Canvis, Part 2: The Upside of a Downturn

July 27, 2010 By Mike Colwell

Canvis_RGB At the end of 2008, Canvis™ was poised to take its Blue Fingerprint™ software to the top of the construction market. Developers were using it on 42 projects, representing more than 6,000 homes from Florida to Washington State.

Then the economy tanked. Construction projects and the demand for planning software – no matter how inventive – dried up with it. Canvis and its founder, David Gion, looked at the upside of the downturn and got to work improving the product, developing a second application and building the infrastructure to help the company emerge strong when the economy rebounded.

“Construction is the last one into a recession and the last one out of a recession, so we knew that 2009 and 2010 would be difficult at best,” Gion says. “And there’s an 18-month sales cycle so we really had to put a plan in place to weather that storm.

“When the recession hit the construction industry, The Weitz Company, the original developers of the software, began to strategically prepare for revenue reduction and, since software was not one of their core competencies, it was decided to spin it off. It was also a good time for Canvis to get everything in order, improve the product and to establish our own identity.”

One of Canvis’ main goals for 2010 is to proactively market Blue Fingerprint for the first time. Until now, Canvis relied almost entirely on word-of-mouth advertising to sell the software product that helps manage options and upgrades during construction of senior living communities and condominium projects.

The second goal is to create the next version of the product, based on user feedback, and begin work on the first production version of the company’s second product, Punch It™. Punch It is a software application that lets users identify, document and communicate the defects that need to be repaired on a construction project before it’s certified complete.

“We’re using the downturn to get ourselves up to speed so, when construction activity starts picking up, we’ll be out there ready to go,” Gion explains. “If things were going well, we’d probably be struggling to find the time to improve the product, build the infrastructure we need and get our marketing message out there. Now we can prepare to be proactive in our sales and marketing.”

While Canvis believes the construction industry may begin to come back in 2011, it’s not a sure thing. “Part of our strategy is that we’re going to execute these things while the market is thrashing, but we don’t control the market so it can come back slower,” Gion says. “In the last nine months, we’ve raised 83% of our capital needs and we’re working now to secure the last 17% of funding.”

We’re all about accelerating construction via simple software solutions, but we can’t do anything to speed up the recovery, so we’re working hard to be ready when it happens.”

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Statistics & Control Inc.

November 6, 2009 By Mike Colwell

Statistics & Control Inc., a new company based in West Des Moines, got help from the Business Innovation Zone (BIZ) when it came to one of the challenges facing many small businesses – paperwork. In the case of S&C, the company wanted to apply to the state of Iowa for a loan to help get the business off the ground.

“For the person who has never done it before, it’s complicated,” said company Vice President Boris Pusin, one of S&C’s four founders. The BIZ, headed by Executive Director Mike Colwell, helped fill out the application. S&C got the loan.

S&C started doing business last September, offering engineering consulting expertise in the design of gas turbine and compressor controls used in natural gas pipelines, oil refineries and electrical generating plants. The company also has developed software designed to optimize processes in ethanol production, oil refining and the movement of natural gas through pipelines.

Pusin, 45, was born and raised in St. Petersburg, Russia, and earned a master’s degree in engineering, specializing in gas turbine and compressor design. He, his wife and small son came to the United States in 1992, settling in Iowa, where Boris got a job with a compressor control company in Des Moines.

In 2007, Boris and three colleagues founded S&C. The company has plans to grow, increasing sales and expanding its work force to eight people by the end of the year and to 15 by the end of 2010.

In an interview, Boris talked about S&C and the help it received from the BIZ:

Q. How did you find out about the BIZ?

A. Business acquaintances suggested contacting the Greater Des Moines Partnership. We were referred to the BIZ by the Partnership.

Q. The BIZ helped with the loan application. What other help did the BIZ provide?

A. They helped develop a business plan. That’s a major thing for a start-up business – to develop the right plan. It should not be overly optimistic and should not be too conservative. Both of those are difficult to sell to investors. It should be somewhere in between.

The plan projects growth in sales and work force. It projects sources of income such as investment, loans and sales.

The BIZ also provided information and helped with the application process for an employee-training program sponsored by the Iowa Department of Economic Development and administered by Des Moines Area Community College.

Q. Is the help ongoing or was it a one-time thing?

A. I think of it as a long-term relationship. We continue working with Mike Colwell. We are looking, for example, for new hires and would like to target graduates from Iowa State University. He’s hooking me up with the right people at Iowa State to find some employee prospects.

Q. How do you feel about the help that you got from the BIZ?

A. I feel great about it. The people are nice. They know what they’re doing. Without their help, I’d be scrambling to adjust our business plan. They gave me a better perspective. The process was much quicker, rather than if I did it all on my own.

Q. Where are you now in the development of your business and what steps will follow?

A. We’re in the start-up stage, about eight months into operations. A main goal is to finalize development of our software products and start marketing them.

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This project is funded by a grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). SBA’s funding should not be construed as an endorsement of any products, opinions or services. All SBA-funded projects are extended to the public on a nondiscriminatory basis.