It's been a little while since I've posted; between the launches of Badaboom® and RapiHD™ Accelerator we've been busy at Elemental! Both products are off to a great start, and our fourth quarter revenue handily surpassed expectations. The team is in heads down mode now, getting ready for NAB 2009 tradeshow -- keep your eyes peeled for some exciting announcements around that time. On another note, if your day is anything like mine, many conversations begins with, "How are you holding up in this economy?" Startup companies are always fraught with risk but the tremendous declines in the market coupled with a frozen IPO market makes it more difficult than ever to get a company funded. The Lehrer NewsHour had a nice piece recently covering how the economy is impacting startup companies, including a segment on Elemental. The report covered several Portland area tech companies, some of which are struggling and some of which are surviving. Elemental is in the latter category (so far!), and some of the fundamental philosophies by which we run the company have helped a lot. A few of these include:

• Capital efficiency is a priority throughout the organization.
• Do everything possible to fund the company with revenue rather than debt or equity.
• A diversified product line creates more work but increases the odds of a hit product.

It's a brutal economy, and there are no guarantees of success, but minimizing dependence on outside funding sources is more important now for technology startups than at any time in the past many years.

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