They use the Internet, the application of innovative technology and the assistance of licensed securities brokers when appropriate to provide a broad universe of accredited and institutional investors with efficient access to private company stock investment opportunities and to take friction out of the transaction process.
The bean counters like the fact that you can write an application once and then, with little expense and effort, modify it to run on a whole universe of Microsoft systems from the corporate network level (Windows NT) down to a single set-top box (Windows CE).