Software Spartans

Software Spartans

COMPANIES by Dave Szymanski | Tampa Bay Editor

With fresh capital in place, Persystent Technologies, a Tampa-based business software company, unveils its latest product that relentlessly battles PC problems.

This will be the best year for Tampa business software developer Persystent Technologies, which began in 2001. Revenue for 2007 will shoot up 500%.

What has made the difference? A newer, better product, version 4.3, incorporating feedback from customers and usable in a wider variety of businesses - basically, responding to the market. Also, a larger distribution network using resellers and distributors nationwide. It's customers now include the U.S. Department of Defense.

"It's a fourth-generation product and we've rolled out our channel strategy," says Raymond Weadock (pronounced wi-dock), 55, chairman and CEO of Persystent, which got its name from the persistent "up and running" image it wants its customers to have on their computer screens signifying they are working all the time.

The goal of Persystent's software is to keep company PCs and laptops running at top efficiency, protecting them from viruses or other problems that can slow, freeze or crash a network or system. When there is a problem, the Persystent software repairs the damage in seconds, when you reboot the computer.

Like the legendary Spartan warriors, it is a product designed to be ever-vigilant, to never stop fighting viruses or corrupt material.

"Every now and then computers shut down," Weadock says. "Sometimes they don't come back and the systems need to be rebuilt. That's where we are so unique. We do it all on the pre-boot."

The market

At first glance, the computer software market for business looks crowded. The first glance is accurate. There are asset management tools, software distribution tools, desktop management tools. But there are relatively few products that do exactly what Persystent does. It calls its product category, "desired state management."

The IT support market is a $600 billion market. However, most of the problems with PCs are fixed after the damage takes hold, not before it can injure programs.

"There are lot of desktop management products and we complement them. The big thing is that we eliminate the help desk calls," Weadock says. It also helps IT professionals, freeing them up from firefighting to do other higher-value work in a company.

Its customers include companies and organizations in manufacturing, health care, government, technology, law and other industries.

The Persystent product automatically eliminates what it calls, "configuration creep," problems that build up, invade software and eventually slow and possibly disable PCs, costing companies valuable production time.

Users don't have to restore personalized settings or suffer lost data. Applications and broken files and settings are simply restored to a working state.

Persystent has filed for patents for its products, a process that takes years to complete. The product costs $109 per seat, or per computer user.

The company's biggest investment is in its people, especially its engineering staff. It hopes to have three distributors, which will sell the product to about 60 value-added resellers at the end of this year.

The company headquarters are in Carrollwood, a northwest suburb of Tampa.

CEO at early age

Weadock became an entrepreneur at 16, selling gold blazers to Century 21 real estate agents in the 1960s. He originally wanted to study architecture, but eventually went to the University of Arkansas and earned a business degree, specializing in marketing and finance.

Prior to founding Persystent, Weadock served as President and CEO for Fortress Technologies, a Tampa-based network security company, where he became an expert on electronic commerce security issues. He also worked for Digital Equipment, Conner Peripherals, Plus Development/Quantum Corp. and VisiCorp.

The idea for Persystent came when he experienced problems when writing a wireless computing strategy for Compaq, before Hewlitt Packard acquired it.

After raising $7 million in investment capital through the Florida Venture Forum in 2005, Persystent went back out and raised $7 million more this year in another round.

Weadock says the key to the company's growth and financial backing has been hiring the right people.

"Getting the right people at the right time is critical," he says. "Top to bottom, you have limited resources, so everybody has to be a rock star. You can't do it with mediocre people."

Besides that, people that work for an entrepreneurial company need to like the fast-paced, open-discussion, ideas-popping daily environment.

"There's that high energy that you have to maintain to do well, Weadock says.

Getting personal

The next generation software for Persystent, an as-yet-unnamed product due out in 2008, will take it into a new market: consumers.

It will do the same thing as the other Persystent programs, but protect PCs for home users.

"You won't ever have to worry about spyware," Weadock says.

In the next 12 months, it hopes to move from its core markets in the eastern United States to cover the rest of the country and Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Farther down the line: Applications for your television and your car.

"Your car has dozens of kinds of software," Weadock says.

AT A GLANCE

Persystent

Technologies:

Employees: 36

Headquarters: Tampa

Industry: makes software to keep PCs running efficiently for businesses

Market: United States

Founded: 2001. Incorporated in February 2002.

Status: Privately held

Revenue growth: 500% in 2007

Source: Persystent Technologies

Stages of enterprise

software development

• Generation 1: Create the alpha product. Prove that what you say, you do.

• Generation 2: Fine-tune the product to one more customers will buy and use.

• Generation 3: Put all the features in the software that you gather from customer feedback after Generation 2.

• Generation 4: Create an enterprise product. Make it scalable (meaning it can work in small and large businesses) and easier to use. Make it work well with other products.

REVIEW SUMMARY

Company: Persystent Technologies

Industry: Business software manufacturer

Keys: Hone the core product and expanding the company's markets.