School daze helps peddle this educational software.

• Position: People

To hear Craig Larsen tell it, selling computer technology to schools doesn't sound like a winning proposition. Schools typically are seven years behind businesses in adopting new technology -- in the Stone Age in Internet years. On top of that, they're notoriously slow to make buying decisions.

But that's exactly why Larsen and partner Jim Kirchner sell educational software. The key, they believe, is delivery. Charlotte-based LearningStation is an "application service provider." ASPs offer software on the Internet rather than install it on individual computers. Customers sign up for subscriptions, letting the provider handle bugs and upgrades. That translates to low upfront costs and centralized administration -- ideal for schools.

LearningStation got a big boost in October when it signed a contract to offer Arizona's 850,000 public-school students and its 40,000 teachers access to Education Desktop, a package of 252 software titles and resources, including lesson plans. "It's the biggest deal," Larsen says, "the ASP industry has ever done" -- $27.9 million over four years.

Larsen, 36, is a Poughkeepsie, N.Y., native who has spent most of his life in North Carolina. He holds a bachelor's in accounting from N.C. State. Co-founder Kirchner, 35, comes from Greenville, S.C., and has a bachelor's in economics, also from State. They met through their wives, who both worked for KPMG in Raleigh. Larsen and Kirchner later worked together in Charlotte at Osprey Systems, an e-business consulting company.

In 1996, they left Osprey and started Computer Network Power to install networks, sell hardware and do computer maintenance. "Along the way," Larsen recalls, "we picked up a couple of schools. They spent all their money getting the computers, then they'd get the technology and have no money to maintain it." He and Kirchner formed LearningStation in 1997 and, after it began to grow, sold Computer Network Power's accounts in 1999.

Larsen says LearningStation's sales should reach $5 million in 2001, up 150% from the prior year. Educational Desktop has subscribers in more than 200 schools in 26 states, and the 15-employee company is profitable.

With Arizona a client, LearningStation will be going after other states and large school districts. Does that mean that by the time Larsen's 4- and 2-year-old daughters start school, they'll use Daddy's product in their classrooms as well as at home? "We think North Carolina is a prime candidate."

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