May 3rd, 2004
Press
A year later, companies enjoy success
Web Posted: 05/02/2004 12:00 AM CDT
L.A. Lorek
Express-News Business Writer
Three of the Four to Watch high-tech companies examined for the year 2003 have had great years, while the fourth is in a transition.
Rackspace Managed Hosting led the group, amassing the biggest sales and employee growth in 2003. The company, which does managed Web site hosting, grew from 270 employees to 400 and plans to add 100 more this year, said Graham M. Weston, Rackspace’s CEO.
“We’re building the world’s biggest hosting company,” Weston said.
Rackspace’s revenue soared to $58.6 million in 2003, up from $39.5 million in 2002, an increase of 48 percent. This year it expects revenue to reach $86 million, said Lanham Napier, Rackspace’s president.
Rackspace also is moving from its downtown location to larger quarters at 9725 Datapoint Drive.
Another one of the Four to Watch companies, Conceptual MindWorks, launched its new Sevocity brand software last year. This deals with electronic medical records and is marketed to physicians.
“We’ve grown sales dramatically,” said Elaine Mendoza, the company’s president and CEO. “The product keeps evolving.”
Conceptual MindWorks is now releasing Version 3.1 of its Sevocity software and continues to add new features to the product, Mendoza said.
Overall, the company maintained a steady course, with relatively flat revenue of $5 million and 60 employees, down slightly from 70 last year.
In addition to its Sevocity software, Conceptual MindWorks does health care-related engineering contracts for military and government agencies. It continues to grow its defense work and plans to develop products for the decontamination side of the chemical and biological warfare industry.
“Both revenue streams and customers we’re serving in the Department of Defense or Air Force and the private side continue to grow, and we continue to invest in them,” Mendoza said.
Military contractor OnBoard Software had a great year, increasing its revenue more than 30 percent to $17.5 million, said David Spencer, the company’s founder and chairman.
OnBoard’s employment held fairly steady at 95, down from 97 a year earlier.
OnBoard had some changes in its senior management team to restructure for a more diversified market.
“My big challenge for ’04 is diversification,” Spencer said.
A shakeup occurred at Orbis Online last year. The company, founded in 1999 as a consumer-to-consumer online auction focused on the Spanish-speaking marketplace, evolved into a reverse auction site for government and businesses.
James Strader, a chiropractor, founded the company with David Horne, chief operating officer. Both left last year. A management company is running Orbis until it can find a new CEO, said Randy Becker, the company’s director of sales.
Orbis focuses on government contracting and has business with the University of Texas System and the states of Texas, Kentucky, Ohio and South Carolina.
Orbis has also shrunk from 50 employees to 18. Company officials predicted revenue of $12 million to $15 million in 2003, but Becker declined to disclose whether it hit those targets.