Bill Bither's Insights

Wow, has life changed since Atalasoft, Inc. was incorporated in August 2002, just over 5 years ago.  The turning point for me in founding Atalasoft was the aftermath of 9/11.  I did not want to be at the mercy of a large corporation in aerospace facing a downturn.  I would seek a new challenge with a simple vision.  I realized Microsoft was putting a lot of energy into .NET and it was the next step for software development.  I also recognized that Imaging was an interesting and emerging field; one that I had taken a keen interest in.  And finally that software was the best way to create a company with minimal startup funds. The vision was to create a company that would leverage Microsoft's new .NET developer framework by offering the best possible imaging technology to .NET developers.  I didn't perform any market research, I didn't care about any competitors.  I'd like to say that I knew an easy-to-use imaging toolkit for .NET would open the door for other ISV's to create vertical document management solutions, and that the industry would continue to grow at an increasing rate.  But I had no idea, just a vision and a goal.  The goal of building a company that would provide a better life for myself and my new family. 

Today, all I can say is WOW.  What luck!!  I can honestly state that we have the best .NET Imaging technology on the market highlighted by our ASP.NET Imaging Technology for Viewing and Annotating documents with a zero footprint thin-client. 

In 2007, Atalasoft's revenue grew by 57% (previous year's growth was 60%).  Since inception, Atalasoft has been profitable and has never taken on outside funding other than a few small bank loans.  Sure, we have had our share of growing pains.  We are about to grow out of our 3rd office space in 4 years.  We've had to change our phone system and telecom provider to support our growing workforce, and had some recent unplanned phone outages (sorry for any missed calls).  In maintaining my role as President and CEO, I'm no longer engineering software, but spending more time engineering a business.  To me, it's the same thing, but an even greater ongoing challenge that continues to keep me up into the wee hours; not because I have to, but because I want to.

Obviously our goals have continued to evolve over the years, but our vision has remained the same.  It's been written down, refined, and the words change frequently, but however you want to word it, we are still about providing value to .NET developers that are building solutions that require the use of advanced imaging and document technology.  Will this vision maintain our 60% growth for the next 5 years?  Please stay tuned!