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In the spotlight: Jim Dolan Former Federated Investors exec Jim Dolan's start-up builds on relationships formed while at mutual fund giant Sunday, April 29, 2001 By Joyce Gannon, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Not every 3-year-old Internet business can entice potential customers at a trade show by wheeling out a vintage racing car.
But then, not everyone who runs an Internet start-up also owns a shiny blue 427 Shelby Cobra.
Jim Dolan, founder and chief executive of Access Data Corp., put his roadster on display last year at the annual conference of the Investment Company Institute, a national association whose members include mutual fund and investment firms with whom Access would love to do business. Besides getting a peek at the car itself, automobile buffs who stopped by to drool got to take home full-color posters of the vehicle that featured the Cobra and the Access name in big, bold letters.
Dolan could never be confused with the typical would-be entrepreneur scraping around for cash.
Back when he launched Access in 1997, Dolan had just said goodbye to a top executive post and 19-year career at mutual fund heavyweight Federated Investors and had plenty of resources to start Access, a consulting firm for big financial services companies. Then, just a year into the start-up's life, Dolan reaped a tidy profit of $12.4 million from the sale of some of his Federated shares. A year ago, Access raised $15 million in a private placement of stock.
Besides money, Dolan had a lucrative client signed on from the beginning: Charles Schwab & Co., the huge discount brokerage where Dolan had maintained strong relationships during his years at Federated.
Business: Develops Internet-based solutions including Web sites and financial management tools for financial services companies.
Headquarters: Two Chatham Center, Downtown
History: Founded in 1997 by James Dolan, a former top executive at Federated Investors
Employees: 80, including 50 at Pittsburgh headquarters
Web site:
Despite the wealth and contacts at his fingertips, though, Dolan didn't escape all the pressures associated with starting a business from scratch: There were plenty of long hours and extended road trips to drum up more customers.
"Survival is the first thing you do ... including taking out the garbage and making the sales calls," said Dolan, 46, who now sports a beard and open-collar shirt -- two marks of the New Economy workplace that he acknowledges he'd never get away with in the traditional, buttoned-down offices of Federated.
Four years after its launch, Access can confidently claim to have survived. The Downtown-based company employs 80 (including 50 at the headquarters in Two Chatham Center; the rest are in small offices in San Francisco, Chicago, New York and Boston); its revenues are poised to top $15 million this year; and it's expected to turn a profit this year for the first time.
To accommodate its expanding staff -- Dolan expects 300 employees in five years -- Access recently leased another floor at Two Chatham and bought a 15,000-square-foot building in RIDC O'Hara to house its data center.
While its market niche is creating Internet solutions such as Web sites for financial institutions, Dolan contends that Access hasn't been hurt by the decline of the dot.com sector.
"We haven't seen a big downturn ... maybe 10 to 15 percent. Our clients are still buying, even if there is less of a stampede to get on the Internet than 18 months ago. Our clients have cash and need. They are very profitable."
Consider Access' client portfolio: Besides Schwab, it includes PNC Financial Services Group, Mellon Financial, New York Life and Mass Mutual.
What Access develops are a range of Internet products to help big banks, pension funds and insurance firms make their business more efficient.
For example, a mortgage company hired Access to put its title management and closing services on the Web. A Chicago financial business wanted Access to develop an Internet program to price securities.
"It's a big market niche: There is a national market for financial services firms who are large spenders on technology," said Dolan.
Access' competitors range from the big-name consulting practices such as Deloitte Touche and Ernst & Young to small, local technology shops that design custom Web applications.
To ensure the e-solutions it develops carry consistent brands and logos, Access established a seven-person, in-house "creative group" that is also doing some work for local advertising agencies that need Internet expertise.
The company isn't content to merely consult and customize for others, however.
It's begun developing some Internet products that it will market under the Access brand. The first is ACCESSkm Knowledge Manager, software designed to organize data from many Web sources into one location.
And to keep its technology in step with market demand, Access assembled a Scientific Advisory Board with e-business and management experts from Carnegie Mellon University to study how the Internet will impact financial services in the future.
Sitting in his office one morning this month, taking in a sweeping view of Mellon Arena where, the night before, he watched the Pittsburgh Penguins chalk up one of their playoff victories against the Washington Capitals, Dolan was clearly content that he had struck out from Federated.
"I wanted something of my own; that was never an option at Federated," Dolan said of the company founded by his father-in-law, John Donahue, and controlled by the Donahue family.
Dolan said he didn't miss his old job as president and chief executive of the Federated Services subsidiary where he oversaw seven business divisions and 1,500 employees.
"Running 1,500 people in an established company was one issue of management and energy. Starting from zero and providing the business with structure, leadership, sales and recruiting is much more intense and personally rewarding."
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