Bachelor degree doctorate online

Cornered by a budget shortfall and running out of time, a handful of lawmakers used an unexpected gambit, filing a bill to raid a $70 million cache earmarked for worker training.

The move, though, was caught by the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, which alerted thousands of its members, who tapped out a barrage of e-mails to lawmakers and ended the cash grab.

Behind LABI's online campaign was technology from a 4-year-old Baton Rouge company that expects its services to bring in $5 million per year before the end of the decade.

Located in the Louisiana Technology Park incubator, VoterVOICE allows the trade groups LABI and the Louisiana Chemical Association, as well as activist organizations such as Austin 6, to launch grassroots efforts on the Web, using e-mail instead of the tradition postcard mailings that often were too slow and ineffective to sway lawmakers.

LABI, one of VoterVOICE's first customers, has used the company's services for three years.

"It's been one of our technology enhancements that has really made it easy for our membership to get the information and turn around and respond in a very short order," says Ginger Sawyer, a LABI lobbyist who oversees membership and grassroots campaigns.

When LABI alerted members that a bill to divert money from the worker training fund had popped up, roughly 3,000 members delivered e-mails to their legislators, arguing it was a bad idea. Sawyer says the deluge of e-mail not only gave lawmakers input but also helped them justify their votes on the issue.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

VoterVOICE is the virtual baby of Neal Fuller, the company's owner. Fuller knew almost nothing about computer programming when he started the business, though when he discovered the Web in the early 1990s, he figured it would change the world.

At the time he was a student of political philosophy at LSU, working on his master's and doctorate in the field after getting a bachelor's degree in English and philosophy. One of his professors, a tech fanatic, introduced him to the precursors of the Web, including the first browser, Mosaic.

"I could see the potential of it back then, but it was too early to start anything," says Fuller.

Fuller, a Ruston native, didn't complete the doctorate. He decided against writing a dissertation. "I didn't want to chase a teaching job around the country. I wanted to stay in Baton Rouge."

He chose to work in politics, learning campaigning from mentors, running a state trade group representing propane gas interests and guiding then-state Rep. Tony Perkins' early political interests.

Fuller learned that grassroots campaigns were hard to run. People, even if they were interested, found excuses not to write a letter. They had other things to do, like working and running after their kids.

Fuller's solution was VoterVOICE, which he formed in 2000. "It synthesized two things that excited me--politics and emerging technology."

In its simplest terms, VoterVOICE's Web services let people quickly tell their elected leaders what they think. The company's pitch is "Facilitating the future of democracy."

VoterVOICE accomplishes that by building and linking databases of local and national elected officials with databases of members of trade groups. To match the group members with their elected officials, the company uses voter registration databases and zip code databases, providing what Fuller says is a more reliable match than competitors.

Fuller funded the venture in the old-fashioned way: he borrowed $150,000 on his credit cards and secured a home equity loan. He paid Antares Technology Solutions of Baton Rouge to write version 1.0 of VoterVOICE's software, and since has hired three Indian immigrant programmers to add more features.

The company has nine employees, including two salespeople who call upon prospects to sell the services.

In about three years, VoterVOICE has grown to 160 clients. Fuller expects to reach revenue of $500,000 this year, $1 million next year and $5 million in five years. He says the company is already profitable, in large part because he's frugal.

He has competition from Capitol Advantage, the first mover in the segment. Capitol Advantage focuses on the national trade associations. Fuller is targeting state organizations, with an eye set on local ones, including real estate associations, construction company groups and business trade associations. The segment, says Fuller, has thousands of potential clients, which VoterVOICE hopes to win over without the "land grab" business model, where companies take on big funding in an attempt to take big chunks of Web market share.

VoterVOICE charges from $1,500 to $12,000 per year for its packages, depending on the size of the client and the services they purchase. Fuller says some competitors charge four times his top amount.

Soon VoterVOICE plans to branch into new services, such as public referendums. It started into that new segment by building software to let Austin 6 launch an online petition drive to put term limits on appointed board and commission members. The company also will enter the market for building campaign sites.

But for now, a different kind of goal is about to be realized. By the end of the year, he says, "the debt will be paid off."

MUKUL VERMA covers technology and commercial real estate. Reach him at mverma@businessreport.com.