Airframe targets mid-sized firms

When Robert Gryphon shopped his newest software idea around the venture capital community, he was told by 17 different VCs to get some customers before he came back to talk about money.

He's doing just that.

His Airframe Business Software, which is based in Incline Village, this month rolls out a Web-based software package targeted toward at the estimated 4 million small- and medium-sized businesses in the United States.

The product, Gryphon says, is targeted squarely at the middle of the market.

Above it are the multi-million-dollar, customized software packages written by outfits such as Siebel Systems and PeopleSoft.

Below it are the mass-merchandise packages sold by Microsoft, Intuit and the like.

Gryphon calls his target market "moderate technology adapters" outfits unwilling to pay top dollar for customized software but instead looking for a modestly priced product that will answer most of their needs.

Airframe, in development for more than a year, brings together software for 23 business functions ranging from defectstracking to sales management and human resources.

Customers can buy any one of the functions or all of them for $70 a month per user.

Although the software can be customized for individual users, Airframe executives say it's more likely that they'll take customer comments and make quick changes on the fly.

That's possible, they say, only because the software is Webbased and doesn't need to be installed at each user's desk.

While plenty of competitors have addressed pieces of Airframe's market, Gryphon says Airframe chose to develop its product as an integrated whole.

That means that customers don't face the problems of blending software from different suppliers if, for instance, they decide to start using a shipping-andreceiving program in addition to salesmanagement software.

Gryphon believes, too, that customers will be attracted by the speed in which they can install Airframe.

"You don't have anything to roll out," he says.

"You're just accessing a Web site."

Marketing of the software began with trade shows and sponsored listings on Google.

Ask the search engine for help on "bug tracking" the management of software fixes and an ad directs users to Airframe.

Coming later this year, Gryphon says, is a national newspaper advertising campaign.

For now, response to the Web ads has been strong enough that Airframe's staff of 20 half in Incline Village, half in the Bay Area have hustled to keep up with the leads.

That's just what Gryphon wants to see as he prepares the company for return engagements with the venture capitalists who told him they want to see customers.

So far, the company's development has been funded by angel investors.

Angels and VCs alike can't expect a fast buck from their investments.

Gryphon figures the company would need about 100,000 customers not individual users, but companies buying its services before a public offering.

And that, he says, is likely to be at least four years in the future.

That's four years longer than Gryphon spent in high school.

He skipped high school entirely to start classes at age 13 at Hawaii Pacific University, graduating magna cum laude at age 16.

In his late teens, he completed two master's degrees in information systems and business and wrote a master's thesis on the enterprise application frameworks that inspired Airframe Business Software.

Later, he founded Octane Software, which helped companies manage their relationships with customers.

Octane was sold to E.piphany Inc.

for $3.2 billion in stock in 2000.

Along with Airframe Business Software, Gryphon has spent the last couple of years building a film production company, Gryphon Films.

It produced "The Cooler," the casino-based drama starring William H.

Macy in theaters last autumn.