Eric Pulier
Executive Chairman
U.S. Interactive
Plenty of consultants are offering advice these days on how the Internet can be used to boost business. But not many can boast the client list of Eric Pulier, whose clients include AT & T;, Deloitte & Touche, the National Football League, Toshiba and Warner Bros.
So what’s drawing these blue-chip giants to Brentwood-based U.S. Interactive? Pulier says it’s the firm’s breadth.
While many Internet consultants provide services on one aspect of a company’s business, such as marketing, technology or overall strategy, U.S. Interactive has positioned itself to provide all three.
“We are trying to integrate these three disciplines from the top down with deep technology, true marketing and advertising background and brand positioning, and strategic consulting,” said Pulier. “We’re putting things into one direct package that can make the head of a Fortune 500 company feel secure that we can deliver an enterprise-wide system.”
The company is currently working with a $10 billion Hong-Kong-based supermarket chain called Dairy Farm to revamp what Pulier says was a very traditional way of doing business.
“We are developing a large-scale electronic commerce system that will handle literally millions and millions of customers, and tying it into their (pre-existing computer) systems,” he said.
The new system is being designed so that Dairy Farm’s customers will be able to shop via the Internet, selecting grocery items from an online menu and then having those groceries delivered to their doors.
Pulier, 31, founded a similar consulting firm, Digital Evolution, which merged with U.S. Interactive in June. The company has 200 employees in offices in Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.
Pullier’s background is more in line with his current career path than those of other rising Internet stars he graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in 1988, where he concentrated in literature and computer science.
Pulier is involved in a variety of public-policy-oriented panels that seek to expand the digital revolution beyond short-term financial returns. These include service as vice chairman of the Institute for the New California, and as one of Vice President Al Gore’s chief advisors on the use of technology and the Internet for improving the country’s health care delivery systems.
“We think he’s definitely one of the visionaries in Los Angeles, in the multimedia space,” says Todd Springer, a partner in Trident Capital, a U.S. Interactive investor. “Eric is equally conversant with the CIO or the VP of marketing of the corporation so he understands both sides, which we think is pretty rare in entrepreneurs.”
-R.W. Greene
