On the Path to Success? SmartPath Sets Lofty Goals in Marketing Resource Management Space

Editor’s note: This is the sixth in a series of profiles of companies presenting at Venture 2003.SmartPath closed on $3.2 million in venture capital in December from some of the area’s most high-profile investors.

Sensing an opportunity for growth, it’s coming back for more funding.

And SmartPath. which provides marketing resource management software to a host of major corporations, has set quite a goal for itself.

“Our goal is to be the MRM market leader by 2005,” Grace Ueng, vice president of marketing, tells Local Tech Wire.

Even though SmartPath sees competition coming from Oracle and SAP, executives believe their approach and technology will set them apart, Ueng says.

In January, when SmartPath announced its latest round of funding, Chief Executive Officer Michael Doemberg outlined an aggressive strategy.

“We want to take advantage of our opportunity in this emerging space,” he said at the time. “We wanted to expand our management team, and we want to be able to expand our marketing and sales effort as well as create new partnerships.”

Intersouth Partners, which helped Doemberg and his partners Dave Babson and Ken Romley launch SmartPath two years ago, was part of the new round. Also participating are Tri-State Investment Group, Charlotte Angel Partners, The Atlantis Group, and turePilot.

SmartPath is one of 23 companies preparing for presentations at Venture 2003, the Council for Entrepreneurial Development’s 20th annual venture capital event.

As it did a year ago, Local Tech Wire is featuring in-depth profiles of presenting firms built around a Q&A with a company executive as well as a Fact Box of important information. One profile will appear each day.

LTW put together a Q&A designed to not only produce facts about the presenters but also to give each a chance to state the case for venture capitalists to invest.

Sixth in the series is from Ueng. (For links to previous stories, see list below.)

Venture 2003 is set for April 22-23 in Chapel Hill.

Times are tough. If you had only one chance and one paragraph to convince an investor, how would you answer this question: “Why should an investor choose your company?”

SmartPath has the ingredients for success: People, Product,
Potential, and Passion.

People: The management team is comprised of proven executives who have successfully grown software companies in the past.

Product: Gartner (research and consulting firm) validates that we have the strongest, most robust and flexible marketing resource management (MRM) technology.

Potential: MRM is one of the fastest growing emerging growth enterprise software categories – potential market of $3.2B.

Passion: The SmartPath team is filled with strong passion for success.

What is the “pain point” (or points) you address for your customers?

Large companies that run thousands of marketing programs a year
are currently managing these programs using homegrown solutions that aren’t working because they have not scaled.

What makes your company unique? Do you have a proprietary and/or a patented technology?

We offer a high degree of configurability and flexibility and
depth of MRM functionality.

What makes your product(s) and/or services unique vs. your competition? (Who is your competition, and what do they offer?) If you have no competition, why not?

Aprimo is one of our competitors – they offer a marketing suite without the depth of MRM functionality.

The large enterprise application suite vendors such as Oracle and SAP are also entering the space. They offer standardization for their installed client base, but not the breadth or flexibility which SmartPath offers.

Does your company already generate revenue? If so, how much? Are you cash flow positive?

Yes, we are launching our fifth generation of our product so
therefore have been generating revenue.

What is your target market? What is the size of that market in terms of dollars? What share of that market do you believe you can win?

Our target market is Fortune 10,000 – companies whose marketing
activities are critical to their success.

$3.2B in size. Our goal is to be the MRM market leader by 2005.

What will you do with the invested funds? What is the timeline for product delivery? If you have existing products and services, how will additional funding help you expand your company, if that is the intention, or will you develop new products?

We will be investing in building our sales team, increasing
marketing initiatives, and maintaining our leadership in product technology.

What do you want from an investor other than money?

Introductions with strategic partners, strategic counsel.

Why will investors be impressed with your management team?

Each member of the team has had over 15 years of experience in
their related areas of expertise and in high growth software companies. The founders have been together for over 10 years and have successfully sold two other companies.

What is the exit strategy for the investor from your company? Are there potential strategic alliances with larger companies? Do you wish to take the company public? Or do you wish to grow the company and either sell it or acquire other companies?

Our goal is to increase the valuation of the company through
strong revenue growth and carefully managing the business.

Just the facts on SmartPath: www.localtechwire.com/article.cfm?u=3831

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