E-techsupport Wants to Be National Leader in PC-Support Market
Marci Salas is nothing if not ambitious.
Only two years ago, she began E-techsupport.com out of a beachfront house in Laguna Beach. Now she has 55 employees, a client list that includes some big OC names, and a $15 million revenue projection this year.
But that’s just the beginning for Salas. The company has begun moving on a national rollout and has a goal of expanding to 700 employees within a year,including hiring over 400 engineers in a tight-as-a-drum tech labor market. And in preparation for an eventual IPO, the dot com has been taken out of the name.
E-techsupport.com installs and maintains PC networks for companies that don’t want to spend their time looking for and retaining computer professionals.
“Our motto is, ‘Let us find the great engineers and you just call us when you need them,’ ” Salas said.
E-techsupport.com already has some stellar clients. It maintains the 1,200 computer desktops at the Orange County Register and provides support for the 2,000-end user system of Fluor Signature Services of Aliso Viejo.
“She’s given us exceptional people,” said Dave Rollins, supervisor of network daily operations for Fluor Signature Services. “We deal with a number of different competitors of hers. The quality of people she sends us is far better than the other companies.”
E-techsupport.com is seeking $10 million in VC funding, to be used to expand its workforce to 700.
“Our plan calls for 14 engineers per city in the 32 biggest markets and it grows from there,” she said.
It didn’t seem to faze her that it might be hard to find more than 400 engineers in the current marketplace. She has two full-time recruiters on staff and offers plenty of incentives, such as the requisite stock options and training reimbursements.
“I’m trying to keep them entertained and happy at work,” she said. “They work extremely hard. It’s a tough job but we love it.”
Before starting her company, Salas worked in the computer reseller channel, selling hardware, software and services for GE Information Technology Services, En Pointe Technologies Inc. and as VP of professional services for Andataco of San Diego.
When Salas decided to start her own company, she sold her house in La Jolla, using the $75,000 profit as start-up capital. It helped that she immediately had $2 million worth of contracts including from the OC Register and Fluor. When asked why these companies would trust their computer systems to her startup, she said the companies’ executives had known her from previous jobs and they knew the type of service she provided. She began with 13 employees, some of whom came from her previous companies.
“We operated out of my living room the first year. It was on the beach in Laguna, so that worked out OK.”
The beach days are gone. E-techsupport moved to Santa Ana and recently switched to a new office in Irvine, near John Wayne Airport.
E-techsupport’s competitors are small operators. What’s particularly difficult for competitors to manage is having the right engineer on call to fix computer system for the clients, who often demand immediate help.
“The problem is that if a company always has John and he’s the favorite guy, and he comes every Tuesday and Thursday, and then something happens on Friday, John’s busy at another site. No one’s been able to manage their bench. It’s difficult to do.”
A Unique Exec
Marci Salas is a rarity in the high-tech world,a female CEO. And,might as well get it all in the open,she’s young.
“I’m 30-and-a-half,” she quipped during a recent visit to her Irvine office near John Wayne Airport.
Salas credits her mother, Valerie Vaerlocher, with teaching her how to survive as a female executive. Vaerlocher worked for many high-tech firms, including Xerox.
“They gave her the job to handle desktop publishing when no one knew what that was. Before you knew it, she had every newspaper in the country. Her license plate said Laser Lady. She was the queen of anything that had to do with Macintosh and IBM and Compaq.
“That’s how I learned to be a female executive in this industry. She taught me how to be very professional and how to keep customers.”
While 80% of her company’s employees are engineers, Salas herself has a degree in marketing and public relations from San Diego State University. It’s a degree that taught her crisis management, which she said she finds useful.
Salas said she often has to overcome skepticism that she and her young company can handle the job.
“When we begin talking, they realize that I’m just as technical, and sometimes more so than they are,” she said. “It usually works out OK.”
