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It's not often that a small company -- with only 10 employees -- signs a content agreement with Schwab.  It's even rarer for Schwab to place such a company in its commercials.

Well, Concerto Technologies, based in Minneapolis, isn't a typical online financial company.  Despite only being online since May 15, 1997, Concerto Technologies has strategic partnerships with such marquee names as Hoover's Online, Edgar Online, DoubleClick, Zacks Investment Research, Datek Securities, Quick & Reilly, CompuTel Securities, and Morningstar.

What do these companies like about Concerto Technologies?  Simply put, the company has the most comprehensive Website for online financial charting. And the name of the site is apt:  BigCharts.com. Big indeed.  For free, a user can access daily quotes on more than 27,000 U.S. stocks, mutual funds, and indexes (stock options will be added).  For the past two years, Concerto has been developing a sophisticated technology, called the Financial Media Server, which allows for reliable and scalable delivery of financial data.  Since the FMS does not rely on Java or ActiveX, the site is very fast, which is key for investors looking for financial information.

Interestingly enough, the FMS technology relies on no third-party software. Moreover, Concerto hasn't contracted with outside technical people.  Why? The company wants tight control over its intellectual property.

With the FMS technology driving BigCharts, you can do such things as:

· Intraday quotes (there's a 20-minute delay). · Links to SEC filings. · Advanced phonetic search technology. · Bookmarks for favorite charts. · Performance comparison charts (that is, you can compare various stocks, mutual funds, and indexes on one chart). · Technical indicators (RSI, Bollinger Bands, Stochastics, etc.) · Chart styles (you can select up to seven types). · E-mail services (you can, on a daily basis, receive certain charts in your e-mail).

Ironically, the founder of the company, the 28-year-old Philip Hotchkiss, wasn't a Wharton MBA, but an English major.  But, after studying law in England, he entered the brokerage business in 1991 with the Minneapolis company Dain Bosworth.  He stayed there for three years.  But in 1994, he decided to start his own Net company, so as to provide proprietary investment technologies for individual traders, brokers, and portfolio managers.  He used his own money, as well as money from outside investors.

The first product, called Conductor 1.0, was geared for the futures market. However, it was a small niche.  Hotchkiss wanted something big.  In mid-1996, he used his core technologies to focus on the broader consumer and institutional markets. The product, of course, was BigCharts. The initial strategy was to launch BigCharts exclusively on the Schwab site for one month.  The response was overwhelming.  Then again, Schwab has more than $50 billion in online assets and more than 700,000 online accounts (which is about half of all online brokerage accounts).  In short order, BigCharts was serving millions of pages.

How did a small company get Schwab to do this?  "From day one," says Hotchkiss, "we have been trying to get the biggest brands in the financial business.  And which one is bigger than Schwab?"

Hotchkiss says there were several factors that made the partnership possible.  First, Concerto was very responsive to Schwab.  If Schwab had a question, an answer was quick.  If Schwab wanted a change, the change was made.  "In a way, it's like being a good stockbroker," says Hotchkiss. "You need to focus on the client." Second, Concerto had to convince Schwab that BigCharts could handle huge amounts of traffic.  What's more, the data had to be accurate.  Finally, Concerto needed to be very persistent. "But Schwab was not our only focus," says Hotchkiss.  "We need to serve all clients very well."

What Concerto has done is create reciprocal links with other sites.  This has been the strategy that has created most of its traffic (which has been growing 50 percent+ per month).  After all, Concerto has yet to spend a dime on advertising.

But Concerto has strict guidelines on who it will link with:

· The link must go both ways. · The partner must be a leading brand. · The partner must provide much value-add to BigCharts.

OK, sounds great.  But what about the revenue model?  Well, in the past three months, the company has been cash-flow positive.

There are three sources of revenue:

* Advertising:  Concerto has demographics advertisers desire. The average age of the Concerto user is between 43 and 51.  These users also have high networth.  Furthermore, users spend, on average, seven minutes per session on BigCharts. Concerto has signed an agreement with DoubleClick, which is the top Internet advertising network.  Basically, this company is an agent that places advertising for Websites, such as AltaVista, Quicken Financial Network, US News Online, and the Dilbert Zone.   "They are the biggest in the industry," says Hotchkiss, "with over 50 sales agents.  They are constantly trying to find us creative ways of generating advertising revenues." Interestingly enough, many of BigCharts users are from Fortune 100 companies.  Why?  Hotchkiss says he believes these companies need to find ways of analyzing their stock performance -- especially against competitors.  What's more, a larger percentage of compensation is based on stock option plans.  "One company requested 500 copies of our charts for an annual meeting," says Hotchkiss. * Licensing:  Concerto doesn't license its technology; rather, it licenses it content to such customers as brokerage firms and financial sites. * E-Commerce:  Although not operational, Concerto plans on letting users purchase products online (perhaps books, as well as stocks).

Although not as narrow as the futures market, the charting market is still a niche.  To break out of this, Concerto plans on launching the BigNetork. This will consist of not only BigCharts, but also BigPortfolio, BigStocks, BigFunds, and BigQuotes.

"Our goal is to be the premier provider of interactive content for investors," Hotchkiss says.  With the huge surge in online investing, people need tools to make decisions.  And BigCharts does this in a very Big way.