2007 Fast Growth 100: Company Profiles

CARAHSOFT TECHNOLOGY

Carahsoft Technology President Craig Abod has a simple formula for success: Work hard. Stay focused. Invest in the sales and marketing side of the business.

While that credo sounds simple and straightforward, Reston, Va.-based Carahsoft, a solution provider that focuses on federal, state and local governments, used that elixir to achieve a jaw-dropping two-year growth rate of 2,548 percent. "We do a ton of proactive sales and marketing into the government space. Last year, we did over 500 different marketing projects, including about 150 Webcasts and over 100 different on-site events," he said. "When you do as much marketing as we do, hopefully you will sell something." And sell Carahsoft does. Founded in January 2004, the company did $3.6 million its first year, $36 million its second and more than $91 million in 2006. Abod said Carahsoft's approximately 80 employees understand the company's business model and all have expertise in selling to the government market.

Carahsoft is organized into four areas: Department of Defense, federal civilian agencies, the intelligence community, and state and local government. Each group generates about an equal amount of revenue, Abod said, but it's important to have people well-versed in each specific area in order to be successful. "There are different nuances between [the Defense Department] and the intelligence community. And when selling to state governments, you might as well be dealing with 50 different countries."

In addition to having sales teams focused on specific government segments, Abod said he also has sales and marketing teams build around specific vendors and technology.

Another important part of Carahsoft's strategy is that it refrains from going after huge government contracts. Abod said staying hungry is what fuels his company's growth. "We do lots of government orders with lots of government customers. It's not like we have a backlog. We get an order for some stuff, and we ship and deliver it that month. Next month, we better go get some more orders."

Craig Zarley

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