By Pat Kramer for Entrepreneur Magazine
NASHVILLE – As a “profit catalyst” for e-commerce start-ups, eConception.com helps companies with great ideas become profitable by offering comprehensive resources from their staff of 55 full-time specialists. “We are “mission control” for start ups,” notes Joseph Freedman, eConception’s 34-year old president and CEO. “We are one of the few, full-service companies with an in-house staff of resources. An entrepreneur can come to us with an idea, and we’ll provide the financial and human capital resources to take them to the next level.”
Since launching eConception in November 1999 with a staff of three, Freedman has built it into one of the Southeast’s leading companies. As one of Nashville’s “40 Most Influential People Under 40,” he has a track record for building profitable e-commerce companies including start-up AMICUS Legal Staffing Inc. which grew to be the nation’s largest, privately-held legal services search firm. In 1997, he sold the firm to a NYSE company, then invested some in Internet background investigation firm, Background America, Inc., which became profitable in two years then sold to a NASDAQ company in 1999.
Recognizing the critical role time and financesplay in the life of an Internet company, Freedman and his team use their experience to help small, innovative companies achieve profitability at warp speed.
Despite the initial challenges of finding technologically savvy investors, he says investment resources are now three times higher than they were five years ago. As a result, they have more resources to make client companies profitable.
“The biggest issue now for companies entering the e-commerce arena is how to become profitable,” notes Donna Hoffman, Associate Professor at Vanderbilt University’s Owen School of Business. “In the last six months, eConception has raised over $12 million in private equity, mostly from middle-Tennessee investors, for investments in B2B e-commerce companies. With this seed money, they launched eight companies and are looking to launch at least two more in the next few months. I think eConception is going to place Nashville on the map in e-commerce.”
“By focusing on non-mainstream, underutilized niche markets, we are helping move the Internet power centers to the places people live,” says Vice President of “Buzz” Jody Lentz.
“eConception’s focus on second tier cities was a key factor in our choosing them,” states Silas Deane, CEO of virtual public relations firm Logic Media Group. “It was especially attractive for our employees who didn’t want to move to the higher priced markets of Silicon Valley and Silicon Alley to compete. By providing accounting, human resources, management, and infrastructure, eConception enabled us to focus on our core competency at a critical time and gave us equal footing without having to make dramatic lifestyle changes.”
With a fee of $50,000 to $125,000 for their services, eConception projects revenues of approximately $1 million for its first year. Freedman says his mission is to build an international network of operations in under-served markets. “This will allow eConception access to more of the great human and financial capital resources out there and allow the entrepreneurial spirit to thrive in non-mainstream Internet markets.”