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To all:
The Sunday Denver Post today ranked InfoNow as their #1 company in the hottest 100 Colorado companies:
denverpost.com
The few people who knew about InfoNow Corp. were either high-paying
Fortune 500 clients or investors seeking a piece of a promising young
high-tech company, resulting in a dazzling financial performance in 1998. InfoNow Corp. was barely a blip on anyone's radar screen at the start of last year. The Denver company provided a little-known and little-understood Internet service. Its stock was not listed on any major exchange, and its income statement had never shown a profit.
Twelve months later, at the end of 1998, InfoNow Corp. was still largely unknown. It still had never turned a profit, and its stock was still unlisted by a major exchange. But a big change had occurred for the company that helps other firms handle customer inquiries over the Internet. The few people who knew about InfoNow Corp. were either clients - high-paying Fortune 500 clients - or investors seeking a piece of a promising young high-tech company. The result was a dazzling financial performance in 1998. Even without recording a profit, the company's fast-improving fundamentals were good enough to lift InfoNow to the top of The Denver Post 100 ranking of Colorado public companies.
"We've been kind of a stealth company,'' said Michael Johnson, president and chief executive officer of InfoNow. "Now we're ready to make some noise, and people are going to find out about us.''
What they'll find out is that InfoNow, despite its low profile, has a client list that would be the envy of any firm, large or small.
It includes Allstate, Citibank, Compaq, FedEx, Hewlett-Packard, IBM,
Intel, Motorola, UPS and Visa. While InfoNow's service varies according to the company being served, the common link is monitoring a firm's Web site for customer inquiries - from individual consumers or businesses - and then directing the customer to an appropriate dealer, distributor or information source. For example, a customer visiting a computer manufacturer's Web site might click on a "contact me'' button to receive more information. The inquiry is seamlessly passed on to InfoNow, which uses a sophisticated database to find an appropriate and convenient location for the customer to shop. Without the technology provided by InfoNow, a company might rely on a
toll-free phone service to provide customers with similar information.
Johnson maintains that InfoNow can provide better and faster information over the Internet. The cost, he said, is about one-tenth the cost of a typical telephone contact, or approximately 30 to 50 cents for InfoNow vs. $3 to $5 for a customer helped by a phone operator. In addition, InfoNow can monitor the outcome of the customer contact, determining what product the customer ultimately buys and where it is purchased. That information can help the client refine its advertising and marketing.
Johnson attributed InfoNow's low-profile "stealth'' approach partly to the difficulty any young company faces in marketing a new technology. But the approach, he said, also was intentional. "Part of being a stealth company is going out and grabbing the good clients before someone else does,'' Johnson said.
Trying to explain InfoNow's services has been a challenge, said Michael Basch, a cofounder of Federal Express who recently joined InfoNow as vice president of sales and marketing. Basch created a clever sales pitch by sending a suitcase to executives of potential clients. The suitcase contained a laptop computer and a wireless phone. When the computer's "on'' button was pushed, a sophisticated on-screen presentation began, concluding with an invitation to use the phone to call InfoNow for more information. "Once we get people to understand what we do, we've got 'em,'' Basch said.
InfoNow attracted the attention of Pacific Crest Securities of Portland,whose equity research department recommended a "strong buy'' rating for InfoNow stock. Pacific Crest analysts said the firm is well positioned for growth, works with blue-chip clients and has an undervalued stock that trades at a signifcant discount to its peers in the "eservices'' sector.
Share price was one of the factors that placed InfoNow at the top of The Post 100. For the listing, companies were ranked in three financial categories: earnings growth, revenue growth, and total return on investment, calculated by stock appreciation and dividends.
Even though InfoNow operated at a net loss of $1.1 million in 1998, the loss was significantly less than the $2.36 million shortfall in 1997. As a result, InfoNow ranked 17th in earnings growth. The company's revenue gain from $1.05 million in 1997 to $2.5 million in 1998 was good for a 10th-place ranking. InfoNow took first place in the total return category, with a stock price that soared from 29 cents at the start of 1998 to $2.50 at the end of the year. Combined, the company's ranking in the three categories outperformed all other public companies in Colorado.
InfoNow shows no sign of letting up. It recorded its first profit - a modest $60,000 or about 1 cent a share - in a recently released second-quarter earnings report. The firm has applied to be listed on the Nasdaq small-cap stock exchange and hopes in the near future to move up to the Nasdaq National Market System, giving it greater exposure to investors and clients.
"If 1998 was good,'' said president and CEO Johnson, "you'll really be
psyched about what we do in 1999.''
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Good investing!
Chuck |
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