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David Jorgensen (Independent Newspapers) Talks with NitroSell President Tom Keane
Posted 3rd Nov, 2007
Question & Answer Session – David Jorgensen of the Sunday Independent talks with NitroSell President Tom Keane.
NitroSell was recently shortlisted for an it@cork “Emerging Leader Company” award. On the night of the awards, one of Europe’s leading newspapers interviewed the NitroSell President. This is a transcript of the conversation. An article on NitroSell based on this interview is scheduled to appear in the November 12 edition of the Sunday Independent.
Some of the NitroSell team attending the it@cork Business Leader awards ceremony
DJ: What is NitroSell as a company all about?
TK: NitroSell is a company with a global mission. That mission is to revolutionise the world of shopping as we know it, to turn the Internet on its head, and enable small- and medium-sized retailers to get their share of the burgeoning eCommerce revenues.
DJ: How did you get started?
TK: Jerry Walsh, my fellow co-founder, and I started with a vision to empower retailers to use their existing in-store systems as the basis for selling online. This may sound simple, but how many people have actually purchased from a local independent merchant? Very few have. In fact, as affordable technology did not exist - at least until NitroSell came along. Over the past two years, the NitroSell team has perfected a solution that is market-disruptive, not only in terms of price but also features.
DJ: NitroSell appears to be making quite a stir – here in Ireland and also in the US and the UK. Why is this?
TK: Our vision is fast becoming a reality. In the month of October alone, NitroSell WebStores in the US, UK, Canada, Ireland and the EU received over 1.3 million visits. WebStore customers viewed almost 16 million product pages with the intention of either buying online or at the retailers’ physical stores. The information and product data driving all of this interest was coming directly from their in-store Retail Management System, via NitroSell’s “Integrated eCommerce” technology.
Our visitor numbers are compelling when compared to, for example, Facebook, which receives about 30 million visitors per month. Unlike NitroSell, the Facebook user base does not consist of credit-card-wielding purchasers. Microsoft’s recent investment in Facebook valued it at a staggering $15 billion.
DJ: So how big is your target market? Have you global ambitions?
TK: The SME retail market is a massive global business employing millions of people. NitroSell has experienced tremendous success in providing eCommerce software and services to this sector, in close partnership with Microsoft and other global players. NitroSell delivers uniquely integrated WebStores that are quick to install - they rank among the fastest, most resilient and secure available on the Internet today. Retailers’ products are uploaded seamlessly and kept in sync, in near-real-time, from the store through to the WebStore and, from there, to leading search engines and marketplaces such as live.com and Google. This empowers consumers, enabling them to check if local stores have products in-stock before they shop in person, or indeed, order online for later delivery.
DJ: What makes you get up in the morning?
TK: Everyone in NitroSell is passionate about what we are doing. Not only are we giving the retailer the “big boys” tools, but in the process we know we are strengthening local communities and protecting jobs. We are doing this on a global scale and having a lot of fun in the process.
DJ: In terms of real customer numbers, how successful is NitroSell?
TK: NitroSell is well on its way to having an impact on the global eCommerce industry in that we have already Web-enabled over 500 physical retail businesses worldwide. We are currently selling WebStores at the rate of approximately one per day. The rate that we are selling our products and services is increasing steadily month-on-month.
DJ: What kind of office infrastructure have you got to support your global business?
TK: We have opened offices in the US (San Diego, North Carolina, Boston) and the UK and plan to further expand into Europe, Asia and South Africa. NitroSell is backed by venture capitalists and Enterprise Ireland and has recently committed to expansion plans that will see employee numbers rising quickly over the coming years.
DJ: Can you name some of the retailers you have put online? Any well-known brands?
TK: Since we are conducting this interview in Cork, Ireland, let's start here: Businesses that NitroSell has Web-enabled include Cork retailers such as Cork Art Supplies (corkartsupplies.com), Denis MacSweeney (denismacsweeney.com) and Direct Chandlery (directchandlery.ie) in Cobh. Stores in Dublin include Cycleways (cycleways.com), while in the UK they include Leeds Rugby (leedsrugby.com) and Mungo & Maud (mungoandmaud.com), the latter regularly featuring on the pages of society magazines. In North America, we have a number of big-name customers – NASA, Eastern National Parks (eparks.com), Sony Pictures, the US Navy and American Airlines – as well as a large number of smaller retailers dotted across the continent.
DJ: You are clearly ambitious. Indeed, if I may say so, you appear outrageously ambitious. Apart from statistics, what other indicators are there that would support the idea that NitroSell is becoming a significant player?
TK: NitroSell's thought leadership in the e-commerce space has been substantiated by the recent appointment of NitroSell to no less than four of Microsoft’s Partner Advisory Councils (PACs) – Live PAC, Software plus Services PAC, Dynamics Retail Management System PAC and Dynamics SDK PAC. The company has also been cited in research and whitepapers by IDC and other global players.
During the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Denver this summer, NitroSell was one of only four companies (from the 600,000-strong global Microsoft partner base) featured in keynote presentations to a live audience of nearly 10,000 people. At the same show, NitroSell was awarded Microsoft “International Retailer Vertical Developer of the Year”.
DJ: You mentioned that this year you’ve recruited a heavy-hitting senior management staff. Who are they and what makes them special?
TK: NitroSell recently recruited Charles Garvey as its CEO, who in the past built Horizon Technologies into a 700-strong publicly quoted company on the London Stock Exchange. Dominic Frazer recently joined as Director of Sales and Marketing from TNS (UK) Ltd., a subsidiary of a leading US-owned company that provides transaction-based network solutions.
DJ: In preparing for this interview, I read that you have a strong board. Who are they?
TK: NitroSell’s management team is supported by a high-level board, which includes chairman Ron Downey (a founder of Kindle Banking and CR2) and non-executive director Colin Newman (a founder and business development executive for the software companies IONA Technologies and Cape Clear Software). Frank Walsh of Enterprise Equity is also on the board.
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David Jorgensen is a freelance journalist who works for the Independent Group. He writes for the Sunday Independent, the Irish Independent and the Evening Herald newspapers. Before starting a career in journalism, he worked extensively in IT and has a special interest in enterprise software security and firewalls.
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