Success story is a team effort – By Mary Teresa Bitti, Financial Post February 16, 2010
Ashif Mawji founded Upside Software in 2000, the year the tech bubble burst. Unlike the dot-coms that blew up, Upside Software was cautious, focused its energies on R&D and created a product it knew worked and was needed.
“Our competitors are predominantly in the U.S. and they stem from venture backing so they burn through between $40-million and $80-million and none of them have attained profitability,” says Mr. Mawji. “We are one of the only profitable pure-play providers in the market. We’ve been profitable since 2001 — immediately after the tech bust. We didn’t go out for financing, so we bootstrapped it, and that meant we bought a lot of things off eBay. We were very cost-conscious. That helped us because we focused on R&D while competitors blew their money on marketing and sales and fancy offices. We had cheap furniture but made sure the product was strong. That’s how we got our early clients. Our product stood head and shoulders above our competitors and that has continued. We were ranked No. 1 worldwide of 17 different vendors by independent research firm AMR Research in October this year.”
http://www.vancouversun.com/business/fp/Success+story+team+effort/2573246/story.html
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