Web Hosting Interview - BroadSpire, Inc. September 2004

SURESH: I co-founded and currently serve as president of BroadSpire, Inc. (www.broadspire.com). On a day to day basis I oversee our strategic direction and spearhead our sales and marketing efforts.  Prior to establishing BroadSpire, I served as a marketing executive with Vivendi/Universal Games.

SURESH: BroadSpire was founded in 1996 by my father, my brother, and myself.  We decided to start the company based on what we saw as a large gap that needed to be filled. Large and small companies quickly started using the Internet for commercial purposes, however there were relatively few companies capable of helping those businesses manage their Internet-based operations.

We believed that there were enormous efficiencies to be realized in the market, and a great many businesses who needed high-quality IT services but lacked those kinds of resources.  With this opportunity in mind, we took the risk and took out some credit card debt to launch BroadSpire.

SURESH: One of BroadSpire's major factors for success is an obsessive commitment to customer service, no matter how large or small the customer.

SURESH: Our best selling service is our managed dedicated servers where BroadSpire's engineers manage the entire server(s) and/or applications for the customer. It's this consistent, high quality expertise that is hard to find and what we can deliver at very reasonable cost.

SURESH: BroadSpire partners with large businesses, associations, consultants, professional services firms, VARs and systems integrators that have influence over a target customer profile (say, small business with less than 100 employees).  BroadSpire services can easily be bundled with the service of these partners for a complete, rounded solution on a resale basis.

SURESH: BroadSpire focuses on sales of managed services, where BroadSpire's engineers assume control of the Customer's hosted environment. Our expertise allows us to refine the infrastructure and/or applications to ensure our Customers' business goals are met. Whether we're managing the Customer's Website(s), applications, databases, or email, we can add tremendous value.

SURESH: BroadSpire is among the few full-service providers that offers an Enterprise-class service for small and mid-size businesses alike. Our hosting infrastructure was crafted for customers such as Paramount Motion Pictures, NBC Television, US Navy, and the City of Los Angeles. We took those solutions, and specifically re-crafted them to fit the size, scope and budget of small businesses.
For a small business, there is no better platform because they get one vendor that can support them through all stages of their growth.

SURESH: Since inception we have diligently followed business practices that have helped us earn our customers' trust. A few of the values we live by include:

1) There is no replacement for a good product or service. We try to perfect our product, and then make sure it works perfectly each and every time.

2) We don't neglect existing customers to just find new ones.

3) We hire and retain good people.

4) Our mantra is service, service, service.  Whether we have a customer paying a few hundred dollars per month or $100,000 per month, that company is trusting us with a critical service. Their hard earned money is paying our salaries, so we treat them as if our livelihood depends on it, because it literally does.

SURESH: We are passionate about our customers' success. Our customers measure success by the reliability, speed and security of their key business systems on the Internet.  We take great pride that our customers and partners validate our business by purchasing additional services, referring their associates, and by expanding operations with us.  Following are some of the awards and achievements that we have earned over the years.
• Los Angeles Technology Fast 50 Company (2003 and 2004) by Deloitte & Touche
• Top 25 Hosts 2004 Winner by Tophosts.com
• WebHost Directory Award Winner
• Preferred Pick 2003
• Top 20 Host by HostIndex
• Top 10 Hosts 2002 by Tophosts.com
• And many others.

SURESH: Personally, I get a lot of satisfaction seeing our clients depend heavily on our services. Some of our clients derive 100 percent of their revenue online through sites hosted with us.  For others -- such as Paramount Pictures - they've entrusted us with maintaining their brand equity. And for others, they trust our managed service to run critical business applications for them - such as hosting MS Exchange for thousands of their employees.  To earn this level of trust is really satisfying.

SURESH: The market for Web hosting (looking specifically at the market for small businesses) is undergoing a pronounced shift. The products Web hosts sell are evolving as mainstream businesses use the Internet in more ways than ever before.  We see that small businesses are quickly melding many front office and back-office functions via use of the Web as their main pivot-point (hub) of operations, and as such, are placing heavier demands on their service provider to handle more and more of the critical services. Therefore, Web hosts need to broaden their products/services (and skills) in order to continue to meet the demands of the market.

SURESH: In the short term, we expect to expand through opportunities in the government sector (state, local, federal).  Toward that end, the company recently gained some government certifications to enable us to sell effectively.
We have also set some extremely lofty goals for the company for the next several years, all of which revolve around BroadSpire becoming an increasingly strategic asset to our customers and carrying more of the IT burden companies are faced with.