No Vision All Drive, 3rd Edition

Chapter 5 Growing Up

Pinpoint on a Roll

Beginning in the last quarter of 1995 and through 1996, Pinpoint was on a roll. Sales in 1994 had been about $60,000, consisting almost exclusively of EMTrack support. In 1995 sales grew to about $250,000 and in 1996 sales quadrupled to almost $1 million. In addition to this growth we had a profit each year, something we have always been extremely proud of.

We instituted a profit-sharing program for our employees to encourage everyone to make decisions that were beneficial to the company. We felt that sharing our profits with our team would keep everyone moving in the same direction. That profit-sharing program is still in place today.

Our financial focus in those years was always on cash. Although I did all the bookkeeping, David was always interested in one number: how many months can we survive on no sales? I kept a spreadsheet in which I kept track of this number and we felt more comfortable as it crept up, although it’s probably more accurate to say that we felt less uncomfortable about succeeding in the long term.

Sweet Computer Services

Back in 1996 it became clear that because we were former users of similar systems, we understood very clearly what needed to be implemented in our CAD system—but that when it came to billing, we were fumbling around, trying to figure out what the software should do. Whereas the challenge with RightCAD was learning how to program a Windows application, the challenge with billing was figuring out ...