An Irvine startup is getting strong demand from companies it says are frustrated with the functionality of salesforce.com and other customer relationship-management products.
Cirruspath Inc., which has been bootstrapped since its start in 2011, is projected to hit $10 million in revenue this year, primarily through its app subscription, which takes pertinent customer information from salesforce.com and displays tidy summaries of Gmail and Outlook contacts. It’s compatible with Office 365 and iOS and Android operating systems.
“We make it easy to get data in and out of salesforce,” said Ryan Huff, who co-founded the company with fellow University of California-Santa Barbara alum Brandon Bruce. “We launched with the idea that if you’re in your inbox and phone all day long, that’s where your CRM should be. It should be with you all day long.”
The Cirrus Insight app, which starts at $19 per month, per user, is the No. 2-selling app on the Salesforce app store, with more than 110,000 downloads.
The San Francisco-based company is the world’s largest CRM provider, with 18.4% market share of the $23.2 billion industry last year, according to Gartner Inc.
Cirruspath was launched with a small loan from Huff’s parents and took an additional small investment from friends and family to hire the company’s first employees. It has raised about $1 million from private backers and a few local angels.
The company now employs about 20 in Irvine, where it handles design and development. A sales team of 30 is based in Knoxville, Tenn., where Bruce lives.
Cirruspath is pushing a new campaign to raise awareness of successful startups that haven’t taken institutional funding, with downloadable logos that say, Bootstrapped: Profitable and Proud.
“It’s kind of a badge of honor,” Huff said.
Fantasy Hits Reality
The daily fantasy sports industry has come under fire in New York and could face similar troubles in California.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has issued cease and desist orders for the segment’s largest companies, FanDuel and DraftKings, contending they run illegal gambling sites.
Daily fantasy sports, considered a game of skill, is legal in 45 states due to its exemption from the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.
Both companies have filed a lawsuit against the agency to prohibit the ban.
FanDuel has closed its site to New Yorkers. Yahoo Inc., a new player in the segment, has reportedly been issued a subpoena.
Aliso Viejo-based FantasyAces, a growing player in the booming segment, blasted efforts by the attorney general’s office, arguing that the game’s legality hadn’t been questioned from the time FanDuel began operations there in 2009 until a recent advertising blitz and growing partnerships with media, pro sports leagues and franchises increased awareness.
“We completely refute this politically motivated action,” FantasyAces co-founder Trent Frisina told the Business Journal. “DFS is a game of skill. Our industry is growing like crazy and consequently the NY AG eyes opened wide with taxing potential and national press exposure. All great for him, and bad for the residents of his state.”
Frisina said New Yorkers are a small percentage of customers.
The latest developments come as California state Assemblyman Marc Levin sent a letter to Attorney General Kamala Harris requesting her office to shut down DFS sites.
HD-Energy
Irvine-based startup Enevate Corp. bills its HD-Energy batteries as being able to provide a 90% charge in 15 minutes while increasing energy, capacity and performance compared to current offerings. The company is targeting smartphones, tablets, ultra-thin notebooks and drones. Enevate, a University of California-Irvine spinout in 2005, has raised $60 million and plans to start mass production early next year.
