Pipeline Hopes to Tap Venture Capital Market to Rebuild Sales Force After Year of Workforce Cuts
By ANDREW SIMONS
Pipeline Software Inc. says its software already helps chipmakers manage their business dealings with suppliers.
Now it wants to grow.
The Newport Beach-based software company is looking for $3 million to $5 million so it can expand its sales force, says Pipeline Chief Executive Charlie Sundling.
Pipeline’s software allows chipmakers to coordinate their business with suppliers, which makes chip production smoother, Sundling says.
While big software makers such as Siebel Systems Inc. and PeopleSoft Inc. help manage customer relationships, Pipeline’s software helps manage supplier relationships.
“The only thing that really rivals us is e-mail and spreadsheets,” Sundling said.
Pipeline sells to chip companies that operate their own wafer fabrication plants, or fabs. But it hopes to land new business with so-called fabless chip designers and contract electronics makers.
Chip and other electronics makers are starting to spend money on new software, Sundling said. But Pipeline doesn’t have a big enough sales force to reach all the companies it would like to reach, he said.
Pipeline plans to hire about 25 sales and engineering staff in the next year, Sundling said.
Pipeline’s customers already are a who’s who in technology. The company sells software to some of the largest chip and equipment makers, including Intel Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. Pipeline has bids out to local names such has Newport Beach-based Conexant Systems Inc. and Microsemi Corp., Sundling said.
Pipeline is a transplant.
The company was founded in 1997 by Sundling, a veteran of chip production gear maker KLA-Tencor Corp.
He moved the company south in 1999 to be close to several customers and to keep a close eye on Orange County’s emerging communications chip industry, which includes Conexant and Irvine-based Broadcom Corp. The company still has an office in San Jose and another in Austin.
Pipeline has been profitable for four years, Sundling says, but has struggled recently along with the rest of the tech industry. The company, which employed as many as 41 people a year ago, has cut its staff back to 17 in the past year.
Sundling has been showing the company around to Southland venture capitalists such as Costa Mesa’s InnoCal Venture Capital and San Diego’s Mission Ventures. So far, nobody’s bitten. But Sundling is confident.
“Things look good,” said Sundling, who hopes to bring Pipeline public within the next three years.
Since the Internet meltdown, most venture funding has gone to healthcare and biotechnology related companies.
And, with the tighter economic times, venture capitalists are demanding entrepreneurs prove their business works, said InnoCal Ventures Dan Bassett.
“It helps when we can actually go talk to customers and hear their feedback on the product,” Bassett said.
That’s good for Pipeline,customers are something the company already has.
