Confio software tunes up, updates databases

BOULDER — Matt Larson builds companies, solves problems, writes books, channels resources to Social Venture Partners and is a member of the Mensa Society.

He’s a big thinker whose dynamic yet methodical approach to building his company, Confio Software Corp., has led to a 191 percent increase in revenue in the past two years, increasing annual revenue 191 percent from $5.3 million in 2010 to $15.4 million in 2012, placing it No. 4 on the Boulder County Business Report’s Mercury 100 list of fastest-growing companies in Boulder and Broomfield counties for companies reporting more than $2 million in annual revenue.

Last year, Inc. Magazine ranked Confio as one of the fastest-growing companies in the United States. Soon after, Confio was named No. 317 on the prestigious Deloitte Technology Fast 500 list.

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What Confio does, to the relief of database managers around the globe, is solve problems that companies didn’t know they have. While the company offers a broad range of products and services, its bread-and-butter is a software suite that augments and stabilizes databases from companies such as Oracle, Microsoft’s SQL platform and Sybase. Think of it as a “tuneup” for your database.

“Technology is changing quickly, and we’re the tool of choice for a lot of these new systems,” Larson said. “We monitor databases so they perform the way they should and stay healthy.”

Many factors have contributed to Confio’s growth. Evolutionary innovations such as DevOps, Agile Software Development, virtualization and cloud computing all blend into the growing demand for Confio’s products. Many of the issues that Confio addresses are also related to the idea of “big data” — the development of data sets so large and complex that they outstrip traditional data-processing technology.

“Basically, big data is growing rapidly, and a lot of that data is running around in the databases of our customers,” Larson said. “Platforms that are growing that quickly are naturally going to cause all sorts of problems for our customers.”

Larson is remarkably composed about the growth that Confio software is experiencing. And a lot of that composure is because Larson and his team keep a close eye on the store.

“The growth has really not caused a lot of challenges for us,” he said. “We are extremely metric-driven. We measure and track everything, and when something gets off-kilter, it gets our attention in a hurry.

“Most companies just want to solve a problem,” Larson said. “But they don’t understand how to get companies to rank their problems and discover hidden problems. We focus on fixing the biggest issues — but first; you have to believe that they are there.”