Press Coverage

A Rundown on Startups. Virtual Appoint: Already Profitable

When it comes to technology companies, Houston is no Silicon Valley, or even Austin. Not yet, at least. But the world’s oil capital is home to scores of hopeful entrepreneurs looking to strike gold with a hot Web site, software or mobile phone technology. Here’s one of an occasional set of snapshots of local tech startups. Time will tell whether they catch fire or flame out.

Virtual Appoint

URL: VirtualAppoint.com

Elevator pitch: A virtual concierge and research service that will do market research, make cold sales calls and write reports for businesses.

The idea: Lots of business can’t afford to hire an entire staff to do market research or call potential leads, especially in this economy. Virtual Appoint offers to do the grunt work instead.

Users: “We’re really going after sales people and individual executives under pressure to do their jobs.”

The brains: Wolf previously spent two years as head of marketing for OrthoClear, before which he traveled often to Pakistan as part of a marketing team for the braces company Invisalign. He has also worked as research manager for consumer goods manufacturer Procter & Gamble.

The competition: Wolf said his company ups the service factor by using MBAs to do the work, which means they’ll have a better understanding of client needs.

The money: The company’s already profitable, according to Wolf. He charges $16 to $22 per hour and doesn’t plan to invest much in marketing. “I’ve taken the approach that customer service is actually the marketing,” he said.

Click here for the article: http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=2009_4747371