Boca Entrepreneur Built Tech Business Into Publicly Traded Company and Experienced Similar Success With 2 Other Companies
53-year-old Jim Daleen doesn’t have to work anymore. The successful entrepreneur and software expert has experienced professional success most people only dream about.
Daleen was the founder and CEO of Daleen Technologies, a global provider of high performance billing and customer care software solutions. In three years, revenue grew from zero to $43.5 million; he raised $130 million in capital and built a global workforce to 535 employees. The Boca Raton-based company went public (pictured above) and was eventually sold. The entrepreneur was most recently the CEO of CPG Solutions which saw 500% in sales growth and profits and was sold to an international buyer. Before that, he was the CEO of Affinity Express where he increased revenue by 400% and led a successful turnaround and sale of the company from 2003-2006.
So why does Daleen now spend most days in a rented, 700-square-foot office space in Boca Raton, working with his son and two others in four cubicles? The answer is simple: Daleen’s taste for new challenges and his family’s obstacles while owning and operating a small pizza place in Wisconsin.
“The biggest obstacle for a food and beverage business is how to handle the transient nature of the clientele,” says Daleen. It’s a lesson he and his family learned firsthand when they opened Louie’s Pizza in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.
Daleen is now spearheading the effort behind AppSuite, (www.mobileappsuite.com) a new phone application company aimed at serving the food and beverage industry. For the first time ever, daily time spent in mobile apps has surpassed desktop and mobile web usage. The company’s application is a mobile application supported by a content management system that operates as a powerful and convenient customer loyalty tool. Appsuite’s CMS can rapidly be deployed on iPhone or an Android without the restaurant spending money to develop its own app. The platform allows the restaurateur to build, brand and expand business with their patrons via the growing population of mobile users.
From May 18-21, AppSuite will make its nationwide industry debut at the National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago.
“Restaurants spend much of their marketing budget on finding the new customer, we believe engaging the current customer is essential to maximizing revenue opportunities in this hyper competitive marketplace,” says Daleen. The Center for Retail Management at Northwestern University revealed that about 12-15% of a company’s most loyal customers contribute 55-70% of total sales.
Daleen says his family’s firsthand experience in that Wisconsin pizza parlor, combined with his 25 years in technology and software development, are the fuel that power AppSuite’s game-changing service. Daleen adds, “It is a thrill for my family and I to provide a new product to a competitive industry which leads to a sustainable method for increased revenue for restaurant owners everywhere.”
And Daleen knows all about increasing revenue.
