Jigsaw fills in missing pieces
POST FALLS – Jigsaw Data Corp. runs what co-founder Jim Fowler calls “kind of an eBay for company information.”
For $1 a contact, you can purchase the name of a company’s president, chief financial officer or other employee, along with an e-mail address and direct phone number. Or you can trade for the information, entering a contact into the system and getting two free contacts in return.
Sales and marketing professionals tap into Jigsaw’s fast-growing database, which contains more than 3 million contacts. To support the growth, the San Mateo, Calif.-based company expects to hire 15 to 20 more software developers at its Post Falls operations center this year, Fowler said. About 20 people currently work at Jigsaw’s office in the Riverbend Commerce Park.
Jigsaw recently raised $12 million in its third round of venture capital funding. Fowler said the firm should become profitable in about a year.
Fowler was a partner in Lookout Pass Ski Area for about five years before leaving to work in the software industry. He and another former software salesman launched Jigsaw in late 2004.
“Jigsaw was born out of a point of pain,” Fowler said. “Sales professionals spend huge amounts of time looking for the right contact. … It’s about one-third of their overall effort.”
In one instance, Fowler said his colleague spent nearly two weeks trying to reach the right person at Sprint. The man placed about 100 phone calls before he found the contact. That’s not an efficient way to make cold calls, Fowler said.
Business contacts are a $50 billion industry in the U.S., according to the Direct Marketing Association of America.
About 77,000 users have logged into www.jigsaw.com. While most of the clients are sales and marketing professionals, the site also attracts hits from small businesses, Fowler said.
Jigsaw.com is self-regulating. Clients are penalized for submitting outdated or incorrect contact information and rewarded for spotting errors.
The site doesn’t publicize cell phone numbers or personal e-mail addresses.
“This information is out there,” Fowler said. “It’s all information you could find other places.”