BusinessTN

Ranked 8th in Entrepreneur magazine's 2006 "Hot Cities for Entrepreneurs" list, Nashville is one of the best places in the nation to start and grow a successful business. Entrepreneur Tim Stofka can prove it.

In 1995, a then 27-year-old Stofka and business partners Phil Ledbetter and Ken Nelson launched Oasis Software, a company specializing in system integration, custom application development and product distribution. With their ingenuity and the help of one of the Kauffman FastTrac® programs offered by the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, Stofka and Ledbetter (they bought Nelson out in 2000) not only ran a successful business for several years, but also were able to sell it to a company ready to expand its Nashville presence.

In 2000, the pair decided to enroll in FastTrac® GrowthVenture™ — one of the three Kauffman Foundation programs for entrepreneurs that the Nashville Chamber currently offers. The 10-week curriculum is designed to assist owners of existing businesses in improving strategic thinking skills and building a sustainable business.

When Stofka and Ledbetter enrolled in the program, they'd been in business for five years, but they hadn't put a business plan on paper.

"It forced us to work on business instead of in the business," Stofka says. Stofka adds that he and his partners walked away with more than a well-thought-out and researched business plan.

"It gave us agility and humility," Stofka says. "The agility to meet the changing needs of our customers, and the humility to admit that sometimes you may be trying to put a square peg in a round hole."

The owners have the results to show for it—by the end of 2001, Oasis Software had doubled in size and revenue, with more change on the horizon. By 2004, the majority of Oasis Software's business involved implementing PeopleSoft solutions. When Oracle acquired PeopleSoft that same year, Oasis partnered with Charlotte-based TITAN Technology Partners, an Oracle systems integrator, to weather the storm. In early 2005, TITAN made Stofka and Ledbetter an offer they could not refuse, and by June, TITAN had acquired Oasis. Before the merger, Stofka says TITAN, which now provides Enterprise Resource Planning hosted and managed services, was an $11 million company. Today, it's on its way to becoming a $50 million company.

As senior vice presidents of PeopleSoft and Oracle Fusion Services and PeopleSoft Managed Services, respectively, Stofka and Ledbetter are now part of the TITAN management team (with offices in Brentwood).

TITAN CEO Mike Vadini says TITAN is in the process of expanding the Nashville office—currently about 30 of TITAN's 350 employees work out of Nashville, and he expects to have about 50 here by the end of the year.

"Oasis Software was a unique company that focused on Central Tennessee for 10 years. When we acquired it, we were fascinated with the quality of people there, the client relationships and the clients themselves," Vadini says. "In addition, Tennessee is a market that has been extremely receptive to our company—we do a lot of business in Nashville, Knoxville and Memphis —so we're interested in building upon that success."

That's a ringing endorsement not only for Stofka and Ledbetter, but also for Nashville. And there's more.

"We view Nashville as one of about two or three up-and-coming cities with the ability to attract and keep talent," Vadini says. "The Tier Two cities of the South are great places for people to come and stay."

High Gear

When 27-year-old entrepreneur Mark Krejci turned to the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce looking for tools to help him launch his business, he discovered FastTrac® TechVenture™.

The newest Kauffman Foundation series offered by the Chamber, the program lasts 10 weeks (one 3-hour session each week) and focuses specifically on the needs of entrepreneurs with business ideas based on developing and marketing technology.

"The program content and the networking opportunities created as part of the FastTrac® TechVenture™ program are targeted toward technology-based ventures," say Christine McDonnell, vice president of existing business and entrepreneurship for the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce. "Entrepreneurial programs like this further support the Chamber's Partnership 2010 Strategic plan which is an economic development initiative of the Nashville region to stimulate and nurture innovation and entrepreneurship."

For Krejci, who was in the early stages of planning his new venture, TechVenture™ proved an ideal first step.

"It kicks everything into high gear, from doing the necessary research to preparing a business plan," Krejci says. "It made me get things on paper and allowed me to pull everything together faster than I could have otherwise. Not to mention the connections I made."

Today, Krejci is busy talking to investors about getting the financial backing for Bravato, which he describes as "an online live entertainment marketplace that acts as a booking agent between performers and locations."

It's a business idea that, he says, may be better suited for New York or California, but he's determined to make it work in Nashville.

"I decided to drive here and look around on Thanksgiving break. I went up and down Music Row and downtown, and everything was deserted," Krejci says. "That's when I first realized that this is a family town—people are serious about business, but on Thanksgiving, they were all at home with their families. They're doing life, not just doing business, and that was more appealing to me than anything else."

For more information, visit: www.nashvillechamber.com/business /small_biz/fasttrac