Three small businesses dare to prosper
The Business Council of Fairfield County in its third “Growth Company Showcase” recently provided three homegrown success stories that kept a room of 75 attendees wanting more ”” and getting it afterward during a lively question-and-answer session and reception at the Stamford campus of Sacred Heart University at Landmark Square.
The post-event reception featured an event product: Norwalk”™s category-bending SpikedSeltzer, a 6 percent alcohol beverage that debuted at a regional film fest in 2013 and is now made in Memphis and in upstate New York. It is about to hit store shelves in Mississippi, North Carolina and Tennessee; Whole Foods, Fairway and others locally already carry it.
- From left, QuadJobs co-founders Bridie Loverro, Andra Newman and Betsy O”™Reilly. Photo by Bill Fallon
The event had been moved from the Business Council”™s Landmark Square, Stamford, offices to a larger venue at the Graduate Center of Sacred Heart University, across the plaza, to accommodate interest.
Panelists were Jonathan Soares, CEO of Agency Labs in Bethel (formerly Moo Digital), which produces software products and platforms and employs seven; Betsy O”™Reilly, CEO of QuadJobs, a Web-based, college-age job board based in Greenwich with four employees and a new Ohio office as part of a national-growth business plan; and David Holmes, co-founder of Boathouse Beverage, maker of SpikedSeltzer..
“We”™re category creating,” Holmes said of the carbonated drink made with Champagne yeast. “It”™s really hard to do and 99 percent fail at it. But there will be a tipping point and I”™m going to get there.”
Boathouse”™s financing ”” in the $2 million to $4 million range ”” came from family and friends.
Soares”™ presentation points featured a company history: “We began as a small shop with a broad range of skill sets, delusional ambitions, single-malt scotch and competitive pingpong. What we produce is complex. We just make it look simple.”
Agency Labs”™ clients include eBay, Ford, Timex, Pirelli, American Express and others across what Soares said are 200 completed projects. Like the other principals, Soares framed company success as a team effort, offering pictures and brief bios of Agency Labs”™ employees, averaging nearly 10 years in various tech arenas. “We build websites, mobile applications and software for some of the world”™s most innovative organizations,” Soares said as part of his PowerPoint presentation.
For Ford, Agency Labs made an app called MyFord Touch Demo. Soares said it allowed Ford dealerships to demonstrate features on screens without needing the actual demo car on site. It quickly saw 500,000 uses nationally. The company”™s homegrown Pickee app will launch in three weeks. Soares called it “a cloud-based overlay tool that aligns creative assets over coded websites and platforms to ensure pixel-perfect alignment.”
O”™Reilly attended with fellow QuadJobs co-founders Bridie Loverro and Andra Newman. Among their site”™s innovations is a job GPA, which tallies disparate work experiences and the ratings employers give.
Even through a string of one-time jobs ”” formerly never quantified and therefore never visible on work histories ”” “a student can build a versatile resume,” O”™Reilly said.
The QuadJobs site is available free only to active college and graduate-level students, with 35 percent of the postings for babysitters. Employers pay $8.95 per month to post on the site.
- Gary Breitbart, growth adviser for the Business Council of Fairfield County, center, with David Holmes, co-founder of Boathouse Beverage, left, and Agency Labs CEO Jonathan Soares. Photo by Bill Fallon
O”™Reilly said the jobs tend to be shorter-term than are offered by some job sites, citing the example of wanting full-time medical staffing versus a QuadJobs posting for a pair of sturdy shoulders to clean out the garage.
Gary Breitbart, the Business Council”™s growth adviser, moderated. Audience members included Business Council CEO Chris Bruhl and Glendowlyn Thames, director of small business innovation for Connecticut Innovations, or CI. CI connects entrepreneurs and other businesses with angel investors, venture capitalists and lenders, buttressed by its own in-house resources and capital. It identifies itself as “the leading source of financing and ongoing support for Connecticut”™s innovative, growing companies.”
Breitbart said the afternoon panel presentations might spark an interest in investing from an audience member, “but it is not a pitch event.” Rather, it fit into his pro-growth mission: “If I can”™t save you time and help you grow your business, don”™t talk to me,” he said.
Noting the broad constituency of the Business Council, Breitbart said, “I don”™t do a lot of cold calling.”
Last year”™s Growth Advisory Services efforts ”” sponsored and paid for by CI ””assessed 34 companies, of which 19 are in its active portfolio, averaging growth of 34 percent annually and producing 68 new jobs, a number Breitbart termed “just phenomenal.”