Idea has really registered

At the age of 21, Seattle entrepreneur Matt Ehrlichman went out and raised $250,000 from a handful of Puget Sound-area investors.

That was four years ago, and Ehrlichman, co-founder of a Spokane software company, said: “We were fairly clueless about what we were doing.”

Today, he and company co-founder Robbie Rech are all of 25. But they both believe they have a better handle on how to run their business, Thriva LLC, a 20-person software company that’s making money and expects to triple sales this coming year.

Thriva — a name that means nothing but wasn’t already claimed on the Web — develops online software that helps groups run sports camps and summer camps. The software automates the often-messy application and registration process; it also offers a wide range of back-office administrative options to help camp organizers track applications and manage schedules.

The two former Seattle residents started the company — originally called CampRegister.com — as freshmen at Stanford University. In 2002, when they were both juniors there, they sold majority interest of the company to Skyhawks Inc., the Spokane-based promoter of summer sports camps and athletic events.

When they graduated in 2003, they and the company moved to Spokane.

The move has made sense, since Spokane is relatively inexpensive and the company’s business is nearly all Web-based.

“Spokane is a great place for a technology company like ours. We sell and support almost entirely over the phone to customers throughout the country,” Ehrlichman said.

More than most Spokane software firms, Thriva has maintained a low profile. It’s hired most of its software development staff locally. Salaries at the company range from $25,000 up to $85,000, said Ehrlichman, whose grandfather, John Ehrlichman, was a key White House official in the Nixon Administration.

The product they offer is simple to describe, but not so simple to execute. For years, most summer camp organizers relied on paper for applications and to track registrations. The result was a confused, slow process of mailed confirmations, delayed payment processing and missed opportunities, said Dave Berto, the president and CEO of Skyhawks.

The Thriva technology, all developed in-house and based on Microsoft’s .Net Web architecture, simplifies the entire process, said Berto.

Three years ago Thriva signed a deal to provide the automated front-end application and registration system for the San Francisco Giants summer baseball leagues for kids. The switch to an automated online sign-up allowed the Giants camp organizers to shift from dealing with applications to improving the quality of the programs, said Ehrlichman.

Last year, 2,000 people signed up for the Giants’ summer programs. Out of that group, less than 10 people signed up using a paper form, he said.

Thriva’s main customer, to date, has been the Skyhawks, which is based in Spokane and now arranges more than 1,100 camps across the country. Berto said Thriva’s products have helped the Skyhawks continue to grow; it’s now the largest camp promoter in the country, generating sales of about $8 million a year.

“We have to manage the staffing of about 3,000 sports coaches during a 10-week summer period,” Berto said. “They’ve provided the key part of the software that helps us manage that challenge,” he said.

Beyond managing and simplifying applications, Thriva’s software tools also help customers like Skyhawks or Spokane Youth Sports Association track and analyze customer data. “They’ve been a great help for us,” said Todd McGann, associate executive director of Spokane Youth Sports, which organizes sports leagues across Spokane County.

When his group needed information about how many students from low-income neighborhoods took part in its programs, Spokane Youth Sports found that information quickly, McGann said. “What they provide lets us get really exact information about almost anything, how many kids come from a given zip code or other data,” McGann said. “Before we had that system, we’d never be able to find that out.”

Thriva turned a profit last year, Ehrlichman said. The company expects revenue to triple to about $2.5 million by 2005. The bulk of those sales come from individual registrations; every time someone signs up for a camp or league using the Thriva tools, the company nets $5.

The Skyhawks alone produce at least 100,000 registrations each year, he added.

Plenty of other companies are trying to also grab a piece of the online registration market. “It’s an incredibly fragmented market right now,” Ehrlichman said. His goal is to make sure Thriva continues to expand its share of that market. “Our challenge is to get in touch directly with the 30,000 to 40,000 different groups that host or hold sports camps every year,” he said.

The long-range goal is even more ambitious. Ehrlichman and Rech have hired a business development manager to go out and sell the company’s application and registration services to companies hosting business conferences, conventions or sales events. “Our tools are incredibly flexible,” said Ehrlichman.

To make the company successful, Ehrlichman and the Skyhawks management agree that the approach is to bring in talented people, give them good salaries and incentives, and share the benefits.

“Our goal is to make this a great place to work and to have fun at the same time,” Ehrlichman said. He and Rech have insisted on keeping the company’s management hierarchy loose and informal; neither carries a special company title, in order to simplify their roles.

“I like having a team atmosphere here,” Ehrlichman said. “We want people to be excited about helping build a successful company.”