Oregon Public Broadcasting

In OPB’s occasional series on the recession, we’ve talked to Chris Baker -- the founder of a small software start-up in Portland.

Last time: the economy was terrible; he’d laid-off most of his staff; and he’d just fired the CEO.

Chris Baker: “He was here to raise the money and he didn’t raise the money. And so we determined that we would be better off spending that money elsewhere.”

Baker says the economy is now showing signs of life, so CrossCurrent has hired a new CEO -- this time from Portland -- and is sending him out to raise money.  Kristian Foden-Vencil reports.

In the last five years, CrossCurrent has been writing a software program to help doctors and surgeons accurately bill health insurance companies. But just as they finished it last year, everyone started talking about the worst economy since the Great Depression.

Baker says his company came close to losing everything,  but it feels like the worst may be over.

Chris Baker:“At this point I feel pretty optimistic. It feels like we got shot at and didn’t get hit. And I think there’s almost a giddiness of having dodged a bullet and it feels like the economy is turning around and our future looks real bright.”

Baker says he still remembers laying off all those people.

Chris Baker: “I’m incredibly grateful every day that I have a place to go to work that allows me to keep my house and my kids fed and that’s no small thing right now. And I look forward honestly to being able to go rehire the people that we laid-off.”

Before he can do that, however, CrossCurrent needs cash.  And raising that cash is the job of the new CEO, Kim Cox.

Kim Cox: “I think that this point that the company needs to do a minimum of a $5 million raise with probably a $5 million add-on.”

Cox is a veteran of another Portland software business, Rentrak.  It tracked video rentals  and cable viewing habits.

As a trained accountant and attorney, Cox was the CEO for Rentrak as its stock rose from $1 a share, to a peak of about $12.

But four years ago he left -- to try and take things a little easier.

Kim Cox: “I’ll admit, I was bored to death and had to go back to work. And just saw this tremendous promise of a product and a company that had this wonderful potential future in front of it.”

So now, on the walls of his office, Cox has a list of about 50 wealthy individuals who he’s going schmooze over the next few months for CrossCurrent.

Two years ago, he says, he raised $17 million in just six months.

Kim Cox: “I’d like to tell you that it was due to my tremendous ability and everything. But the truth was it wasn’t that hard. Then suddenly, as the economy went down, you couldn’t raise money, you couldn’t get banks to give you money, you couldn’t whatever. Now, everybody I’ve talked to has indicated that things are starting to flow again, people are figuring out what to do.”

Cox is giving himself until Thanksgiving to raise the first $2 million, which he’ll use to hire a sales team from about a dozen different cities.

He says the high unemployment rate could help -- because  there's a pool of talented sales  people looking for work.

Kim Cox: “Right now is the time to be pulling some of those people in, who have all the connections, have a background in the industry. Pure sales people I want guys who know how to close the deal.”

Because of the problems with CrossCurrent's last CEO, some  members of the company's board are nervous about whether Cox can deliver.

Founder, Chris Baker, says he’ll know Cox was the right pick --

Chris Baker: “When we have more sales, customer support people than we do software developers, we’re headed in the right direction, we’ve arrived.”

The last CEO came from Chicago.

Baker says he's learned to be more respectful of home-grown Oregon talent, which is why Cox feels like a good fit.

Dennis McNannay, the company’s chief of sales, says sometimes Portland businesses seem dismissive of  Oregon companies.

Dennis McNannay: “When I’m selling to a major world-class orthopedic institute in Indianapolis or in Chicago. They take me more seriously there than I would ever be taken here in Portland. It’s because Portland has a better image external to itself. And I think in many ways this town has an inferiority complex that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Because really it would be nice to have OHSU as a large company locally. But much easier getting the doors open in Texas, in Chicago, Philadelphia, Seattle, or any of the number of national accounts that we have.”

Despite such problems, CrossCurrent recently reached that most important goal of any start-up – it became profitable.

If it’s successful in taking its product nationwide, then it could well be one of the companies to help Oregon pull out of the recession.