"A lot of corporate guys are saying that the Web is going to implode and that 40 percent of the companies on the Web today will be gone in six months. I think they are wrong. Interactive TV is what has imploded. We may very well see a merging of the ideas of interactive TV and the Web as we get broadband TCP/IP broadcasts via TV cables. We'll see a natural merging of the technology, but it'll be far better and far more powerful than people were thinking interactive TV would be in 1993. You're really going to have the opportunity to interact with it."
— Kip Parent (1995)
Kip Parent joined Hewlett Packard in 1982 and held a variety of R&D and field management positions for twelve years before joining Silicon Graphics where he managed Electronic Sales & Marketing.
As VP, and Studio Director of Silicon Graphics 1994 to 1997, Parent was responsible for all aspects of Silicon Graphics' activities on the World Wide Web. This includes management of creative, technical, production, and electronic sales channel staff; development of new internet based services; evangelizing Internet Sales and Marketing on behalf of Silicon Graphics at trade shows and industry conferences. He originated and launched Silicon Surf, SGI's site on the World Wide Web, voted the "best site" on the Web by Interactive Age in 1995. While at SGI he implemented the first Intranet and is also given credit for developing SGI's Extranet activities.
He left SGI about three years ago in 1996 to form his own company, the very successful Pantheon Interactive in Santa Clara. At Pantheon, Parent's clients included Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Novell, Philips Semiconductor, Xerox, Tandem, Encanto Networks and Hewlett Packard, among others
Parent was known for offering custom engineering solutions including application development, complex code generation, user interface development and integration and product prototyping. The company also provided services for building and enhancing distance learning and corporate communications, in addition to offering expertise in streaming media solutions, e-commerce and intranet database applications.
In 1998, he sold Pantheon to iXL, a leading Web development company which had their IPO in June 1999. Parent served as Sr. Vice President of Technology and Director of Strategic Alliances at iXL, managing relationships with Microsoft, Intel, Cisco Systems, Sun, and Oracle, all of whom were his own clients prior to the merger.
In October, 1999, Parent left iXL to become CEO of rightscenter,com, Inc. a web-based business-to-business application service located in Palo Alto, which has leveraged the latest Internet technologies to create an online intellectual property rights exchange.
Parent is also the founding Webmaster of EDGE, and is featured inDigerati: Encounters with the Cyber Elite by John Brockman.