Sound a lot like the Army? Well it should, because deep in the heart of North Carolina, on the outskirts of legendary Fort Bragg, an ex-career Army man by the name of Clarence Briggs has taken all the skills learned fighting his way up through the ranks of the Army and applied them to the world of e-business.
Briggs has quietly built his company, Advanced Internet Technologies, into one of the largest and most profitable hosting firms in the country. He's now branching out into other areas, recently launching an application service provider (ASP) division, a computer training unit and, with the help of the political fathers of Fayetteville,he is looking to develop one of the first international cybermalls, with both brick-and-mortar and Internet storefronts.
Briggs' success and contributions to the economically depressed city have made him a local hero. He was named North Carolina's Entrepreneur of the Year for 2000 and has received several civic awards. In the process, he has garnered our attention, as Interactive Week's Entrepreneur of the Year for 2000.
No life like it
Looking out of his corner office in a newly renovated building on Hay Street, Fayetteville's main thoroughfare, Briggs says this is the last place he would have envisioned himself five years ago. Back then, Briggs' future was clearly laid out - a progressive rise through the ranks of the officer corps and, perhaps in another 10 years, retirement with a full pension.
In one way or another, the 40-year-old has always been tied to the army. He was born in a U.S. military hospital in Korea in 1960. His mom is Korean, his dad a sergeant with the U.S. Military Advisory Command stationed in the post-war country. After growing up an Army brat, traveling from base to base, Briggs attended Ohio State University and graduated with a master's degree in strategic studies. In 1986, he signed on with the Army and was commissioned as an infantry second lieutenant with the 82nd Airborne Division. He went on to serve in Operation Just Cause in Panama and Desert Storm in the Persian Gulf. By 1996, he had progressed to the rank of infantry major.
Briggs says he loved to get down in the muck with the troops and the sense of achievement he gained from working with and developing raw recruits, but by 1996 his body was beginning to feel the strains of the job. A second knee injury put him out of action for 30 days, and Briggs could see his future was firmly tied to a desk. "I could see that it was no longer going to be a challenge for me, and in some respects, I decided if I was going to be tied to a desk, I wanted to get paid more," says the still fit and trim Briggs, sitting in his Army memorabilia-decorated office on a recent cold afternoon.
While recovering from his knee injury, Briggs started exploring the Internet. He was instantly hooked and started "devouring" any information he could find on the Web. By the time he was back on the job, Briggs had set up a small Web hosting company out of his bedroom. "I'd go to work and do my day job, and then I'd come home at night and go to war," he says. "I'd fight for competition, set up battle plans . . . I was fulfilling my needs for action with the business."
The operation expanded from his bedroom into his garage, and before long, Briggs began bringing his Army buddies in for help. At any one time, there might be as many as 20 people filing in and out of the garage. They lived off-base, and Briggs' wife, Vicki, recalls that some of the neighbors thought they were operating a cult or selling Amway products from their home.
In late 1997, the business had grown to the point where he had to either sell it or commit himself full-time to the operation. To his surprise, it was an easy decision. "I knew this was what I wanted to do. In many respects, I had already left the Army," he says.
Today, AIT boasts nearly 125,000 customers of all shapes and sizes. In May, the company took over a 93,000-square-foot building that used to house the local Social Services offices in downtown Fayetteville, and now employs about 150 people. About 80 percent of AIT's employees come from the military, and Briggs is proud that the Air Force, Army, Marines and Navy are all represented in his ranks. He doesn't care what training or experience his staff had before they joined the company, as long as they have the right stuff.
An eye for talent
And that goes beyond military experience. Suzy Hrabozky was a waitress in a Fayetteville Pizza Hut in 1996 and had often served Briggs and his strange assortment of military Internet entrepreneurs. Briggs was impressed with Hrabozky and asked her to join his fledgling operation. While her fellow waitresses told her she was crazy to join some Army guy and work out of his garage, Hrabozky took the gamble and hasn't looked back. She earned her stripes by doing bookkeeping from 8 p.m. until 4 a.m. Now, she's chief of administration and a part owner in the company.
"The thing I liked about Clarence was that he was willing to give anyone a chance," the soft-spoken Hrabozky says. "You have to prove yourself once given that chance, but he's very supportive along the way."
Other employees echo Hrabozky's sentiments, saying Briggs is a bit of a taskmaster and at times a little intimidating. But they also say that's what makes him a great leader.
Like Briggs, Kirk Deviere had a bright future in the military. He served 18 years, two of those under Briggs' command, and was working his way through the officers' corps. Then he got a call from his former leader, asking him to throw it all away and fight a new kind of war. While it took some persuading, Deviere signed on with AIT in October.
"There's probably only two people in my life I would follow anywhere and do anything for - and Clarence is one of them," Deviere says. "He has the ability to push people to limits they don't even know they have."
The military background comes through in a number of ways at AIT. For starters, visitors are greeted by a security guard in full battle fatigues. A separate building, which houses the company's Web servers, is surrounded by barbed wire, and the military-trained technicians are armed with 12-gauge shotguns.
Instead of developing strategy, the company lays out battle plans. Once per month, executives play "war games," where they analyze a competitor's weaknesses and then attempt to steal or liberate customers. Salespeople are expected to assume fighting position for an hour each day, where they cold-call potential customers and check in with existing clients. Employees are put up for promotion every three months, but it's no rubber stamp. Candidates go into the "interrogation room," where they are interviewed by three superiors with questions designed to determine their leadership potential.
Briggs admits some of the military adaptations are done tongue-in-cheek, but he also says the strategy is good for business. Until recently, AIT closely guarded its financial books. But as it looks to raise money to fund expansion plans, Briggs has begun shopping the company's financials around. The figures are eye-popping. Revenue has grown from US$7.4 million in 1999 to a projected US$20.5 million in 2000. Based on the most recent quarter, the company is on a US$28.8 million run rate. And it is operating at a 43 percent net profit margin.
"They operate a tight ship, and I like that," says customer Ken Marcus, owner of Precision Web, an Internet reseller. "When I talk to their guys on the phone, they say, 'Yes, sir.' It's just very professional."
In recent weeks, Briggs split his company into three divisions to go after new markets. AITcom will continue to operate the main Internet service provider and Internet services business. A unit called Acclaim will operate an online and in-classroom computer training school for the general public, corporate and military sectors. Another division, called NameIT, offers application hosting through an ASP model, as well as application development. And on another front, Briggs is working with the Fayetteville City Council to turn a depressed riverfront area into a technology business park. Briggs appears to be stretching his resources over a much wider battlefront, but he doesn't seem worried about the future.
"Perhaps the greatest thing I took away from the military was the desire to win," he says. "Because in the military, you can't lose. It's simply not an option."
