Together apart: Accordent Technologies has launched an online product for Webcast conference calls.

Accodent Technologies Inc., a webcast provider for big businesses and institutions, was born from one of the most ordinary of circumstances: two neighbors walking their dogs together.

Long conversations around the block evolved into a business plan when Michael Newman, attorney, and Jereme Pitts, a sales account manager, turned to software designer Michael Lorenz, a childhood friend of Pitts. The men were 28 years old.

Eight years later, El Segundo-based Accordent has grown into a $12.5 million business that offers Webcast presentation packages for 1,500 businesses and institutions, including General Electric Co., Unisys Corp., Johnson & Johnson, Mattel Inc., Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the United Nations, NASA and the Internal Revenue Service. Revenue has quadrupled over the past two years, and the 8-year-old company expects the growth to continue. It's projecting $25 million in revenue by 2008.

Accordent, by no means, is the lone success story in the broadband video applications and streaming media space. It is already a $237 million market that's projected to grow to $1.87 billion by 2011, according to ABI Research. What makes Accordent unique is that its technology works across disparate infrastructures and servers, which is particularly attractive for huge corporations made up of different subsidiaries and international divisions. And it's scalable.

"It was natural to target huge corporations, with a corporate communications department, a budget to execute the project and network already in place," said Newman, the company's chief executive. "Our products are ideal for massive companies with tons of satellite offices."

The United Nations, for example, uses Accordent technology to Web-east its meetings in 16 different languages.

Last month, the company rolled out a new online conferencing product that allows clients to Webcast conference calls. It works something like a giant version of Skype, the popular Internet telephone network, but with synchronized PowerPoint slides, downloadable documents and moderated Q & A.

Business is growing as Webcasts become more mainstream and major corporations want to jazz up the way they present information. L.A.-based Interactive Video Technologies Inc., founded in 2000, is Accordent's largest local competitor.

The corporate video market has seen a significant increase in interest because of two very important developments, said Greg Pulier, co-founder and chief executive of Interactive Video Technologies. One is increased consumer interest in video in general.

"And the other is that so many employees are sick of seeing their managers give boring PowerPoint presentations," Pulier said.

Thinking big

Accordent was able to reach the larger conglomerates by initially selling to content delivery networks, such as Digital Island Ltd. and Akamai Technologies Inc., whose clients included Fortune 500 companies. Through those connections, the company secured its fast deals with corporations ready for in-house software for digital broadcasting.

One of Accordent's first customers was Unisys, a company of 31,000 employees that sells server computers and consulting services.

Steve Fanelli, vice president of the company's corporate marketing group, decided to go with the fledgling company in 2002, even after looking at services from industry veterans such as Yahoo Inc. and Akamai Technologies.

"They came with a consulting approach and worked with me to find a solution that fits my operation and infrastructure," Fanelli said. "The company was young at the time, and they were young--I mean literally young. But I believed in them and the solution and they sucked me in."

With the software Unisys purchased from Accordent, Fanelli is able to stream broadcast to employees in 100 different countries. Previously, the company's satellite broadcasting system reached only Unisys locations. Now, the corporate leadership is able to communicate with its employees wherever they are, as long as they have laptops and an Internet connection.

Humble genesis

The genesis of Accordent's technology was humble.

The three co-founders had pulled $15,000 together to buy computers and servers, which they packed into the home garage of Jereme Pitts, now the company's senior vice president of marketing.

It was early 1999 and Michael Lorenz, the company's chief technology officer, had moved into Pitts' home in Manhattan Beach from Sacramento. He had quit his job as an information systems analyst for the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, where he helped create and maintain the largest health care data center in the country.

"It was a huge gamble. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't," Lorenz said.

Pitts was still working as a sales account manager at a garment company and Newman as a corporate attorney. Lorenz had spent days in the garage, writing codes and developing software.

"I remember coming home that day, the garage door half-cracked and light coming out," Pitts recalled. "I asked Mike how his day went. He looked at me, and said, 'Man, I think we have something.'"

The three men worked for 18 months without getting paid, then slowly started to see revenue working out of two small executive studios. The company moved into a sizable office space only last year. As they grew their business, they did the same with their friendship. The men were groomsmen at each other's weddings and have celebrated baby showers together.

Taking a conservative approach to organically growing the business also gave the company plenty of time to refine its technology, without being held hostage to arbitrary deadlines set by investors, the founders said. The company got its first round of $4 million in funding last year from TVC Capital Inc.

"You learn to be resourceful really quickly when it's your own money," said Newman.

Accordent Technologies Inc.

Founded: September 1999

Core Business: Providing rich-media communication tools to leading institutions and businesses

Employees in 2006: 17

Employees in 2007: 45

Goal: To become a leader in online multimedia communications

Driving Force: The desire to enable businesses, governments and educational institutions to take advantage of broadband and online video technology to train and communicate with larger audiences

BY BOOYEON LEE

Staff Reporter