Beat Check: Sitemason. No news, just want you to know they're not hiring
Milt Capps
Sitemason, the 8-year-old content-management system developer and hosting services provider with offices up several flights of stairs in Suite 5 at 110 30th Avenue, would like you to know that "our news is we are not hiring."VNC is providing details about Sitemason's office – in which an overstuffed green corduroyish sofa is a focalpoint – because during our interview the day before Thanksgiving, we found there was no news at Sitemason. How could that be? Well, first, they still have the same space they've had several years, and there are still just five people working there, including Co-founders CEO Tim Moses and President Thomas Conner. So, no real-estate news. The cofounders made clear they're not looking for the kind of growth that requires hiring and or any kind of sustained management of other human beings. Ergo, no hiring news. There was almost some news: At one point, Moses became enthusiastic about demonstrating a cellphone app he's developed, called "the Premiere Pirate Translator." It generates piratey insults and instant messages for all occasions, with some "Yarrrrr!"-type audio possibly coming later. Unfortunately, Moses is not working on that, right now, so there's no pirate news, either. Neither is Sitemason in trouble because of the financial meltdown. They've positioned themselves as the "low-cost provider" – "beer versus wine," as Conner put it. So, in this environment they're doing well, according to Moses, who adds that among Sitemason customers, "the Web is probably the last thing they're going to cut." At the moment, Sitemason's only apparent business "problem" is whether to say, as Conner put it, "we're overwhelmed" with work; or, to follow Moses' advice: "Just say we're extremely busy." Either way, per-employee revenue is growing steadily, they said – meaning, No news about tech guys being overwhelmed. Moses explained Sitemason can handle a steadily high level of work partly because they only develop new software features that can be used by all their Sitemason content-management customers. They don't accept "one-off" development projects that can run amok in a small company. In addition, Moses said Sitemason is saving gobs of money by relying on the Amazon.com's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), rather than managing its own server farm. He said EC2 gives Sitemason access to thousands of virtual servers, with no hardware costs – all at "a fraction" of what they were previously paying such folks as Hosting.com. So, said Moses, they get "a phenomenal amount of [hosting] business on an ongoing basis," generating that coveted recurring revenue. Asked if having such a solid business isn't a bit boring, the executive pair responded in unison, "We're not bored!" There are even more personal reasons behind Sitemason's paucity of news. Most of it's about personal time. For Moses, being a husband and father of six children is clearly high on the list. He's also a big fan of National Pirate Day. And, both Moses and marathon-running Conner are pretty heavily involved in community and civic activity, individually supporting groups ranging from Belcourt Theater to a Baptist church. Telalink, by the way, was sold in 1999 to a high-growth company – Herndon, Va.-based PSINet – which ran aground and sought bankruptcy protection. Many of Telalink's assets were bought by Nashville's Nexus Group, previously known as ISDN-Net. ►
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