HairyLemon bites into the US market

Earlier this year, the Christchurch-based web development company scored a major contract to overhaul the website of the US National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE).

Now, hot on its heels is another big deal, this time with Compix Media, the world’s largest software developer and supplier of motion graphics technology.

Co-director and co-founder Graham Dockrill says his company’s point of difference is relationship based.

“Without sounding arrogant, we do it better. Those four words sum it up. We communicate better. Some of our clients say they see us more than they saw their previous developer who was based down the road from them. I physically visit US clients six times a year, while they may not have seen their other suppliers for six months.”

For NATPE, Dockrill says his company has built a software database system that matches up ‘pitchers’ and ‘catchers’.

“A pitcher is someone pitching a show while the catcher is a TV channel that wants to take it up,” explains Dockrill.

The first phase of the deal is worth around US$100,000. Another two or three phases of a similar scale are also being rolled out.
 
“It’s a big deal,” says Dockrill. “It’s not a little website. It’s a big break for us.”

HairyLemon’s contract with Compix Media involves building a new website enabling the company to better educate its channel partners. Compix Media has approximately 16,000 installations around the world.

HairyLemon co-founder and co-director Sue Wilkinson says the company expects further growth in the US market.

“We are doing well there. We are only six months into our three-year plan for that part of the world and it’s paying off already. So it’s quite exciting.”

The origins of the company’s name go back to an ‘insightful conversation’ during Dockrill and Wilkinson's student days.

"We were having drinks with friends and the name hairyLemon came up,” says Dockrill.

“I remember saying that if we ever had our own company that's what we'd call it. Love it or hate it, it's certainly a great icebreaker."

HairyLemon was named a Deloitte Unlimited Fast 50 company in 2003 and 2004.

New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) client manager Maureen Manson says hairyLemon received an Enterprise Development Grant from NZTE earlier this year which will help support the company’s market development activities.

HairyLemon also completed the Canterbury Development Corporation’s High Tech Launch Programme in 2001 — a free programme that targets technology companies and helps them build their management capability for the global marketplace.

This article was originally published on the Market NZ website on 23 September 2008.

More information

www.hairylemon.co.nz