Conway software firm makes its mark in data analysis: Rapid Insight's success helps to fulfill Mt. Washington Valley's high-tech goals.

Armed with only an idea, experience and his own cash, Michael Laracy started a software company in his North Conway home in 2002. Today, Rapid Insight Inc. has 10 employees, two products that could well revolutionize data analysis and a roster of impressive clients.

The company's products, Analytics and Data Integration, use a visual, intuitive approach to statistical analysis and data relationship modeling that simplifies and automates the data-mining process.

After a career in data analysis for the Federal Reserve and NCR/Teradata, opportunities for "hiking, biking and skiing," motivated New Jersey native Laracy's move to New Hampshire, where he joined his brother. Here he used his own frustrations with existing "code-driven" statistical software to design his first product, Analytics. "I wanted to make it as easy to use as possible," he said.

Rapid Insight's growth is a classic bootstrap tale. Laracy's first rented office was a whopping 150 square feet, and when he added an employee, he had to take additional space in another part of the building.

"We communicated with walkie talkies," he said.

Local support through the Mount Washington Valley Economic Council soon proved invaluable to Laracy's fledgling company. The region has traditionally been dependent on tourism and retail Employment, with wages well below the state average. Targeting technology users seemed to be a way to create better-paying jobs that would have a minimal impact on the environment.

With that goal, in 2002, the council opened a 10,000-square-foot technology business incubator in a rambling old house in Center Conway. Laracy moved his company there in 2004.

Laracy "self-funded" the company and its three employees until 2005, when he approached another economic council program, First Run Angel Group, for capital. The council also provided a bridge loan through its revolving loan fund until the angel funds came through. Those funds allowed Laracy to take a quantum leap in hiring employees and getting his product to market.

"Most of our employees are from the local area," he said.

'A beautiful thing'

After the council built a 25,000-square-foot technology business park on 80 acres near the Saco River, Rapid Insight became a tenant. Federal and state funds through the Economic Development Administration and the Community Development Block Grant Program helped fund the village, which now houses seven businesses and local branches of the university and technical college system.

"Being in a building with other technology businesses is great," Laracy said. "And Jac Cuddy has been an asset. He's made a lot of connections for us," Cuddy is the economic council's executive director and also sits on Laracy's board.

"They're a dynamic company," Cuddy said, adding that the Tech Village is fully occupied and the council is subdividing the parcel to make commercial building lots available.

Scott Mantie, associate dean of institutional research at Plymouth State University, is a beta user of Rapid Insight's products, which means he tests the product and gives feedback to the company.

He can't say enough about its ease of use and visual format, which allows users to "drag and drop" as they make connections between data sets. "I could teach anyone how to use it," he said. "It's very cool."

Mantie, who taught in the State University of New York system before moving to PSU about two years ago, said one of his tasks was to analyze student data to improve recruitment and retention.

Identifying the geographic areas and socioeconomic groups most likely to attend PSU in order to target recruitment time and dollars is a monumental task if performed manually. Analytics has transformed that process. Mantie said. "Now we can easily pull out the relevant data. We can even do census data overlays if we want."

The other product, Data Integration, allows the college to take data from disparate sources and easily combine them in one database. The school uses student information to encourage retention, identify characteristics of successful students and plan course scheduling, for example. "If I can be more efficient and get more information and guidance, it's a beautiful thing," Mantie said.

With over a dozen university and college clients, Rapid Insight is making inroads in the education market, which is finding easy access to student recruitment, retention and enrollment data important, particularly in the current economy. Cuts in student loan programs and possible higher enrollment due to the job market are two factors schools are grappling with.

"We retained a greater percentage this spring," Mantie said. "The real test will be this fall. With a possible increase in Pell grants, we could see a rise in enrollment. And in a poor economy, more students stay in school or seek retraining."

Rapid Insight's software also has been used by high-profile companies such as eBay, Xerox and MCI for sales and marketing analysis. Police departments use it to analyze and predict criminal behavior. And politicians find it useful in identifying promising voter pools.

Regarding one Senate campaign, Laracy said, "They thought they should be targeting younger, middle-income voters, when in fact they needed to be targeting older voters and upper income voters."

Despite a wide range of opportunities, Laracy is holding back on growth right now. "There are all kinds of markets we could go after," Laracy said, "but we are planning to grow 'organically' for the next couple of years. However, we are open to possible future investments."