1Mby1M Incubation Radar 2016: RemoteToPC, Dallas, TX

RemoteToPC is a remote support tool built for IT personnel that provides remote access to PCs as well as remote monitoring and alerts. Its main value proposition is a state of the art, high-tech product at a low cost.

RemoteToPC was founded in June 2014 by entrepreneur Steve White and his son Aaron White. Prior to RemoteToPC, Steve was a co-founder of Botspeed Inc, which led to IPXco, and he also founded, developed, and sold Resumedeliver.com Inc.

RemoteToPC was born out of the need to find an alternative to LogMeIn that had cancelled their free service. Aaron would often tinker with open source projects after working hours for fun. Their decision to make their own proprietary product is proved to be a purposeful channel for his talent. They put together a replacement remote access application for use in house, but soon realized a gap in the market for a low-cost product with a basic set of remote monitoring tools for system monitoring and alerts.

Apart from LogMeIn (NASDAQ: LOGM), its main competitors include TeamViewer, Bomgar, LabTech Corp, and SolarWinds. It targets the small one or per person-IT shops in the lower end of the IT consulting market. It also targets Managed Service Providers and IT departments.

The pricing for the RemoteToPC product depends on the number of computers installed. The price per year for the Basic plan is $99 for 10 remote computers and the Business plan is $139 for 20 remote computers. It has three annual plans for enterprise that offer enhanced monitoring and alerts at $299 for 100 remote computers, $599 for 250 remote computers, and $1199 for 500 remote computers. It also offers a 14-day free trial offer.

RemoteToPC started marketing its product since February 2016 and currently averages about $600 to $800 per month. The revenue in the short term trend projects to be closer to $1600 per month. It offers a 14-day free trial and was initially able to retain one-third of the free-trial customers. Through bug fixes and product improvements, it is currently able to retain half of them.

RemoteToPC currently has about 25 users. It doesn’t have any big name customers but has customers from more than one continent. About one-third of its customers are in Europe without really trying to target Europe. Its servers are located in Canada, and there is a fast pipe to Europe and to the US from its provider. It slowed down its marketing efforts while it was fixing serious bugs in the product. It uses Google Add Words, Twitter, AlternativeTo drive traffic. It also uses the help of some key bloggers with high ranking pages that talk about alternatives to LogMeIn and other products. It is also starting an affiliate program that will give 30% of the profit to whoever refers a customer.

Based on a bottom-up TAM analysis, Steve estimates their total available market (TAM) to be $135 million. The calculations are based on the assumptions that about 70% of the 143,000 IT consulting services businesses in US have 1-3 employees. An IT company with 2 or 3 people should technically be able to support over 1000 computers. Based on conservative estimates, the average annual sale would be $1200. RemoteToPC also expects to pick up 20% more business from in-house IT departments and the total number of potential customers is 112,800.

RemoteToPC is a self-financed, bootstrapped company. Steve’s wife and daughters take care of the taxes and accounting while Steve takes care of customer support. Steve has invested about $15,000 to $20,000 of his savings. They have turned down money and incubation in order to maintain ownership. Steve owns most of the company, Aaron the second largest piece, and his wife, two daughters, and brother own the rest. They have another IT business for supporting themselves and they work on RemoteToPC as much as they can.

There have been times in their entrepreneurial journey when they thought they were hitting a wall and needed some serious money. However, they have always managed to push through. In 2014, they were accepted into Google’s Startup Next Dallas Pre-Accelerator, and refused incubation or investment as it seemed predatory.

Regarding exit, Steve says potential buyers could be antivirus or online backup companies that could see the potential into expanding into this kind of product. Other competitors that might also want to buy them to make them disappear or absorb their technology. Right now, he thinks they have great options and upside. So, they might just continue to grow it and keep it as their own cash cow.