DOT-COM STARTUP OF THE MONTH.

• Author: PETERSON, ERIC
• Position: Brief Article

COMPANYLOGOS.COM LLC

FORT COLLINS

www.companylogos.com

FOUNDED: JULY 1999

WEBSITE LAUNCHED: JANUARY 2000

Initial Lightbulb: "I would get phone calls from people wanting to know what I charged to design a logo," said companylogos.com founder and President Steve Hays, a graphic designer by trade. The answer -- $800 and up -- usually left small-business owners cold. "After getting these calls where I turned people away, I saw a demand for inexpensive logos." Hays then set out to develop a website that would "offer them what they wanted in a logo--eliminating most of the human element."

In a Nutshell: Targeting "businesses that have little or no startup money," companylogos.com allows its customers to select a piece of public domain art from nearly 40 categories, along with a typeface and a layout. For $179, Hays and Co. finishes the job, and e-mails the logo as a graphics file to the customer in 24 hours or less. "If they have selected a layout, it can take as little as 10 minutes (of labor)," said Hays. "It lends itself to being very quick." In the future, Hays plans to fully automate the process (which will require a $100,000 investment) and integrate custom logo, stationery and business card design into the mix. For promotion's sake, companylogos.com initiated a direct-mail campaign in July.

The Market: "The numbers are pretty staggering," said Hays. "On average, there's 144,000 new businesses being started every month. If only a quarter of that is our market, that's an...