Company Profile: GBCblue Meets Business Traveler Needs

By Shaylene Keiner, principal, HeadHunters NW

The founders of GBCblue started with a few basic premises: What if business travelers didn’t need to bring any computing equipment with them but a memory key? What if they didn’t need to worry about the security risk of leaving their computer in a hotel room, but still had access to all their critical information?

GBCblue provides hotel guestroom and public-area computer systems with everything travelers need to stay connected and productive while on the road, without dragging along their computer, fax, copier and other necessary equipment to do business. After each user session, the GBCblue PC automatically “shreds” all user data by re-writing the hard drive. GBCblue refresh ensures that material created by a previous guest is eliminated before the next guest checks in.

The company was formed in 2003 when Scott Mary, chairman of the board, and Victor Alikin, chief executive officer, saw a need for the traveling business person and an opportunity for the hotelier. The traveler was underserved and the hotels did not have quality service providers.

GBC stands for Global Business Center. Since there already was a company called GBC – General Binding Corp – the founders had to do something different. Since "blue" is a color that has ties to the computer world – IBM big Blue, Dell, Microsoft logo's are blue, etc. – they thought, hmmm GBCblue, did a web search and nothing came up. So GBCblue was born.

Company succeeds in tough industry through service
The hospitality industry is very tough. Hotels set themselves apart by providing high levels of service and GBCblue needs to meet or exceed the level of service the hotels offer their guests. The company succeeds by providing a high level of service to the hotel, which transfers directly to giving the end user, the traveler, a high level of service.

At the outset there were the typical challenges of being the new guy with no or few installations to show as a point of expertise. There was also the anxiousness about how well the company could service the accounts under its service model. GBCblue overcame these challenges by aggressively getting accounts sold quickly and then having a reference-able base. As the installed base of high-end properties expanded, customers gained confidence in GBCblue’s service model. “Doing our due diligence and detailed preparation really made the difference. We really didn’t run into any huge problems as one may expect at the beginning of a start-up,” Mr. Alikin stated.

Managing growth offers another challenge
GBCblue has grown from its start-up in 2003 with one employee to 15 employees today, and has been generating a profit since October 2005. GBCblue has had growth issues just like other start-up companies. With growth at a rate of 150% last year alone, people issues have been the most challenging. There have been many changes in the management of the organization. Some strong heads and personal agendas put the company on precarious ground. In September 2006, they were able to put together a cohesive team that is now able to follow one vision and one leader. Growth at this rate also has come with some very positive people issues. GBCblue says it was able to keep good people through this challenging time while landing key accounts and this helped them to become profitable after the re-focusing.

When asked how GBCblue addresses competition Mr. Alikin said, “We simply provide a very high level of service and the service we do provide is highly personal. Our sales, operations and support staff build a personal relationship with each property. Our competition does not seem to do this, giving us an advantage.”

Mr. Alikin added, “We do run into competition frequently. Some have “preferred provider” status with the brands, but we have been able to win against them in most cases when we are in a head-to-head competitive bidding process. Our references and solid account base play a big part in our overall success when going up against our competition. We have replaced our competition in many cases but have not lost an existing install to our competitors, except in the case of a brand-mandated change.”

Creative funding and business success fuel growth
GBCblue raised its initial capital from the management’s investment and a Series A Preferred Stock private equity round. “We needed initial growth capital that exceeded our personal investable funds and we needed to seek outside capital, so a private equity round was really the only option for us,” stated Mr. Alikin. “While we tried hard and made many pitches, the venture capitalists have not shown an interest in our service-based business. This company has a good solid revenue base and the VCs aren’t attracted to consistency at this point. It has been my experience that VCs are generally interested in software, either packaged or web-based, that can reach a zillion people in less than a year or a widget that can be stamped out by the zillions.”

Upon further discussions, Mr. Alikin communicated that he felt the way service companies like GBCblue grow successfully is to get profitable and reinvest those profits as aggressively as possible.

The company recently moved from NW Portland to new professional office space in Vancouver. The company’s CEO symbolizes the energy and passion of the company. Besides heading up GBCblue, Mr. Alikin, who graduated from Portland State University in accounting and economics and is a CPA, is also an avid kite boarder and loves to participate in extreme sports.

About the author
Shaylene Keiner has been a successful recruiter in the NW since 1997 specializing in accounting and finance. She is the founder and owner of HeadHunters NW, founded in 2004, which provides high quality expertise on a referral-only basis. The demands of board members and shareholders have never been higher and HeadHunters NW is exceeding those expectations by identifying, recruiting and securing top talent for bottom-line profits. For more information on HeadHunters NW go to www.headhuntersnw.com Shaylene can be reached at shaylene@headhuntersnw.com