Entrepreneur's risk based on filling a need: IT developer starts software delivery firm
Suburban Journals
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
By Mary Shapiro
Nobody's going to hand you anything - you've got to be willing to work hard to get what you want.
That's the motto entrepreneur Greg Altin, 44, of Wildwood, learned at the knee of his Italian immigrant father, Santino, who came to America in the 1950s and opened his own pizzeria in the 1970s in the Creve Coeur area.
Now, Santino's son is taking the same kind of risk.
On July 29, Greg Altin was unpacking after moving his new high-end software subscription delivery service firm, Cloud Commerce, from his home into an office at the St. Louis Enterprise Center business incubator in Chesterfield valley.
"In September of last year, I left a 20-year job - originally as an IT developer - at Brown Shoe Company, where I had worked my way up to being vice president of information technologies," Altin said. "That company was great to me, and I learned a lot. But they were going through some reorganization, and I had wanted to move on anyway."
Altin knew of the cloud computing technology, in which business software is delivered over the Internet to companies, which pay a subscription fee.
"It's an economical way to procure software," Altin said. "For example, you don't need big servers or racks because you're doing business 'in the cloud.'"
While the technology had a good foothold with big corporations, "I starting thinking, in July of last year, who is helping small- and mid-sized businesses?" Altin recalled asking himself.
"Somebody needed to pull solutions together for them in a manageable way, to let them do business better, faster and more efficiently," he said.
Immediately after Altin left Brown, the economy was tanking.
"I told my wife, Patti, "It sounds crazy, but I've got this idea I was wanting to pursue, and I feel it's the right time," he remembered. "She said 'I'm there with you - give it a try.'"
Patti used to be a buyer for Dillard's but left to raise their three children - son Brendan, 14, and twin daughters Audrey and Mary, 12 - and decided recently to go into health care.
Patti is a certified nurse.
"With our family situation changing, she just got a more traditional job at St. Luke's/Surrey Place retirement center," Greg said.
Altin's first steps included talking to friends who were entrepreneurs, contacting the non-profit Marion Kauffman Foundation (devoted to entrepreneurship) and calling the Small Business Administration. SBA directed him to a February seminar where he learned about available government programs, bank requirements and other aspects of starting a business.
"I ran my idea past business owners and got feedback," he said. "I wrote a formal business plan, and SBA accepted it."
However, banks weren't lending money at the time.
"I decided to fund my business from personal assets, and I started up July 1," Altin said. "It was scary. But I have a saying that charges me up: 'This is your life; are you who you want to be?'"
Altin then got in touch with the St. Louis Enterprise Centers, which offers four business incubators that provide affordable office and warehouse space, shared support services, access to mentors, professional seminars and networking opportunities.
He called the Chesterfield incubator "not just office space that doesn't break the bank, but also a place where you're joining a community of innovative new businesses."
In addition to mass marketing the software subscription program through his website, Cloud Commerce also provides consulting services to help companies move into cloud computing.
Altin has one employee but, by year's end, hopes to have a few more. He has customers and investors and is establishing partnerships with software providers such as Microsoft, Netsuite and Simple Signal.
"All big things start with risks," Altin said. "You have to be willing to try things and sometimes fail. But as I tell my own kids now, you've got to pursue what you love."
