That's talking about how they began, 15 years ago. I think the author was trying to get across that in the beginning, BAM was not a technical leader in their fi

That's talking about how they began, 15 years ago. I think the author was trying to get across that in the beginning, BAM was not a technical leader in their field. But as they faced large technical and infrastructure problems before other groups did, and they decided early on to keep development internal, they became a leader.