More Than A CoFounder

Peter Marcum has spent his career building technology companies. As a self-taught computer programmer, Peter entered the information technology field in the early 1980s by developing and selling a public housing software package. In 1985, he started JML Computers to build LANs and WANs. He sold JML Computers and came to Nashville, Tennessee, as owner of Computerland of Nashville.

In 1995, Peter founded Nashville Computer Liquidators which reached sales of $100 million. NCL was sold in 2000. He co-founded Essex Technology Group and helped create a large online reseller that later became the brick-and-mortar stores, Bargain Hunt, with 90 retail locations throughout the southeast. TH Lee, a private equity firm, bought Bargain Hunt in November of 2015.

In 2003, Peter created WV Fiber, a national fiber network specializing in wholesale bandwidth in eighteen U.S. and five EU colocation centers and served as its CEO. WV Fiber’s customers included Charter Cable’s home users in five states, Akamai, and others.

WVFiber bought Usenet Server, as a subsidiary starting with 9,000 clients, building it to 35,000 online customers, and sold it in 2007. When WV Fiber was sold in 2008, its small programming arm was not included in the sale, and later evolved into DevDigital, LLC, which offers Web and application development services. With headquarters in Nashville and a development center in Vadodara, India, DevDigital has evolved into a full-service software developer that also offers SEO, learning management systems, and hosting. It currently has 125 full time associates.

DevDigital has moved into equity investing as a way to further leverage its capabilities. In 2016, Kernel Equity was launched as a mechanism to invest in projects for education, healthcare, music, e-commerce, and other opportunities.