No one knows better than Jim Fisher the aftermath of the tech bubble bursting. Web-development companies like his IdeaStar Inc. were the first casualties when demand for those services plummeted.
In early 2000, Garfield Heights-based IdeaStar was still focused on new venture start-ups, but serviced a growing stable of corporate clients. A payment advance from a larger corporate customer helped sustain the company in early 2001, and by the end of the year, IdeaStar’s sales had increased $700,000 from the previous year.
Once he stabilized the company, Fisher changed IdeaStar’s business model to not only protect it from future dips in the unpredictable tech market but to provide it with more repeatable revenue.
A major step came in February when IdeaStar signed a five-year agreement with Cleveland-based PlanSoft Corp. to license CorpMeetings, a meeting planning Internet application. PlanSoft will market and sell the software, while IdeaStar will provide the software for a royalty fee.
“Not only do you have an annuity income, so you’re not sinking or swimming waiting for project work to come in, but it’s a long-term revenue stream,” Fisher says. “To have PlanSoft do the marketing and sales of a solution you created is great, because we don’t have to build that type of organization in our company.”
Fisher has also transitioned IdeaStar into offering Web site consulting services.
“Since we’ve built hundreds, we have a lot of insight on marketing and promoting and usefulness of Web sites,” Fisher says. “We can gather a lot of metrics on what buttons the visitors are clicking on to determine what areas (the company) should build up on the site.”
As IdeaStar starts its fourth year in business, Fisher says it is mounting a growth curve thanks to this new refined focus.
“We’re getting away from being the one-off project company where we do a project and just come back for fixes and maintenance and that’s about it,” Fisher says. “We’re getting into areas that have larger accounts, have annuity income and are in our sweet spot, which is doing work for banking, financial, insurance type companies. How to reach: IdeaStar, (216) 587-9300 or www.ideastar.com
