.
- In the mid 1990's, Steve conceived Microsoft's Internet
Gaming strategy and led the team that created the Internet
Gaming Zone, now the MSN
Gaming Zone. The MSN Gaming Zone, launched in 1995
under Steve's leadership, is still using its original core
architecture envisioned and implemented over a decade ago.
It has grown from zero users into the largest and most
frequently used games site on the Internet and now has tens
of millions of players around the world, with thousands of
game matches served every minute.
Steve participated in Bill Gates' famous "Internet Strategy
Day" analyst briefing as a demonstrator and through the
Zone, he helped lay the groundwork for what would become
Xbox Live.
- In 1997, Steve left Microsoft and co-founded
VacationSpot.com,
which grew rapidly into the leading online reservation
network for vacation homes, villas and condominiums around
the world with over 25,000 properties listed on its
network. Steve led VacationSpot.com as President & CEO,
overseeing 5 acquisitions, including one in Brussels,
Belgium. (VacationSpot.com has been profiled in a Harvard
Business School case.) VacationSpot.com was acquired by
Expedia.com in March, 2000.
- As vice president of vacation packages at
Expedia, Steve led the
team that conceived and created Expedia's dynamic vacation
packaging on the Web, including the first-ever merchant
platform for sales and payment processing for destination
services such as
sightseeing tours, scuba diving, horseback riding and
more.
Vacation packages represent over $2 billion of annual gross
bookings for Expedia/IAC and remain its most significant and
fastest growing product line.
Steve taught a class on the management of innovation at the
University of Washington's MBA program. He holds a BS in
business and computer science from
Carnegie Mellon University, a MS in Computer Science from
Stanford University, and
an MBA from Harvard University,
where he graduated a Baker Scholar.
