When Lisa Weiss volunteered as PTA president at one of her children’s elementary school about eight years ago, she wanted a tool to keep organized while overseeing a fundraising auction. She couldn’t find any cost-effective software, so instead she created a database to manage the flow. Her husband, Sam, offered to use his computer science background to take the database one step further, integrating into a program that could be used during the auction’s checkout.
The auction was a success, and the efficient cashiering system received many praises. That feedback gave the couple an idea: to develop and market a program that could streamline an auction for nonprofits. Then they took that idea one step further, to make it an online-based program (Software-as-a-Service, or SaaS).
“We came away thinking there was a need there and we could fill it,” Sam Weiss said. “The big ‘aha’ was to make it web-based, since a lot of the events are volunteer-run and there was nothing else like it online-based.”
That was the beginning of Arsetta, Inc., and its auction-management solution, ReadySetAuction (www.readysetauction.com). Weiss, who had worked as a senior software engineer at Apple and Adobe, was running his own software-development consulting business at the time. Lisa’s background was in marketing. The two combined their creative talents to build an application that was enterprise-class but affordable for nonprofits.
“We could hire out a development team to build this program or I could shutter my consulting business to build it,” Weiss said. “We took a leap of faith because it shut down our main income stream but we wanted control of the product and the expenses.”
The concept took about a year to develop and launch, and in another year the company was ready for some help, gradually adding a few employees and contractors.
“We have grown every year since the launch and have been profitable since the third year,” Weiss said.
Now a seven-person company, the Bainbridge Island-based Arsetta keeps a low overhead with a virtual office as well as using consultants for noncritical functions such as product support and PR.
Following the launch of the auction-management solution, Arsetta developed another program for managing online auctions. The two can be used together or separately, and some of its functions — such as managing inventory — overlap. ReadySetAction can manage the entire auction process including donations, procurement and staff tasks, and in the case of physical events, even the guest lists and seating, among other things.
In August, Arsetta released v.3 of the solution, which includes customizable features, a new look, bid optimization and other improvements. “We went back to the drawing board for the online auction site and used feedback from our customers,” Weiss said.
About half of the company’s customers are schools, and the rest are organizations such as sports guilds, hospital foundations, civic clubs and universities, as well as corporate clients that have fundraising campaigns on behalf of nonprofits.
“It’s a great tool for a large company with offices all around the country to involve all their employees in a virtual, all-inclusive event,” Weiss said.
The company continues to refine its products and develop new ones. Weiss said they are currently working on a new product that will be made available early next year. “We’re always brainstorming new ideas that make sense and use customer feedback to come up with new things,” he said.
