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BYU. dropout’s startup soars to top – uSight No. 2 on Inc.’s fastest-growing private companies

Five years ago, Brandt Andersen dropped out of Brigham Young University in the midst of the dot.com crash to devote his time to uSight, his fledgeling Internet business.

"I was so busy running the company, I wasn’t making any of my classes," says Andersen, who had a student entrepreneur award under his belt.

By Glen Warchol
The Salt Lake Tribune

If you are cringing, thinking this is going to be the inevitable tale of youthful exuberance shattered by the ugly realities of the business world – think again.

Inc. magazine ranked uSight No. 2 on its list of the nation’s 500 fastest-growing private companies. To be eligible, companies have to be independent and privately held, have at least $200,000 in net sales for the base year of 2000 and $2 million in net sales for 2003.

Not only did 16 Utah companies make the list, the state has the highest per capita number of Inc. 500 companies – 6.8 per 1 million residents. Virginia was a distant second with 3.9 per million residents. It’s the second year in a row that Utah held the lead in Inc. 500’s per capita winners.

"At first we thought it was the Olympics, but it seems Utah is generating a lot of entrepreneurial energy. And it’s not consolidated in one market either," Inc. 500 senior editor Carol Hirsch said.

Andersen, at 27, was the youngest CEO interviewed by Inc. for the 500 list. "That surprised me," he says.

Perhaps it was his youthful optimism – what wiser heads might call cluelessness – that motivated Andersen to start an Internet company during the infamous dot.com collapse.

"I was going to BYU and got married and decided to start this software company," he says of his short, but very sweet, success story. "It’s the first thing that I’ve done."

He funded the Orem startup with $5,000 on a credit card. "Going out and getting venture capital money was not even an option at that time because everything was crashing down. Also, I figured, who is going to trust me with any money?"

Though he didn’t know it at the time, Andersen showed brilliant, if counterintuitive, timing. "Everyone was laying off, so we were able to hire the best people," he says. And, while big, highly leveraged dot.coms were failing spectacularly, he says, small internet businesses were quietly taking root.

USight provides software and services for small to medium-size e-commerce businesses, including software for Web site creation and banking to allow them to conduct business over the Internet, Andersen says. "We give the small business the A to Z products on being able to run a business online."

Not that uSight didn’t have problems, including a run-in two years ago with the state Division of Consumer Protection over consumer complaints, director Francine Giani said.

"We were receiving complaints and we did take action [against uSight]. We were able to come to an agreement on some issues," Giani says. "While we have gotten complaints since, we have been able to resolve those issues to those consumers."

Andersen says the company does what it can to settle with disgruntled customers, but with tens of thousands of clients, you are going to get "a few bad apples."

In 2000, the company had "a couple hundred thousand dollars in revenues," Andersen said. Last year, the company and its 65 employees did $27.6 million in sales, according to Inc. and has more than 30,000 clients, mostly in Canada and the United States.

But Andersen’s story is only beginning. Two months ago, he sold uSight to Kansas City, Mo.-based National Marketing Resources for an undisclosed amount. Now, he is doing a little consulting and considering his next project.

And, he said, "I’m thinking about finishing up my education."
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RANKNAME OF COMPANYCITYSECTORREVENUEGROWTH RATE*

2uSight LLCOremSoftware$27,637,7533,283%30Edge ProductsOgdenTransportation$9,643,942734%45Hobbytron.comOremRetail$7,853,222532%48iboats, inc.DraperConsumer Products$8,577,044515%70USA Lending GroupSalt Lake CityFinancial services$4,810,000380%93Backcountry.comHeber CityRetail$14,904,299306%96Summit Energy, LLCPark CityEnergy$61,123,886292%104Ibahn/fka STSN Inc.MidvaleTelecommunications$60,590,630276%132IKANO CommunicationsSalt Lake CityTelecommunications$27,679,961231%189FatPipe Networks, Inc.Salt Lake CityTelecommunications$3,147,666182%199Pro Look Sports Corp.ProvoManufacturing$2,704,878177%228DieCuts with a ViewProvoConsumer products$7,281,638162%250Back to Basics, Inc.BluffdaleConsumer products$68,306,778145%368Cafe Rio Inc.ProvoFood/Beverage$16,883,27699%445ChartLogic, Inc.Salt Lake CityHealth$5,492,15284%474StudeoSalt Lake CityAdvertising/marketing$41,799,14377%
Source: Inc. magazine

The Salt Lake Tribune

Utah companies on Inc. magazine’s 500 list

*2003 average annual percentage growth

© Copyright 2004, The Salt Lake Tribune.

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