Corrections or additions?
This article was prepared for the December 5, 2001 edition of U.S.
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When Technology Shifts Move Fast & Keep Selling
Dean Guida, president and CEO of Route 130-based
Infragistics, Guida bootstrapped his company to profitability. But
it wasn’t easy. “Next time I would take the venture capital,”
says Guida, at 37 a veteran of 12 years in the software business.
Guida talks about how he keeps his company growing in a difficult
economy on Tuesday, December 11, at 4 p.m. at an NJIT event, “IT
Success Stories,” at the Fort Monmouth Officers Club. Cost: $70.
Call 856-787-9700.
Infragistics was formed from a recent merger of Sheridan Software
of Melville, New York, and ProtoView Development Corporation, which
Guida founded in 1989. Growing steadily, it is up to 60 employees,
and is about to triple its office space to 15,000 square feet with
a move, scheduled for December 14, to Windsor Corporate Park in East
Windsor. The new space accommodates up to 95 people, and depending
on the economy, Guida hopes to employ that many within two years.
Infragistics publishes software components for COM and Java
development
environments, and is about to start marketing components written in
C# for Microsoft’s upcoming .NET environment. Developers include
these components in software. An example, says Guida, is energy
company
Exelon’s use of the company’s InterAct data visualization tool. Exelon
subsidiary, PowerTeam, sells and trades energy, and uses the
Infragistics
tool to track its movement, minute-by-minute, across a giant map.
Other Infragistics customers include Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley,
and Fidelity, which include the company’s software components in
building
trading tools.
Guida is proud to say that his company had a role in restoring
telecommunications
to lower Manhattan after the attacks of September 11. Verizon used
some of its new .NET components in putting phones back online.
Infragistics is a private company, and Guida won’t disclose revenue,
but he does say that it is profitable, as was its predecessor,
Protoview.
This would have been a “blow out year,” he says, but the
economic
downturn did hurt. “Some customers cut orders in half,” he
says. Yet, with the merger and the move to .NET components, he expects
to grow revenue 30 percent next year.
Guida has seen a number of software companies go under. One reason
for failure, he says, is coming out with a great product, and then
resting. “Building a better product is your ticket to the
game,”
he says. “To win, you need strategy. You need to know how to
market
and sell. All elements have to be successful.”
These elements include:
Picking the best people. “In software, people areeverything,” says Guida. Products only take you so far. They needfixes, upgrades. You need to have smart people around to make them.As important as brains is motivation. “You have to have peoplewho need to succeed,” he says.Maximizing sales. “All profit is how much you cansell between releases,” says Guida. “It’s all aboutvolume.”It doesn’t cost much to produce software, and the smart company willstrive to put out and sell as much as possible, exploring everymarket.Going global. Infragistics has a sales office in London.Its role, in part, is to supervise distributors throughout Europe.Selling abroad is a way to leverage R&D expense, says Guida, whopointsout, “If you’re only selling to North America, you’re only sellingto half the world.” Having an overseas office is a goodinvestment,because it allows the company to be in-tune with the needs and buyingpatterns that are different than those of North America.Picking a partner. The merger that created Infragisticswas good for ProtoView, the company he founded, says Guida. The twohad some complementary technologies, but more significantly, theyhad some competing products. Instead of going head to head, eachexpendingmarketing and sales dollars in search of the same customers, it madesense for them to join forces.Watching for the curve ball. In the software business,nothing stays the same for long. “I’ve been through four or fivetechnology shifts,” says Guida. “The first time, it nearlykilled us. I mean really killed us, out-of-business killed us.”At that time, the company derived 80 percent of its revenue from aC++ visual development tool, and, says Guida, “Microsoft andBorlanddecided they had to be in that space.” Analysts, and then themedia, declared his company irrelevant. Despite the fact that salesremained strong, Guida knew he had develop other products — fast.That is when he started to make components.Managing through crisis. Getting through a technologyshift is a life and death juggling act. “You have to shiftmarketingdollars,” Guida says. “You have to tell everyone `we’re goingto be fine; we’re going to make it.” Sales have to be kept up,but at the same time, investments have to be made in future products.And, says Guida, “you have to leverage customers into the newproduct offering.”Guida has kept all the balls in the air several times now, and saysthe shift to .NET, which his merger positioned him for, is one ofthe biggest technological shifts yet. “It’s like going from DOSto Windows,” he says.Having braved a number of crises, and run perilously close tobottom, Guida says his company is in position to capitalize on the.NET shift. And while he says he couldn’t go through the stress ofanother bootstrap start-up, he points out that there are advantagesto building a company bit-by-bit from its profits. There is equity,of course. But there is more.”There’s a lot of satisfaction,” says Guida, a father ofthree.”You know you did it by yourself.”Previous StoryNext StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
