Interview with Barry James Folsom, CEO of Laszlo Systems

Nathan, it is just delightful to be with you this morning, so thanks for the opportunity to talk about something that I am very passionate about, which is Laszlo. Laszlo enables developers to fulfill the dream of usability on the Web, and gives them the platform to easily create rich Internet applications that allows those of us who surf the web to not only accomplish the tasks we want to do, but also to experience the “wow” factor- because of the application’s fluidity and ease-of-use. As this technology is new to the market, it’s hard to imagine the speed that you’ll able to deliver online transactions… people will able to say “I got the purchase, or information I needed, and I am now on to something else” in substantially less time than it ever took before. In brief, Laszlo is about changing today’s online experience and making it more intuitive, smarter, quicker and richer that what we currently experience with the HTML Web.

One that Laszlo has brought to light is Behr Paints, which is looking to increase their share of market, so they developed this kiosk that they put into 1,500 Home Depots, and as you can imagine they have a complete mix of demographics with people with some user experience, to those that haven’t even seen a computer before. It is a touch screen interface, and they use Laszlo to provide a very easy to use cinematic rich media interface. They enter in their room dimensions, put in their primary color and pick accent and trim colors, and the systems transmits the necessary information to the person behind the counter, with just the right amount of paint, and the purchase is complete. It has been very successful, and now Behr Paints is moving it onto the web. We look forward to seeing the same tool online in the next three months.

We provide LPS, Laszlo Presentation Server, which is very much akin to Application Servers. What the LPS does is the presentation layer. Instead of having the page metaphor, with one page after another systematically. We take provide a system that brings it back to where it should be, which is one page, with rich interactivity. All the necessary information is handled by one page, and very exciting, a user can hit the back button, and the information is still available.

That is absolutely correct. If you think about Yahoo! Calendar, MSN, Hotmail, etc. These are just poster children, for how the page metaphor for handling very simple things such as this. You can now have Windows client interactivity, in a much more fluid interaction. The information updates automatically.

We see four main areas as low hanging fruit. The first is Broadband vendors; AOL, Comcast, Charter, etc. Broadband is currently at 25% penetration in the US.

That is correct. Then would be consumer travel, consumer financing, and then consumer commerce.

The travel industry is currently suffering due to the economy and the impending war. The online segment however is exploding; Travelocity, Orbitz, Expedia, etc. That market is exploding, and the opportunity is to do a trip wizard. What is very exciting is what the industry calls Dynamic Packaging, where the customer puts together their own air, hotel, car, and golf games. This has been a large win for Expedia. We see a huge opportunity to provide a very rich, graphical interface to facilitate this type of solution.

Our tool would enable customers to create their trips on the fly, and change different aspects, all while updating the system immediately with new pricing, times, etc. A customer could drag an icon of a plane into the trip tool, and it would create all the additional variables needed.

We will be doing both. There are a number of different companies that we will be working with directly to provide our technology. We will also be working directly with the larger vendors.

Rich Internet Applications are going to be widely embraced within the next 5 to 7 years, but like any new technology, the key is to target the early adopters, the pragmatists who know and see the opportunity. The two key leaders in travel; Travelocity, and Expedia have almost the same front page, so there isn’t much differentiation on the front end. We can provide that differentiation.

The key is to have a razor sharp focus, so that you know where you are targeted. You also have to have exciting technology, so people are passionate about the success of the company, and the product. Creating something that is revolutionary. Relevant experience, so that an individual can contribute immediately. Smart people can learn by doing, but that takes some time and effort. There are considerable opportunity costs, because you want someone who can walk in and close!

What I called the dot-happy days, there weren’t enough people. A lot of people were in positions that they may have not been qualified for, and while they learned a lot from it, but they didn’t have a good foundation. We are finding that it is still difficult to find people with prior relevant experience.

We have kind of developed a litmus test, where we look for people who actually want to work at Laszlo, and are excited about working with us. This has slowly been articulated over time. We have discovered that if a candidate is qualified, but isn’t excited about the business, we tend to pass on them.

This has been the longest recession that the valley has faced. Now is the best time to be working at startups. The stability of working at a large corporate is appealing, but they just aren’t as secure as they used to be. I don’t know of any large company in Silicon Valley, who hasn’t had large layoffs in the recent past. I would rather be talking about something new, and excited about it.

You have gone through the tough times, and you are primed for the growing economy!

It has been delightful speaking with you.