Monsoon digs deep for Internet data
February 16, 2004
Rob Smith, Portland Business Journal — View Original Article
Two years ago, Kanth Gopalpur found himself at a career crossroads. After successful stints as head of e-commerce for Powell's Books and music retailer Djangos.com, Gopalpur -- a native of Calcutta, India -- toyed with the idea of opening an Indian restaurant. He was one day away from signing a lease on an east side location when he had a sudden change of heart. "I thought I could spend $200,000 doing that, or do what I knew with no investment," Gopalpur recalled. "I don't know what I was thinking."
Instead of a restaurant, he opened Monsoon Retail Development Systems LLC with two former Powell's colleagues, Jon Brandon and Clark Hale. The company, based in Portland's Pearl District, helps retailers create and implement e-commerce systems. Gopalpur says his company strives to "help merchants on Amazon.com be successful," including managing inventory, tracking vendors and setting pricing based on the cost of competitors' items. Gopalpur, in fact, talked with Amazon executives when he started Monsoon, which has landed business through referrals via the Seattle-based online retailer.
Monsoon, which has 11 employees, is entirely self-funded and has been profitable since its inception.
"We often joke that our venture capitalists were Best Buy," said Gopalpur, referring to the fact that his company bought its computers on a no-money-down purchase at the electronics retailer. That kind of attention to the bottom line is reflected in Gopalpur's penchant for buying office equipment at places such as Goodwill Industries and Value Village. Value Village's parent company is, in fact, a customer -- and one of Monsoon's success stories. Value Village is operated by Bellevue, Wash.-based Savers Inc., which runs 200 thrift stores in several countries. Savers, which had been working with Amazon.com to sell goods on Amazon's site, was throwing excess inventory such as books, CDs, DVDs and VHS tapes in the garbage before Amazon officials referred Savers to Monsoon. Monsoon created a comprehensive e-commerce Web site, including a back-end order fulfillment system that features inventory management and price comparison data. Savers suddenly found itself with a thriving Internet business. "We sold 8,000 books in our first week" on Amazon.com, said Phil McMullin, Savers' director of recycling sales. "We are processing about 6,000 or 7,000 [items] a week. According to Amazon, we were the fastest ramp-up they'd ever seen." While countless companies build Web sites and offer e-mail marketing services, Gopalpur insists Monsoon is unique in that no other company offers the same array of services for small- to medium-sized businesses. Monsoon even links online retailers with credit-card providers and shipping companies and creates e-mail marketing campaigns, Gopalpur said.
Other customers include TJs Pet Shop, a Salem-based pet products company, San Diego-based Green Shoes Lawn and Garden Supplies and Portland-based Recordsbymail.com, which was also Monsoon's first customer. Gopalpur approached Recordsbymail founder Craig Moerer shortly after Monsoon launched in the summer of 2002. Recordsbymail, which specializes in hard-to-find vinyl records, already had a basic Web site, but sales were driven primarily through printed, mail-order catalogues. Now, 50 percent of Records by mail sales come via its Web site, up from 20 percent two years ago. "[Monsoon] completely changed our business," Moerer said.
Gopalpur came to the United States in 1988 to attend graduate school at the University of South Carolina, where he earned a master's degree in international studies. He and his wife decided to move to Portland while driving around the country. They were sold after a quick, three-hour visit. "Anyplace that could support a bookstore as large and diverse as Powell's Books must be a good place to live," he recalled thinking. He landed at Powell's Technical Books as a clerk. Shortly thereafter, he built basic Web sites using Gopher and FTP technology. When Powell's launched its Web site in 1994, Gopalpur ran its operations. He worked at Powell's until 2000, when he left to work at Djangos.com, the online music store that at one time was based in Portland.
Most of Monsoon's business comes via personal contact Gopalpur made at trade shows and speaking engagements while at Powell's and Djangos. The company has done no paid marketing. Three Monsoon employees work in Calcutta developing software. Eight are located in Portland. Gopalpur says the Calcutta location gives Monsoon a competitive advantage, because it's cheaper to develop software there. Gopalpur plans to eventually expand internationally and may target merchants who sell on Amazon.com sites in the United Kingdom and Germany. He has no exit strategy, preferring instead to concentrate on steady, manageable growth. "We're constantly refining this," he said. "We work to make retailers successful. If we can't do that, it doesn't matter how fancy the technology is. That's where I think people missed the boat [in the dotcom era]. They got too involved in technology and missed the end."