Steve Kelley of Arganteal
Where are you from
originally?
I grew up in a suburb of Saint
Louis, Missouri
What university did you go
to?
I have a Masters in
Electrical Engineering from Cornell University
What is the idea behind your
startup?
We have developed a
technology that automates many of the labor-intensive tasks required to deploy
applications in the cloud computing environment.
What need does it fulfill?
By using our technology,
systems integration companies can reduce the labor to deploy complex
applications like Microsoft Lync by 60% - 70%.
This allows these companies to do deployments more rapidly and with
fewer expensive technical personnel.
What exactly does it do?
The Arganteal system takes
information about the client – the number of users, their physical location and
network identification – and then information about the computing environment –
what operating system, what hypervisor is being used, how many servers of what
kinds, what kind of database system – and based on this information create a
library of commands that automatically install the chosen applications on the
target cloud platform with minimal or no intervention from expensive subject
matter experts.
Who is it for?
We license the Arganteal SaaS
to system integrators and consulting companies for them to use to install
applications for the end user companies that are their clients. This enables these companies to finish
deployment projects for their clients in less time and at a higher profit.
What was the most challenging
aspect of starting up?
Since we know the needs of
our industry and we have the expertise to design and develop our product, the
most challenging aspect for us is raising the capital we need to effectively market
our product and then fund the development of new product features.
What is the next step for you
and your business?
We have identified a number
of companies that want to use our technology so our next step is to sign
license agreements that generate revenue for us while we also raise money from
investors. With this income we will be
able to fund the marketing and development activities to accelerate our
presence in the market.
What advice do you have for
entrepreneurs?
Focus, move rapidly, stay lean
and stay flexible.
What resource have you found
to be the most helpful and why?
We are a virtual
company. The Internet provides a fast and economical communications platform
that allows us to speed up our product development, deliver presentations and product
demonstrations to prospective clients and investors (usually remotely thereby
reducing travel time and cost) and communicate effectively within our own
staff. Because of the Internet we can
move quickly, communicate effectively and run a lean and flexible company with
greatly reduced capital needs.
