Rivet Software.

• Author: Peterson, Eric
• Position: Tech Startup of the Month

Where: Englewood www.rivetsoftware.com Founded: Summer 2002

INITIAL LIGHTBULB:

After selling FRx Software to Microsoft Business Solutions in 2000, founder Mike Rohan took some time to contemplate his next entrepreneurial move. Then the Enron scandal broke, followed by WorldCom, and Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002 to protect investors and prevent financial malpractice. With CFOs and CPAs on the cusp of a new regulatory environment, Rohan saw a market need and founded Rivet Software. "We believe there is a gap between the financial software available today and what financial professionals really need," said Rohan, Rivet's president. "We are creating software from scratch that addresses the need for transparency and corporate governance."

After operating in stealth mode for two years, the 18-employee Rivet launched its first product, Dragon Tag, in November. The company is currently developing additional products that meet the Sarbanes-Oxley needs of financial professionals, with plans for multiple releases by the end of the year.

IN A NUTSHELL:

Rivet's Dragon Tag, so named for its user-friendly "drag and tag" interface, is the first product of a suite of "Financial Integrity Management" tools, said VP of Product Management Rob Blake. "It's (a Microsoft) Office-based add-in, so it works in Word and Excel. Whether corporations around the world want to admit or not, they use Word and Excel as their financial consolidation platform."

Dragon Tag and all subsequent Rivet products adhere to XBRL (Extensible Business Reporting Language) standards, which have been adopted by a number of organizations, including the FDIC and SEC domestically and dozens more around the world. Rivet has a number of XBRL gurus on the payroll, including the "Godfather of XBRL," Wayne Harding, doing business development. "It's all about making it easier to publish and share business information," Harding said. "Call it dumb luck, but now the regulatory environment is saying that it needs a new tool to be able to do that."

The problem is that XBRL is quite complex, and plugging it into a company's financial spreadsheets is no easy task. Blake himself was responsible for coding XBRL for Microsoft, the first company to prepare financial statements in...