October 1, 2007
Software Seller Neudesic Has Microsoft Pedigree
Founder Rohani Has Big Plans: 1,000 Workers Within Four Years
By Carol Park
You could say Parsa Rohani is on his second career with Microsoft Corp.
His Irvine-based Neudesic LLC sells, installs and customizes business software from Microsoft. For the 12 months through June, Neudesic had sales of $24 million and a two-year growth rate of 329%.
The company ranks No. 11 on the Business Journal’s list of fast-growing private companies.
In the 1990s, Rohani worked for Microsoft as a software architect. He did pretty well.
Rohani said he retired in 2000 at the age of 36.
“But retirement wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be,” he said. “I wanted to get back into technology.”
So Rohani called up Anthony Ferry and Tim Marshall, friends he met at Microsoft. The trio cofounded Neudesic in 2001.
Rohani is Neudesic’s chief executive. Marshall is vice president of technology. Ferry is vice president of sales and marketing.
The company has nearly 200 workers in Irvine and elsewhere, up 80% from a year ago.
Rohani said his goal is to get to 1,000 or more workers by 2011.
“We plan to hire a lot of people,” he said.
Rohani said he hopes to be at $230 million in yearly sales in four years’ time.
Neudesic has offices across the country and in Hyderabad, India. The company installs Microsoft software, or customized versions of it, for businesses in finance, hospitality and healthcare.
The company’s projects are valued at $150,000 to $12 million each, according to Rohani.
“One of the key factors for our success has been Microsoft’s success,” Rohani said. “Their growth rate has been phenomenal. More companies are adopting Microsoft products and technologies.”
Neudesic has carved out a spot in the competitive technology consulting business. It’s done so by hiring qualified people and always getting a job done, even if it ends up taking a loss on a project, Rohani said.
“A few years ago, Neudesic took a loss on an account,” he said. “We were willing to take a loss and do the job. Because at the end of the day you can lose credibility and customers won’t come back a second time around.”
Rohani said he plans to invest and diversify Neudesic’s business.
“As a company, we have to be more than just a single gene business to survive,” he said. “We need to have multiple investments and interests.”
Neudesic is a majority owner of PriceSpider.com, a comparison shopping site for technology and consumer electronics.
Rohani said he has high hopes for the search engine.
Neudesic’s challenge is to find enough qualified people to expand, according to Rohani.
“We’re 30 people short to meet demand versus our capabilities now,” he said.
The company hires computer science and electrical engineering graduates from the University of Southern California and California State University, Fullerton, Rohani said.
“Even though we hire from the universities, there’s still a shortage,” he said. “The number of people coming out of the universities is not enough to meet the demand for technology workers. Someone higher up needs to figure out how to get more people to enroll in engineering and computer science programs.”
Neudesic’s office in India helps fill the gap of qualified workers. Employees there handle implementation of products. Workers in the U.S. handle design.
“It’s not that the India office is taking away these jobs from the U.S. It’s just that there has been a perennial shortage of technically qualified people at our U.S. offices,” Rohani said.
Neudesic
• Where: Irvine
• 12-month sales: $24 million
• Two-year growth: 329%
• Workers: 190
• Business: seller, installer of Microsoft software
• Investors: founders