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NetSphere Solutions Inc. co-founder goes from contract gig to running successful company in five years

For a business to thrive in a competitive environment where customers have plenty of alternatives, a company has to offer something different.

Marco Potvin says providing hands-on customer service has helped him go from a one-year programming contract to running a web development company that employs 20 people, in just five years.

Potvin, 33, is a co-founder and the chief executive of Dieppe-based NetSphere Solutions Inc., which provides services in web and application development and databases.

In 2005 Potvin quit his job to take a contract with a New Jersey-based company to build a system similar to PayPal that would charge purchases to a person's home phone bill. On the side he began to look for other contract opportunities and founded NetSphere with his former business partner Jason Gendron, who later sold his share of the business to Potvin.

Now NetSphere has a strong client base with roughly 95 per cent of its business in the United States, mostly in New York City and the surrounding area.

"We help online marketers by developing software and useful tools to try to help them gather potential customers," Potvin says describing the bulk of his contracts.

"I have long-term relationships with my clients, we've become like their IT staff."

When NetSphere takes on a new client or project the firm dedicates staff and resources to work with the customer and be available when they're needed.

Potvin focuses on finding long-term contracts that continue well after the initial work has been completed. Though his firm has done some one-time-shot projects, such as building a website for TV Guide, he doesn't chase that type of work down because "it's too competitive."

"We have companies that have been paying their monthly bill since 2005," he says adding his quarterly trips to New York City almost seem like he's going to visit old buddies.

"We have people leaving from other companies to come to us and the major difference they told us is the service that they get with us," he says.

"We never did any marketing campaigns, it's all because people are pleased with our service and recommend us to other companies."

Potvin never used financing or loans from banks or investors. He operated off a credit card in the early days and now has a line of credit to keep the cash flow consistent.

But he did take advantage of existing government programs. He said he could have operated without them, but funds took some of the financial burden of taking on new employees for new contracts. Over the years NetSphere has taken about $200,000 from governments, $130,000 of it from the National Research Council's Industrial Research Assistance Program, which was only for salaries, and the rest from the province for workforce expansion.

"Compared to the salaries over the years I don't think it's a substantial amount," he says of the $200,000. "I've been paying a few million in salaries since I've opened."

Jeff Roach, executive director of Propel ICT Inc., a not-for-profit that helps New Brunswick tech startups, says being able to expand a company to that extent on so little funding is a significant achievement.

"We need to become obsessed with bootstrapping - putting as much value into a company before investment is sought," Roach says.

Though Potvin isn't interested in selling part of his business because he'd prefer to remain in complete control, bootstrapping is largely responsible for where NetSphere is today.

"Our entrepreneurs need to know their customers better than anyone else," Roach says. "Our companies need to be building their products and selling their products at the same time and as quickly as possible. Investors are looking for entrepreneurs who care about their company that much to take the risk."

Potvin says he has no regrets about not getting investors, though he sometimes wonders what would have happened if he had.

"Maybe I would be bigger, I don't know," he says. "I don't think it would have changed the quality of the service, but maybe I would have more accounts."