Boise’s Blackfin expands into Pacific Northwest – Web design and programming firm snares top customers

Blackfin Technology has come a long way since its three founders pitched in $6,000 to launch the firm and then lived on credit cards and personal savings until the business took hold.

For more than a year beginning in 2000, the three native Idahoans shared one desk in a tiny sub-leased space in downtown Boise, using their home computers for work.

Julie Howard
The Idaho Statesman

http://www.idahostatesman.com/Business/story.asp?ID=62942

Today, their customer list includes Micron Technology, Hewlett-Packard, Idaho Power and New York´s prestigious investment banking firm Allen & Company.

In the past year, the Web design and programming firm opened an office in Portland, moved to new spacious headquarters in the hip 8th Street Marketplace, and more than doubled its employee count to 25.

This week, Blackfin announced the purchase of 10Cow Design Inc., a small Seattle Web design firm, creating a third office for the company.

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About Blackfin

Founded: 2000

Headquarters: 418 S. 9th St., Boise

What they do: Design and program Web sites, networking services, Oracle applications

Employees: 25

Locations: Boise, Portland and Seattle

On the Web: http://www.blackfintech.com

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“The economy is starting to turn around, and we´re seeing a lot more referrals,” said Brian Konrath, one of the three founders. He previously worked as a Web programmer for MicronPC in Nampa.

Bob Dean, a managing director for Allen & Co., heard about Blackfin when the investment bank held its annual conference in Sun Valley. He hired the firm last summer to create a Web program that would allow some clients to access account information.

“They came highly recommended, and we find that we can find better service and capabilities outside of New York,” said Dean. “They clearly did what they said they could do, and they were very easy to work with because they´re a small focused team.”

Konrath joined former MicronPC co-worker Jason Scherer and longtime friend Jefferson Jewell, an attorney, to found Blackfin. Scherer built software at MicronPC for sales and marketing, and Jewell practiced law at Stoel Rives LLP in Boise.

They grew the firm slowly, stymied in part by the recession which stalled spending. Now, with numerous successes behind them, the founders believe they´ve graduated beyond the “start-up” phase.

“We´ve seen a change over the past six to nine months, and now we´re ready to start investing in growing the company,” said Jewell.

That has meant recently hiring the company´s first dedicated sales employee, Dan Henderson, who formerly worked at Boise tech firm ClickBank.

Their first challenge in dealing with clients is a misunderstanding of what Blackfin does. While it does Web design, the backbone of the company´s work is the invisible programming behind the Web pages, creating software that will allow firms to conduct business online.

When Blackfin programmers met with MRI Center of Idaho to discuss a new Web site design, they noticed a small call center room on site that dealt with scheduling appointments. They proposed that the MRI Center handle their scheduling online, and ended up creating software that enables doctors to make direct appointments in much the way consumers can book airline flights.

Blackfin´s ability to create opportunities like that has the company on track to double its revenue in 2004 over last year. The purchase of 10Cow factors into that projection because the Seattle firm adds a design component to Blackfin´s programming backbone.

“If you write great code, it´s invisible, but if the overall package looks good, then the customer is happier with the work,” said Jewell, who said they had often worked in conjunction with 10Cow on projects because design work was needed to go along with the programming. “We realized we needed to offer design services in-house.”

This broader offering makes the company more appealing to existing clients in various ways.

When Boise´s ProClarity Corp. sells its analytics software to customers, it often will call on Blackfin´s help to integrate the software into a customer´s system.

“Our customers might have Blackfin customize our software for their own needs,” said Jodi Maupin, ProClarity´s channel marketing manager.

And with Blackfin expanding its presence in the Northwest, especially adding 10Cow, that makes the company even more valuable for companies that sell more broadly than the Treasure Valley.

“Our customers tend to want to work with integration companies in their own back yard,” said Maupin. “Giving our customers more options gives Blackfin more value to us.”

To offer story ideas or comments, contact Julie Howard
[email protected] or 373-6618