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Pittsburgh's new economy: Computer consulting concern not a typical family business
Friday, January 14, 2000 By Ken Zapinski, Associate Editor/Business
Taiwan natives Tommy and Henry Wang came to Pittsburgh to study technology at Carnegie Mellon University. The brothers, 23 and 25, respectively, stuck around to form their own computer company, which now employs 25 people in Oakland.
They've spun off three separate Internet commerce companies that together employ another dozen. And their latest business venture is close to bringing a trio of high-tech startups here from New Jersey, New York and India. All on funding that has its roots in a collection of Chinese restaurants around DuBois.
As Tommy Wang noted, the brothers could be poster boys for Pittsburgh's New Economy.
And that's the role in which they find themselves today. Mayor Murphy is scheduled to trek to Pittsburgh Direct Technology Inc. this afternoon to call attention to the promising company and to take a few ceremonial swings at an office wall as Pittsburgh Direct expands yet again.
"There is a great buzz about Pittsburgh Direct that's beginning to grow," Murphy spokesman Craig J. Kwiecinski said.
The brothers said a large national tech company is interested in purchasing Pittsburgh Direct, and if that happens, Kwiecinski said, Murphy wants to make sure the operation stays here.
It's not easy to describe what the company, founded in April 1998 by the Wang brothers and fellow CMU student Anthony Ma, does.
"People ask us, 'Can we see a copy of your business plan?' We're like, 'It changed 20 minutes ago,' " Tommy said.
Pittsburgh Direct began as a Web site design company. The name, in fact, comes from the directory of Pittsburgh commerce Web sites the company was originally going to compile. They moved on when they decided they were too late to that game.
They felt Pittsburgh was lacking single-source computer and Web consulting service. There were companies that could design sharp Web sites and companies that could handle the heavy-duty systems to drive e-commerce, database management and other functions. But they said there wasn't a good one-stop shop that could handle it all.
The niche has proved profitable. From a few thousand in revenues in 1998, Pittsburgh Direct brought in more than $2 million last year. Pittsburgh's old economy: Book tells story of Aliquippa Works through steelworkers' eyes
The company's success has given Tommy, who is chief executive, and his older brother, who is chairman, enough cash to help get a collection of dot.com Internet companies off the ground. Instead of Pittsburgh Direct subsidiaries, the dot.coms are set up as free-standing corporations in which Pittsburgh Direct holds a substantial stake. The brothers believe that the smaller, independent companies can act more quickly and nimbly in the rapidly changing e-universe. They won't talk about the companies publicly, for fear of having their ideas stolen.
Pittsburgh Direct has been so successful -- and grown so quickly -- that it purchased a 30,000-square-foot building in Oakland and moved there in May. It houses the 25 employees as well as the dozen or so from the three soon-to-be-unveiled Web companies. It also has space for the brothers' latest venture called, at least for the moment, iVenture Labs.
Started in partnership with local venture capitalist Ned Renzi and other investors, iVenture is to be a tech incubator, providing startups with office space, operational support and help in finding funding in exchange for a piece of the companies.
Negotiations are under way with a handful, both locally, from out-of-state and from as faraway as India.
And that's not all that is in the Pittsburgh Direct headquarters on the fringe of North Oakland.
"We have, like, 20 sawhorses in the back, because we're adding people," Tommy Wang said. Excuse me?
Put down the two metal saw horses, throw a cheap hollow-core wooden door across the top and you have an instant work station. "It's hard to beat a $40 desk," Tommy said.
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