Subject: [NEXTEL-1] ActSoft stays on the right track

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2002 19:28:22 -0500

From the December 13, 2002 print edition

ActSoft stays on the right track

Firm's focus is on following people, things

Pamela Griner Leavy   Staff Writer

TAMPA — Tom Mitchell can relate to entrepreneurs down to their last $200 in working
capital.

Mitchell, founder and chief technology officer at transportation software firm ActSoft
Inc., found himself in a similar situation in
1996.

Mitchell got laid off after 12 years with a major Tampa Bay area real estate development
company. His income amounted to a
severance package and payment from work as an independent contractor on a couple of
software projects for his former
company.

"The projects did nothing more than feed my family," he said.

So Mitchell became a software development entrepreneur. He used his last $200 to start a
company in a former associate's
Tarpon Springs garage. A few months later, ActSoft officially opened in a second-floor
shopping center office over a pizza shop.
Six years later, ActSoft staff numbers 23.

The company develops and markets Comet Transportation Software, a Microsoft Corp.
Windows-based program for managing
pickup, delivery and service tasks. Comet combines with products by Nextel Communications,
Sybase Co. and Intuit Inc. to
provide courier management systems.

Roadrunner Courier and Logistics in Tampa and companies in Virgina, Massachusetts and
California are among the firm's 350
clients.

Mitchell said he "fell into" the courier software business.

A friend of a friend was looking for courier software, but the potential customer balked
when told the finished product would cost
about $1,700, Mitchell said.

Mitchell searched for a market.

Two months later, he attended a Messenger Courier Association of America convention in
Orlando. The convention turned
ActSoft into a viable company in the eyes of the industry and sales from it provided cash,
Mitchell said.

"We made a sale and took the money and bought more postcards and copied postcards at
Kinko's," he said.

"During the first three years in business, I didn't take home a penny. I was fortunate to
have enough in my 401(k) money to live on
until then."

Then Mitchell decided on the strategy to focus on transportation and adapting to client
needs rather than commonality.

"Every bit of the software was written by clients asking us for stuff and talking to
prospects who said, 'Gosh do you have this
feature?'" he said. "Early on the answer was always, 'We don't today but will tomorrow.
Give me a week and I will call back and
show it to you.'"

In 1997, a new management strategy came into play that recognized Mitchell's strengths —
and weaknesses.

Mitchell became chief technology officer and brought in Jim Wilson as chief executive
officer.

Wilson now handles sales.

"I realized my skill set is really not sales," Mitchell said. "I ran an ad in the paper
for a sales manager, and Jim was one of four or
five guys that applied."

Wilson also brought in capital and access to credit to ActSoft, which continues to operate
without outside investment capital,
Mitchell said.

"His (access to credit) has helped us immensely because I was in a bad way financially by
the time he got here," Mitchell said.

The company now is taking steps to serve the pest control, cable television, and
pool-service industry with global positioning
system field service tracking applications.

A merger with an Australian company that would offer ActSoft the opportunity to branch
into Australia, the United Kingdom and
South Africa looms. Mitchell expects the Australian firm to buy one-third of ActSoft by
the end of the first quarter of 2003 in a
deal that would include an option for the firm to fully acquire his company.

To reach Pamela Griner Leavy, call (813) 342-2479, or send your e-mail to
[email-masked].

http://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/stories/2002/12/16/smallb1.html?t=printable

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