High end gaming computer

System builders usually sell white boxes for about $2,500 per PC. Not Rahul Sood, the founder of Calgary-based VoodooPC. He sells custom built computers for more than $10,000 apiece.

VoodooPC shocks some conventional system builders in Canada and the U.S. into disbelief.

What's his secret? Sood claims not to have one.

"There really isn't much to it. We built up a premium brand with premium products and quality services. How did it come about that we sell $10,000 systems? Well, we offer the highest level of personalization they want. We promise (customers) the fastest machine they want. I guess there really is no secret."

VoodooPC's clientele are garners who want and sometimes crave the most cutting edge systems available.

Sood and his employees, totaling 40, take personalization to another level. He says every screw inside VoodooPC systems has been touched by a VoodooPC staffer.

Other systems builders make PCs from original design manufacturer SKUs. VoodooPC assemble systems from the ground up including the paint, Sood said. "Customers pay a premium for that but they get the ultimate PC."

VoodooPCs are available in any colour including elaborate hues such as Ferrari red and Lamborghini yellow. VoodooPC not only offers colours from expensive cars, but also colours from Formula 1 racetracks such as Irnola and Monza.

"We are not targeting mass merchant consumers. We target those who can afford to buy a premium product," Sood said.

VoodooPC might make high end systems, but Sood's start in the business was anything but high end. In 1991 he was working in a flooring warehouse when a man walked in to buy flooring for a computer wholesaler. The man, seeing Sood fiddling around with the company's lone PC, offered to set him up in his own system building business. Sood's girlfriend at the time (now his wife) did not like what he was doing for a living. "Slinging rugs is not a great job," he said. She pushed him to try it.

In his first week, with an investment of $1,500 from his own MasterCard and an ad in the Bargain Finder trade magazine in Calgary, Sood sold five systems. One of them was to The Advisory Group, which later was acquired by Telus.

"That is how I got roiling."

A year later Sood bought a building dating from the 1800s to work in, and after business increased purchased the building right next to it.

One of the first courses of business for Sood was to build an identity. The name Voodoo, which Sood admits has negative connotations, was a name people could easily remember. Voodoo was also a brand name of the 3DFX gaming chip, although Sood had the name incorporated. When nVidia acquired 3DFX it quashed the name Voodoo because of the great relationship Sood built up over the years with the game chip developer.

All this attention would not have been possible without the brand, Sood said.

"Our brand is getting larger that even Dell is now into the gaming space. Dell is validating our space and they are a pretty good competitor right now. Their product is good and I am not sitting back," Sood said.

With Dell now as a competitor, VoodooPC has developed a notebook line called the Envy. Similar to the company's Fury line of desktop gaming PCs, it's focused on a niche market--a laptop for garners. VoodooPC builds about 400 PCs per month, from Envy notebooks, Fury desktops, Mini PCs for portable gaming professionals, and FClass luxury PCs with cooling systems from Coollt Technologies.

"We started a year ago building notebooks and the biggest fear in selling notebooks is that it's not an easy sell with Dell and Toshiba in the market. And, they are right feeling comfortable with those brands, but customers are at ease with our brand because they have heard of it," he said.

Canadian system builders are not the only ones who have heard of VoodooPC. The three largest U.S.-based computer retailers have as well, and the company is currently mulling over offers from them.

However, the likelihood of a partnership is remote. "I did not want to put Ferraris in a Ford dealership," he said.

For Sood, who stepped down as CEO back in 1999 to remain CTO, is expanding to Europe and the Middle East.

Name: VoodooPC

HQ: Calgary

Employees: 40

Specialty: High-end gaming systems