Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Ryan Ladisic and Co-workers Leave Nextel To Softwre Company

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 04:38:22 -0400

Sunday, April 20, 2003

Ryan Ladisic and three other Nextel employees left the telecommunications company eight months ago to pursue their own vision: software to manage wireless assets.
"We all picked up and left very good careers," says Ladisic, 29, the fledgling Clifton company's managing partner and sales expert. "It's definitely a pretty big leap of faith."
They see their software selling to a market niche of companies with more than 250 wireless devices but with no means to assess employee usage or to measure the return on the millions of dollars spent on their wireless investments.

The ACC Group management team is at a crucial turning point. With a few customers lined up for a
product a few weeks away from delivery, they need an infusion of cash to go after more sales and build the service side of the business.

Their options: Pursue a bank loan, which would require a significant pledge of personal collateral by the
partners. Approach cautious venture-capital firms, which invest shareholders' money in risky but
potentially profitable start-ups in return for an ownership stake. Grow the business slowly, on their own, one customer at a time. Sell their business to a larger company.
"In this market, you really have to look at every single option," Ladisic says.

Unlike at the height of the dot- com frenzy when Web site graphics trumped solid market research in competing for investors' attention, business owners have to do some serious work before approaching sources of funds.
"It's definitely very difficult right now" to secure funds, says Randy Harmon, director of New Jersey Small Business Development Centers' technology commercialization center. "It's a return to sanity.
Things got out of hand during the Internet bubble."

Here are some do's and don'ts from Harmon and legal, marketing, and other business professionals who gathered last week at a Venture Association of New Jersey workshop. Entrepreneurs can pitch their businesses to venture firms at the association's third Entrepreneurs Expo on May 19 in Morristown. (For more details, go to www.vanj.com.)
Do tell a compelling story. Make it clear how your service or product fills an unmet need, or meets an existing one better than the competition.
Don't say there is no competition. That is a good way to turn investors off. 

Everyone has competition. List yours. Good market research will turn up competitors.
Do list your customers. Live ones. Investors want to know who your first customer will be, and where your second sale will come from.
Don't rely on financial projections. Actual sales are what counts.

Do put together a management team. Drawing a top-notch management team without being able to pay them for awhile is easier said than done. Consider negotiating deals that offer team members the right of first refusal for top posts once funding is secured.
Don't go it alone. Do network. Practice telling your company's story in a tight elevator pitch. Start and end with your name and contact information. In between, describe your product or service, how it is unique and who your customers are.
Don't pitch without lots of practice.

Do create a brand. Craft a branding message in marketing materials that help get your story across.
Don't spend too much on marketing materials when getting started. Check out Paperdirect.com and Paperaccess.com for affordable ideas.
Do think of alternative funding sources. Consider partnerships and alliances with other businesses.
Look for grant programs, such the Small Business Innovation Research Program, the federal government's $1.5 billion research and development grants program targeted to small businesses.
Don't despair.

"It's a tough market, but some of the greatest companies in this country were started in poor markets," says the ACC Group's Ladisic. "When everything was great, people didn't have to think too much to get an idea funded. When times are tough, people really have to think everything through."
http://www.nj.com/business/ledger/index.ssf?/base/columns-0/1050819866223830.xml

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