GotVMail aims to deliver growth with FedEx deal

GotVMail Communications LLC, a virtual phone service provider that caters to small businesses, has more than 30,000 customers and hopes a marketing deal it inked last week with FedEx Corp. will continue to fuel its rapid growth.

Weston-based GotVMail is a subscription-based phone service for businesses that have between one and 10 staffers and need a phone system but want to avoid the expense of purchasing one. GotVMail’s service is remote, so companies don’t buy hardware or software, and it’s designed to work with customers’ home phones, cell phones or VoIP. The company has four data centers across the country that route all calls. GotVMail’s subscription price starts at about $10 a month and adopts the “pay as you go, pay as you grow” motto.

In 2003, Siamak Taghaddos founded GotVMail on the premise that he knew a way for entrepreneurs to save money. Taghaddos had that extra insight, he says, because he ran a small company himself. GotVMail is Taghaddos’ second company, and he’s only 25 years old.

“I believe that you’re born an entrepreneur,” said Taghaddos, who is GotVMail’s CEO.

Bootstrapped from the start, the company says it has been profitable since its second month of operation. The 30-person company expects to double its staff in 2007.

Given GotVMail’s task of making its name known to microbusinesses in a market crowded with giant telecommunications companies such as Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ), the partnership with FedEx in Memphis, Tenn., (NYSE: FDX) was especially appealing. The company’s dual marketing partnership will enable GotVMail customers to get FedEx discounts and FedEx customers will also get discounts on GotVMail’s services. The deal furthers one of GotVMail’s core strategies, which is to partner with companies that can add value to small businesses and also bolster their marketing efforts. GotVMail also has partnerships with the National Association of Realtors and Palo Alto Software Inc. in Eugene, Ore.

“The FedEx partnership means two things. It demonstrates our continuing effort to give discounts for services that entrepreneurs use and want to use,” said David Hauser, 24, co-founder and chief technology officer of GotVMail, who met Taghaddos when they were at Babson College.

Tana Scouras, president of ConsignWorks Inc., a four-person consignment and asset resale business focused on individuals and small businesses, has used GotVMail’s phone system for two years.

The Webster-based business pays $50 per month for a virtual phone system that enables the business, whose workers are usually scattered and only available on cell phones, to funnel all calls through their cell phones so they don’t miss out on any business.

“Phone systems are expensive, and we’re not in the office so we don’t need them,” said Scouras. “This is far and away less expensive.”

Lisa van der Pool can be reached at lvanderpool@bizjournals.com