Breaking the routine

When most of the work you do for your clients is protected under confidentiality agreements, marketing may be a bit of a challenge.

But Coroutine, a local custom software development firm, manages to overcome that issue by encouraging clients to spread the word of its capabilities.

Coroutine was founded in December 2006 by John Dugan and Tim Lowrimore, two software designers who met while working at a flash-in-the-pan dotcom in Nashville in the late ’90s.

Dugan says their previous employer, Weberize, located in a small business incubator, was a typical dotcom bubble company complete with foosball tables and razor scooters. The environment, he says, made it a great place to work, but there wasn’t a lot of business sense on the executive level.

“It was full of kids working 16-hour days not knowing what the hell they were doing,” Dugan says. “When it flamed out, it flamed out gloriously.”

After the company’s demise, Dugan and Lowrimore eventually hooked up again in Memphis.

Coroutine started in Dugan’s garage in 2006 and was sustained by a two-year project for Hilton Hotels Corp. Dugan defines the company’s work as turning “the ideas people draw on napkins into revenue generating products.” If a client needs software to manage any aspect of their business, from payroll to inventory control to any other back-office needs, Coroutine can design it.

Dugan says they pride themselves on working with the people who actually use the software every day to address what they need to do their jobs.

“We want to talk to Joe Q Agent who knows more about it,” he says. “No one wants to admit that, but if they’re not happy (with the software), it won’t get adopted.”

The company has designed a user interface system for Hilton and a proprietary software called WebMessenger for Nashville-based notifymd, a company that provides call center services to more than 30,000 physicians in seven states. Coroutine has also developed software for American Roamer, which provides wireless mapping for the telecom industry and Mirimichi, Justin Timberlake’s golf course in Millington.

Jonathan McDevitt, CEO of notifymd, says Coroutine strikes the rare balance of being superior software developers and good businessmen.

“A lot of people write good software, but not many people understand the business of what they’re building,” McDevitt says. “They make what we do better, not only through the software, but also by taking an interest and questions about what we’re doing.”

Coroutine had revenue of $350,000 in 2009 and is anticipating $500,000 this year. The company currently has three employees, but Dugan is cautious about growing to more than 15 employees because he doesn’t want the company to become overextended.

Referrals from clients help potential clients better understand Coroutine’s business. Because the company’s work extends so far into back-office operations, the scope of Coroutine’s capabilities has to be explained to potential clients.

“We learn everything about what our clients want to do, so a lot of times we talk to them about extensions of services or things they want to build, but haven’t yet,” Dugan says.

Earlier this year, Coroutine moved into space at business incubator Emerge Memphis, a move Dugan was cautious about because of the previous incubator experience he had in Nashville. It was necessary, however, to give the business a place to meet clients.

“It doesn’t make any difference where we work, but we had to have a place to call home that wasn’t my backyard,” he says. “People tend to take you more seriously when you have a real space.”

Gwin Scott, president of Emerge, says Coroutine was already off to a good start before it moved to Emerge.

“After we got together and grilled and cross-examined each other for several hours, they weren’t as concerned and felt good about coming to Emerge,” Scott says. “I guess for me, it was a question of if they were relevant — which obviously they are.”

Dugan says Coroutine may not be as large as other software companies, but having built systems for businesses such as Hilton, its reputation precedes the company.

“If I talk about what we’ve done, people know what we can do,” Dugan says. “The most important thing I try to convince people of is if they hire me, I can do it and do it correctly. A lot of it is sounding and appearing knowledgeable. If you ask good questions, you start establishing your bona fides immediately.”

Coroutine Custom software development firm
Principals: John Dugan and Tim Lowrimore
Employees: 3
Address: 516 Tennessee St., Suite 215
Phone: (901) 287-9346
Web site: www.coroutine.com  msheffield@bizjournals.com | (901) 259-1722
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