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It's hard to believe that something so arcane as a computer language can be so popular.  The new language, of course, is called Java.  Many believe that this language will be the downfall of Microsoft.

To capture the rapidly growing Java market, there has been a variety of start-up companies emerging.  One such company is Tek-Tools, which is based in Dallas, Texas.  Although, like many Java start-ups, this company was once in another line of work.  Tek-Tools was founded in 1993, so as to distribute a product called WinText.  The product is used for the ATEX system used by major newspapers.

Last year, the founder of Tek-Tools, Ken Barth, saw that Java was going to be huge, so he refocused his company by distributing Kawa, which is a Java development tool.

I had an opportunity to talk with Ken, as well as one of his programmers, Nag Ral.

Taulli:  When you started the company in 1993, did you use any outside financing?

Barth:  No.  The company was financed by myself and my partner, Cindy. From the start, our vision was to create products that are "simple, easy to use, yet powerful for the user."  And our WinText product became very successful, as we sold it to major newspapers, such as the Boston Globe, New York Times, USA Today and even the Times of London. When our customers wanted us to make changes, we did so.  For example, we converted the program over to the Mac, OS/2, AIX and Solaris platforms.

Taulli:  How did you develop the product?

Barth:  I met a programmer, Robert Cooke, who was based in Melbourne, Australia.  He already had a product for such a purpose.  However, he did not know how to sell it.  So, I offered to do it.  Interestingly enough, he is still in Australia.  We maintain contact by phone and email.  Although, on occasion, we will see each other at trade shows.

And WinText is still our flagship product, although our Kawa product is gaining much speed.

Taulli:  How did you develop the Kawa product?

Barth:  It was basically the same way.  I met a programmer, named Nag. He has been in the industry for about eight years.  In early 1996, he had been developing - part time - a Java development tool with a great name:  Kawa.  We met in January and I was very intrigued with his work.  I asked him what he was doing with it?  He said he was giving it away free.  I knew that would have to change.

Nag:  That's right.  I'm a hard core C/C++ programmer and don't have much experience with marketing or distribution.  It looked like we had the potential for a great team.

Taulli:  When did you partner?

Barth:  In March 1996 we signed a contract.  Although, we did not have enough money to pay him for a full-time position, so he was doing this project on the side.  In June 1996, we launched the first product.

Nag:  As the sales started to increase, I was able to join Tek-Tools on a full-time basis - which I did three months ago.  But I still work at home. It's too loud at the office.

Barth:  Which is OK with me.  We are now at version 2.5 of the product.

Taulli:  How many employees do you have.

Barth:  Basically, four.  But if you count my dog . . .

Taulli:  How do you do order fulfillment?  Do you outsource that?

Barth:  No, Cindy handles that.

Nag:  The area of purchasing we outsource is our online commerce system.  We do not have a Web server.  It is more cost-effective to have an outside firm do this.  The reason is that we get so much traffic.  Basically, we get about 100 to 120 downloads per day.  When I release a new update, that number goes to 200 to 250 downloads per day.

Taulli:  What is your distribution model?  Do you have advertising?

Barth:  We don't have any advertising.  We have been selling our software completely by word-of-mouth.  We have also received lots of publicity, such as in PC Week, Java World and so on.  We have also had much support from Miko Matsumura.  He is the Java Evangelist at JavaSoft, which is a division of Sun.  He loves our product and has helped promote it.

Nag:  In fact, our distribution model is completely online.  This is great, because our cost of sales is very low.  Then again, this makes sense, because our user base is on the Net.   We also provide our technical support on  the Web.  We don't have call-in support.  We also established a newsgroup for technical support.  In fact, if you post a question on there, chances are good that another user - or more - will give an answer.  That helps out a lot.

When we first started distributing our product, we had lots of problems with people buying our product.  Java was still very new and people were not comfortable buying online.  But that is really starting to change.  Besides, people are seeing the value in using Java.

We also allow users to download our product for a 45-day evaluation period.  And we do not cripple the product - such as by not allowing users to save their material.  The free download is a full-working version of the product.

What's interesting is that after they use the product, there are very few questions when they buy our product.

Taulli:  Are you profitable.

Barth:  Yes.

Taulli:  You are competing against huge companies, such as Microsoft, Borland, Symantec and even IBM.  What makes you different?

Barth:  The products from these companies do not allow you to get into the nitty-gritty of Java.  Kawa is different.  It is built for hardcore Java programmers. 

Interestingly enough, our product is becoming a standard for training. Many universities use our product, such as Princeton.  There are also many schools in foreign countries using our product, such as in South Africa, Denmark, Switzerland, France

What happens often is that a student will download the program and start playing with it.  Then he will talk to his professor, who will then require it for his class.

But the product is not being used just for universities, but for corporate training, too.  Actually, Kawa is being used by the IBM Java training program, as well as Sun's. 

Also, our product is very compact.  It doesn't suck up much hard drive space.

Taulli:  It sounds like you have many international sales?

Barth:  That's right.  Our biggest foreign customer is Germany. Many of the orders we get are from people who send us crisp $50 bills in the mail. 

Taulli:  Why is that?

Barth:  Well, it is a big pain to cash in a foreign check.  The checking fee can range from $10 to $15.  And it can take up to six weeks to clear. So we try to encourage as many credit card orders as possible.

Taulli:  Are you seeking venture capital?

Barth:  Either that or a corporate partner.  Things are really starting to move.  And we have a loyal customer base, which is constantly giving us new ideas.

Tom Taulli