Long-term focus keeps MSN growing.

• Author: Beck, Cathie
• Position: High Tech Coloradobiz - MSN Communications - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

DOUG SCHUCK IS AN EXECUTIVE who sees downsizing as an opportunity, and perhaps that's the best explanation for the growth of his network integration company, MSN Communications.

Started in 1993, MSN has grown from nothing to $40 million in sales over eight years -- straight through the last two years of Colorado's technology recession.

"In the early '90s AT&T was constantly downsizing," says Schuck. "I was an executive with them so I went to them and said I'd like a resignation package that included an AT&T Paradyne distributorship.

"If that works, I'll resign," he said he told his bosses. After six months of negotiating an agreement, he left AT&T to make good on the deal.

"I went into business," he said. "All by myself, out of my house."

AT&T has since sold Paradyne Networks Inc., but the company's broadband-connections products remain a cornerstone of MSN's trade. They also were a building block to MSN's quick start.

"Some of the boost to our right-out-of-the-gate positive launch was due to our AT&T Paradyne partnership," says Schuck. "AT&T Paradyne afforded us 60-day payment terms right up front. That allowed us to turn account receivables into immediate and very positive cash flow."

Now, MSN is a 35-employee Littleton company that designs, deploys and manages corporations' data communications systems. Schuck likes to say the company's assets are its brains -- it houses more than 200 collective years of data and communications experience in a workforce that includes nine certified engineers, "all perfectionists," he says.

MSN competes with about "a dozen or so primary players" in Colorado -- similar-sized or larger network integration companies with high-level certifications. Within that market, it has been able to claim some large-sized clients...