(from Enterprise Forum New Hampshire, a publication of the New Hampshire High Technology Council – Fall 2008)
September, 2008 – Feeling the economic blues or blahs? My advice for you is: turn off the radio, shut-off your high-def TV, throw your newspaper in the recycle bin, put your head down and get back to work. On the other hand, you can hang out with the fun people at the MIT Enterprise Forum of NH (by the way, the same NHHTC Committee that brought you the Speed Venture Summit!). Last Month we had one fantastic presentation by Single Digits and a fabulous interview with Paula Long, co-founder of EqualLogic, now Dell/EqualLogic.
Bob Goldstein, Chief Executive Officer of Single Digits, presented his business challenge: to raise working capital to fund tech support staffing, to build better redundancy in their Network Operations Center, and to hire the best engineering and sales talent they can find. Will they find funding in this tenuous economy? Most likely they found it at the recent Speed Venture Summit where they landed in the “Top Five” category. Today they are ranked #215 on Inc. Magazine 2008 List of Fastest Growing Private Companies. Impressive!
Single Digits is another New Hampshire success story and according to Business New Hampshire Magazine, one of the Top 10 to Watch. Single Digits is in the business of guest Internet services. For example, if you’re at a hotel in San Francisco and need to get some work done after a long day in Silicon Valley, Single Digits most likely provided the service to that property for you to seamlessly get on-line. How about at your condo rental in Vail? Single Digits probably set-up the WiFi Internet service in the local coffee shop, hotel, and resort property, just in case you need to get a little work done between runs down the North Ridge and “Boomer.” Stuck at the airport waiting for the blizzard to subside? Jump on from your local hot spot, most likely made possible by your friends at Single Digits via their network design and deployment service. With the funding they need, Bob will help grow New Hampshire’s economy by providing new jobs.
So where is this market going? Up, where else?! Quadrupling sales last year, and growing by 300% the year before, who wouldn’t consider investing in the guest Internet concept?
The panel was exceptional: Jerry Skurla, VP of Marketing at Bradford Networks, Matt Rightmire, Managing Director of Borealis Ventures, and Roger Krakoff, Venture Partner at Sigma Partners in Boston. Jerry Skurla of Bradford Networks recommended “listenening first to unfiltered inbound” opportunities. In other words, step back and listen to where the market is calling you. Spoken like a sage. He also suggested that Bob consider the education market for three reasons: it’s viral, knowledge seeking, and sharing. Lock down one campus, and chances are, their buddies will tell their buddies at the university across town, and so on. One niche is community colleges where students are office professionals by day and road warriors by nature. Lock it down, own it, and the rest will follow if you do a great job.
The other brilliant insight Jerry had was to listen for demand out of the health care community, where hospitals are finding that patients heal better when they are connected and able to communicate with loved ones, their emotional support system. Then there are the workaholics who just can’t get away, even when they are in recovery! Don’t be surprised, hospitals are now looking into more “first-class” amenities like menus to choose from, enhanced decor, and cyber cafes. Exeter Hospital is a prime example. The panel’s advice was unanimous – don’t think of direct sales, rather, leverage network and security VARS to grow business. The moral of the story for Single Digits is, own it before you broaden.
The next part of the program was a refreshing diversion from the usual format. An interview with Paula Long, High Tech Women to Watch honoree, winner of the New Hampshire High Technology Council 2008 Entrepreneur of the Year, and co-founder of EqualLogic, now Dell/EqualLogic storage software and equipment maker. Paula was interviewed by Matt Pierson, Chairman of the New Hampshire High Technology Council, active angel investor, and former CEO of DTC Communications and co-founder of Jittergram.
Just last year, Paula and her co-founders Peter Hayden and Paul Koning sold their six year-old storage technology company to Dell Inc. for $1.4 billion. Based in Nashua, NH, EqualLogic raised $52 million in equity capital since it was founded in 2001. Now that’s the American dream! What an inspiration and it didn’t come by accident. Paula and her team worked hard, stayed positive when it felt like the world was against them, and kept their focus. She turned off the noise, and kept on working, and executed her plan. That is, until Dell came knocking on her door, to the tune of $1.4 billion.
What has made Paula the successful, yet humble leader? She believes that you have to care for the people around you, have a can-do attitude, and “throw your body on the grenade” regarding customer service. She and her team are very proud of their product, demanded excellence from their team, and took personal pride in watching their customers fall in love with simplified storage management. Why New Hampshire? She was tired of commuting on Route 3! Seriously, when she received the call from one of her former DEC buddies to join the team, she was sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Timing is everything.
A bright light and the voice of encouragement, Paula talked about how “opportunity springs out of bad times.” With a great pitch and a solid business model, you can get funding. (She recommends bi-coastal VCs, in case you’re wondering.) Other pearls of wisdom: be an example to others, work hard, people skills are as important as technical skills, have a sense of humor, and have fun. “No one is going to follow you if you don’t have everyone signed up.”
She’s the real deal and she’s doing her part not only for the economy, but for the ecconomy-at-large. Paula volunteers her time as a mentor to students at the University of New Hampshire’s Center for Venture Research and encourages young women to study math and science. Thanks Paula, thanks for keeping jobs in New Hampshire, adn thanks for doing your part for the community!
I’ll see you at the next MIT Enterprise Forum of NH. Mark your calendar now for February 17th!
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Catherine Blake, Marketing Chair, NHHTC/MIT Enterprise Forum of New Hampshire