Holy profits! Howard Brown knows a thing or two about Internet start-ups. The Silicon Valley veteran has watched them rocket up in growth, helping his first company become a $500 million firm. He has also watched them crash and burn because they were too ahead of their time.
No wonder he wants to carefully build his newest venture, CircleBuilder, slowly and surely. So far the 2-year-old firm based out of Franklin has three full-time employees and has raised more than $1.3 million in seed money from venture capital firms and angel investors.
CircleBuilder, which offers Yahoo Groups-like services to churches, is about to bring in another "big chunk of change" as it prepares to close another round of seed money investing. The firm hopes to open its site to the general public this summer and hire 15-20 people by the end of next year.
"I am trying to do all of my business in Michigan," Brown says. "My lawyers, CPA and technology firm are in Michigan. You have got to start something in this state because we're too reliant on the auto industry."
And this is coming from a guy born on the East Coast who cut his entrepreneurial teeth on the West Coast during the dot com boom and bust. After marrying a woman from Southfield he came to Michigan so his kids would grow up near their family. In the mean time he started PlanitJewish, an organizational website for Jewish communities.
That took off to the point that Christian leaders took notice, including Rick Warren, the author of "The Purpose Driven Life." Brown, who is Jewish, was encouraged to branch out into North America's dominant religion and started CircleBuilder to accommodate Christians.
That website serves the same type of function for churches who are looking for help in organizing and marketing their flocks. It basically outsources the work, so church leaders can concentrate their time and money on what their own expertise. The website limits advertising and prohibits objectionable material.
"There aren't enough people on the Internet teaching values because there is definitely enough people out there teaching violence and porn," Brown says.
So far the business is servicing a few hundred church groups, or circles, and expects to grow that number to more than 1,000 by the end of next year. It plans to offer free and paid subscription service that starts at $100 a month. That might not seem like fast enough growth to set the world on fire, but it's just the right speed for Brown.
Source: Howard Brown, co-founder and CEO of CircleBuilder.
Writer: Jon Zemke
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