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Marc Guthrie is an entrepreneur in the purest sense of the word. His ComFrame Software Corp. doesn't manufacture anything. It doesn't have a stack of off-theshelf software to offer clients. No plush offices aimed at selling clients simply on an image.
What it lacks in up-front assets, though, it makes up in technological skills - skills it applies to help clients solve problems and migrate their existing systems to the ecommerce environment using the popular Java programming language.
"Java programming tends to be more efficient than some other programming languages, and Java is crossplatform, so it will run on type of system," Guthrie says. "We like to say that we can remodel your business without rebuilding your systems."
Founded in late 1997 by Guthrie and two partners, the company started with just three employees and no office space. The trio of founders underwent an amicable split about a year later. Although his partners retain their ownership interest in the business, Guthrie holds the reins.
"We were a virtual office until April 1999," when ComFrame became a tenant in the Entrepreneurial Center business incubator downtown, where it has already expanded its space to handle new business and host its growing staff of 13 employees, Guthrie says. The self-financed company posted revenue of about $700,000 in its first full year (1998) and nearly doubled that to $1.3 million in 1999.
"We've had positive cash flow and positive earnings from day one, and we've been able to build our capital through cash flow," Guthrie says. The...