Wideforce developing solutions to manage telecommuters, freelancers

EDITOR’S NOTE: A continuing series of exclusive Business Report question-and-answer interviews with top management of leading e-business companies in the Boulder Valley.By Elizabeth Gold

Business Report Correspondent

SUPERIOR ? With a platform built on the idea that finding good help can be as easy as defining the job to be done, a soon-to-be launched software company recently moved into Softbank’s Hotbank incubator offices.

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Wideforce Systems Inc. aims to marry a Web-enabled workforce with companies looking to reduce overhead costs and manage telecommuters and freelance workers more efficiently. The focus will be on automating tasks that have consistent, measurable requirements.

Funded by Softbank Venture Capital and angel investors in January, Wideforce plans to launch by the end of the second quarter, according to Dave Jilk, president and chief executive officer. The company is working with alpha clients on initial tasks that include software system integration, distributing and collecting work to and from freelancers and checking for quality.

Elements of the platform eventually will include recruiting, training, scheduling and worker evaluations. Applications will include data entry, copy editing and other information-based quality assurance tasks.

The Business Report: What preceded becoming one of the latest Hotbank tenants?

Jilk: I worked as a consultant for two years and then as an employee, a developmental officer, at Softbank for eight months. I liked what we did here. Karyn German, the co-founder, and I pitched the idea to Softbank in December, and got initial funding in January.

BCBR: What makes being a Softbank-funded company so appealing?

Jilk: The value is that we have all these people around us. This is the epicenter of Brad’s portfolio, so management teams from other companies are here a lot. (Brad Feld is principal managing director of Softbank’s Colorado interests.) It’s easier to talk with people walking through the halls than it is to have to set up meetings.

Typically, growing start-ups lease more space than they need. Here, we just pay by the desk. There’s also the game room, office management and free food.

BCBR: How did the current funding scare stories affect your initial efforts?

Jilk: Last year it wasn’t unusual for people to get $5 million to $10 million in the Series A round. It’s not like that now. Amounts raised are based on valuation and the amount investors want to take. Valuations, funding amounts and burn rates are back to where they should be now. It was already a different world when we started. Our initial round will last us through 2001, and we’ll look at the Series B round in the fall.

BCBR: When Wideforce is launched in the second quarter, what will your customers be getting?

Jilk: With a general purpose platform for a remote workforce and work flow, we connect with clients, move data that allows workers to complete tasks and then have those tasks go back into the client’s system. We turn fixed costs into variable costs for clients. They’ll only pay for work done. Our clients will save money on overhead and have increased flexibility. I also believe the quality of work will be higher than what’s done by in-house staff. People working at home, where they want to be, will produce higher quality.

BCBR: When will your software be ready?

Jilk: Our development is proceeding in two phases. The first provides a work-flow system but no human resources support ? things like recruiting, training and evaluation. The second phase, to be completed June 30, will include the human resources support. Until the second phase is complete, we will perform the human resources support manually.

BCBR: What is your revenue model?

Jilk: We’re a software company charging licensing fees. In the short run, we’ll charge for professional services, but then it will just be for licensing and hosting. We’ll have fee structures or a transaction model based on usage. Our growth this year is around building our platform. By the end of the year, we’ll make revenue, too.

BCBR: How are you taking the current e-commerce shakedown into account, both internally and externally?

Jilk: We will probably have some e-businesses as clients, but Fortune 2000 clients are our goal. When I think of e-commerce, I think of online retail. The companies that are succeeding are the ones that are working with brick-and-mortar companies.

We’re involved in e-business, but we use the Internet to enable a new way to work as opposed to a new way to buy. The Internet isn’t a component of what we do ? it’s essential to it.

E-commerce is changing rapidly toward concepts that are infrastructure-related vs. vertical or conceptual. People are looking away from consumer-related stuff and more toward software that enables companies to do things. A lot of Internet companies haven’t been technology companies ? they’ve been more in manufacturing. Software is where technology lies. Investors are now focusing more on the software component that enables something broader as opposed to businesses that just happen to be on the Internet.