HouseValues offers a ground-floor view of a startup

Neatly written on two sheets of notebook paper is founder Mark Powell’s business plan for HouseValues, now a successful public company.

It took five years for Mark Powell to turn the handwritten business plan he scribbled on two sheets of notebook paper into a company worth nearly $50 million in annual revenue.

On Dec. 10, Kirkland-based HouseValues went public, selling $93.8 million in shares, making it the biggest initial public offering by a Washington-based company in three years.

But Powell’s story is hardly about a dot-com that raised gobs of capital during the boom. Rather, it’s more about how Powell struggled to get attention in a market that went from burning hot to ice cold.

At one extreme, it took him four months to find an available lawyer. At the other, he had the honor of saying he had been denied financing by every venture-capital company in town.

Today, at the Northwest Entrepreneur Network’s venture breakfast, Powell, 45, plans to share his tale of success and the lessons he learned as a first-time entrepreneur.

By Tricia Duryee

Seattle Times Technology reporter

Full Story: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002177169_housevalues11.html