The Red Herring Top 100 began in 1996 and highlights startup companies and private ventures in Asia, Europe, and the Americas.

[2] Red Herring began as a technology business magazine in 1993 and flourished during the dot com boom, with global distribution and bureaus in Bangalore, Beijing, and Paris.

Perkins named the magazine "Red Herring" after what bankers use to describe the prospectus for an initial public offering of stock.

Red Herring launched an event and an Internet division on the same day in May 1995 when Venture Market West premiered in Monterey, California, accompanied by the company's first website.

Broadview Capital Partners invested $25 million into Red Herring in 2000, with Steven Brooks and Stephen Bachman joining the board.

Through these financings, BCP obtained control of Red Herring and in 2002 put the company through an assignment for the benefit of creditors (ABC), which is a California state process similar to a federal bankruptcy.

In April 2003, Vieux, a French technology leader and entrepreneur, purchased the Red Herring brand with plans to revive the magazine.

[9][10] Vieux vowed to make the magazine "systematically global", with a focus on influential technology companies large and small around the world.

Building a solid editorial team and keeping costs low were also high priorities for Vieux during Red Herring's revival.

[9] Shortly after the purchase by DASAR, the new owners brought in a team of new editors with experience at competitors of the former print magazine.