Q. In 50 words, or less, what is Easy Office?
A.  Easy Office is an early stage firm that provides affordable finance, accounting, and bookkeeping services to small and medium-sized non-profits nationwide. Our sales people in the Northeast serve the Tri-State area (NY, NJ, CT), home to 20% of the nations non-profits. Our headquarters and shared service center is based at the Watercooler in Boise.

Q. How do you see your growth potential?
A. 1 million non-profits spend nearly $30 billion per year on back-office services. Based on our chosen firm size (under $3M annual budget) our addressable market is 250,000 small to medium-sized non-profits nationwide. Our initial focus is on the 50,000 located in the Tri-State area. Based on average revenue of $4,000 per client per year, our initial addressable market is $200 million. Clearly the market is big. Realistically, our business plan expects to add 6-8 new clients per month. After two months of operation, this has proven to be accurate. If we can continue this rate of growth, we should be at $1 million in revenue after two years and $4-5 million in revenue after five years with about 50 employees.

Q. Other than $25 million of no-strings VC money, what do you really need now to take off?
A.  Clients and a little more runway. We break even with as few as 75-100 clients. As most readers of this are located in Idaho, we would love to have some more local clients. Right now, we have proposals outstanding with two Boise non-profits. There are over 4,000 non-profits in Idaho and we’d love to help any of them. Also, our business plan calls for $250,000 in initial funding. We have raised a little more than ½ of that through friends, founders, and pre-start revenue. Another $100,000 in funding would give us a little bit longer runway and allow us to more aggressively pursue our marketing efforts .

Q. What's your connection to Boise in all of this?
A.  My Dad, Lynn Russell, was the first Dean of Engineering at Boise State. He moved here from the South while I was in college and Boise became my home away from home. After moving from Atlanta, to Portland, to Bangkok, to New Haven, we have now made Boise our official home. My Dad has since retired, but it was his connection with Rick Ritter that led me to the Watercooler. We debated between Portland, OR and Boise. Ultimately the decision to reside in Boise came down to the low cost of living. We can hire bookkeepers and accountants in Boise for 40% less than in the New York area (and 25% less than Portland). This allows us to provide affordable service to our price-sensitive clients.

Q. How is life at the WaterCooler for a company like yours?
A.  I bike to work, so the shower is key! Since it is still just me in the Boise office, I enjoy chatting with the other entrepreneurs in the building. Already the guys down at Book Lamp have helped me with some techy stuff and other folks’ local connections have proved valuable. There is also a certain energy that comes from working around like-minded people, rather than working in some desolate office in a strip mall somewhere.