Navigating the Microsoft Ecosystem to Build a 12 Million Dollar Company: Brian Knight, CEO of Pragmatic Works (Part 2)

Sramana: Your company is essentially offering three main products, which are software tools, training, and consulting. Is that correct? Brian Knight: We provide software tools to help people migrate from one version of a Microsoft server to another. We provide training for those who are trying to learn new platforms. We also provide consulting services

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Navigating the Microsoft Ecosystem to Build a 12 Million Dollar Company: Brian Knight, CEO of Pragmatic Works (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.  Brian Knight, SQL Server MVP, MCSE, MCDBA, is the co-founder of SQLServerCentral.com, JumpstartTV.com, and is on the principal board of directors of the Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS). Brian is a contributing columnist for many industry magazines and sites. He has written or cowritten more

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Rolling Up Bill Management: Flint Lane, CEO of BillTrust (Part 7)

Sramana: Did the companies you acquired have any investors? Flint Lane: They were sole proprietor places. They were small print-and-mail companies. There are hundreds of print-and-mail businesses out there. We targeted some smaller sole proprietorship companies that did print-and-mail billing. We can upsell the e-billing solution as well as automate their processes. We found several

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Rolling Up Bill Management: Flint Lane, CEO of BillTrust (Part 6)

Sramana: Has the print and mail revenue been a revenue mainstay from the very beginning of the business? Flint Lane: We needed a year because there is some infrastructure and equipment purchases that needed to be made to get the bills out the door. We were profitable within two years. We have been pretty profitable

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Rolling Up Bill Management: Flint Lane, CEO of BillTrust (Part 5)

Sramana: Are there other companies who offer outsourced electronic billing? Flint Lane: There are a handful out there. Kubra is based out of Canada who we probably see the most.

Rolling Up Bill Management: Flint Lane, CEO of BillTrust (Part 4)

Sramana: What kind of companies tend to be good partners? Flint Lane: We tried going through accountants in the beginning, and what we discovered was that accountant drove payroll business because they did not want to do it themselves. The best partners for us are the accounting software companies. These are the companies between QuickBooks

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Rolling Up Bill Management: Flint Lane, CEO of BillTrust (Part 3)

Sramana: When you were doing that validation, who were some of the customers you talked to? Flint Lane: We targeted smaller companies in the beginning. That was a mistake. Yes, the problem existed for them. However, they were not willing to pay for it because it was not that big. If they had 50 invoices

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Rolling Up Bill Management: Flint Lane, CEO of BillTrust (Part 2)

Sramana: When you started PayTrust, the Internet was not as pervasive and consumers were not as mature as they are today. Flint Lane: That is absolutely true. There was not as widespread acceptance of financial services online. It was 1998, so the Internet was out there. There was a lot of noise about it, but

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