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May 4, 2000

Ten Fast Facts

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FASTFOCUS SYSTEMS INC.

WHO:
An Internet software developer founded in 1997 by Dan Mintz, Llance Kezner and Lex Lindsey.

WHAT:
Helps e-commerce companies boost sales by improving their online catalogs.

WHERE:
Bellevue

Fast Fact #1: FastFocus is shopping for a CEO.

Comment: Lex indsey currently doubles as chief technology officer and interim CEO, but the company is looking for someone with experience turning small companies into large ones "very quickly," says Mintz, vice president for business development. "In this marketplace, you've got to move fast. Our space is starting to heat up."

Fast Fact #2: FastFocus is in the midst of raising $2 million.

Comment: It will be the company's first outside financing, but not its last. In about four months, FastFocus will seek another unspecified amount of capital. Initially, the founders self-funded the company and then continued to grow the operation with revenues. "Revenues ... what a concept!" says Dan Mintz.

Fast Fact #3: Mintz and Llance Kizner were fraternity brothers at the University of Washington.

Comment: FastFocus sprang from an online adventure travel service -- FastFocus On Adventure Travel -- the pair founded after brainstorming potential ideas for an online business. "We didn't actually sketch it out on a napkin, but we did get together over lunch," recalls Mintz. It helped that Kezner, vice president of operations, previously worked as an adventure travel guide. The two friends later brought in Lindsey, with whom Mintz had worked at an earlier job, to develop software to drive the business.

Fast Fact #4: FastFocus is filing patents in 10 different areas.

Comment: The power of the software Lindsey developed for FastFocus On Adventure Travel broadened the company's horizons and changed its model from business-to-consumer to business-to-business. "That ended up being what drove the company," says Mintz, noting the partners are selling the travel business to concentrate on developing e-commerce tools. "At this point, it's a better position to be in," explains Mintz. "It's like the gold rush and we're supplying the picks and shovels."

Fast Fact #5: Their software helps merchants create more effective online catalogs.

Comment: The company's flagship FastFocus Buying Decision System employs user friendly technology. The sotfware gives sales people, not techies, control over catalog content and eliminates the cost of hiring Web designers or data base programmers to update information. "Those people are in short supply," says Mintz. "And they shouldn't be involved in the sales process anyway."

Fast Fact #6: About two-thirds of potential Internet buyers never complete their intended purchase.

Comment: Unless they know exactly what they want, many become frustrated by poor responses to their search requests. The FastFocus Buying Decision System creates better matches between a shopper's generic preferences and a merchant's specific inventory by better organizing the search process. Because sales people can use their knowledge of customers to continually refine product profiles, the system is more likely to find the desired item, says Mintz. "That is the key element."

Fast Fact #7: FastFocus will start formal marketing in June.

Comment: Until now, the company has been working with a number of beta customers to perfect the system. "It's a matter of getting everyone lined up," says Mintz. "You have to make sure you can definitely perform. We don't want to get out there and not be able to handle the business." Right now, the company has only four full-time employees -- including the founders -- and six contractors.

Fast Fact #8: FastFocus welcomes the recent pressure on e-commerce companies to become profitable.

Comment: In the beginning, says Mintz, online merchants were obsessed with simply "getting hits." As a result, they spent 70 percent of their budgets on marketing, but converted just 2 percent of their hits to sales, he says. Now, falling stock prices have prodded dot-com merchants to give priority to boosting their sales and producing profits -- and Fast Focus is poised to help. "The market timing is right now," says Mintz. "Even six months ago was too soon."

Fast Fact #9: FastFocus is licensing its technology to other e-commerce solution providers.

Comments: The other companies, such as Ecadia, offer services such as streaming media product demonstrations that help merchants close sales. "But those companies all still need our piece to get [customers] there in the first place," says Mintz.

Fast Fact #10: The founders plan to take FastFocus public.

Comment: "At this point we're just ramping up as quickly as we can," says Mintz. "But an IPO is definitely in the future."



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