The search for new software concepts often can lead researchers into computer labs or university classrooms.
For Ron Reimann, founder of the Baler Software Corp., Rolling Meadows, that journey led down Indiana’s cornfield-lined Interstate Highway 65.
The year was 1988, and Reimann was looking for a new software application to market to the growing number of computer spreadsheet users.
“A third party put me in touch with a gentleman down in West Lafayette, Ind., who had been writing spreadsheet templates using VisiCalc for the farming community down there,” Reimann recalled. “The idea intrigued me.”
Reimann got in his car and drove three hours to meet with computer programmer Dale Brubaker, who was working out of his basement.
“My vision was that more and more people were going to need spreadsheets and would want to tailor them to their needs,” Reimann said. “What I envisioned was a spreadsheet compiler, a program that would allow you to use spreadsheets for specific applications, without having to learn programming.
“When I started talking with Brubaker, I realized his spreadsheet templates had the potential to do that.”
Reimann, who at the time was working in Chicago as the national sales manager for a Nevada-based accounting software company, realized the concept had enough potential to be marketed full time.
“I quit my job and spent the next six months trying to put a company together,” he said.
Reimann and Brubaker created what has become a much-lauded spreadsheet-compiler program called Baler.
In simplest terms, the software allows users to take a spreadsheet program, such as Lotus Development Corp.’s 1-2-3 (or Lotus-compatible programs such as Borland International Inc.’s Quattro Pro or Lotus’ Symphony), and customize the look and functions of the program. Users then can distribute as many copies of the customized program as needed.
Baler makes the spreadsheet program royalty-free, so users need only buy one copy. But the real benefit is convenience, Reimann said, not the elimination of having to purchase additional copies.
“It’s not so much cost as it is convenience,” he said. “It tends to be easy to introduce an error in a spreadsheet program. Our program prevents that and makes the spreadsheet tamper-proof.
“And once you’ve compiled a spreadsheet with Baler, the program then runs under its own power and doesn’t require the spreadsheet program anymore,” he added.
The benefit to this, Reimann said, is that you can distribute a working model of your Baler program to people who don’t own spreadsheet software. So, they don’t need to learn the workings of the spreadsheet program.
“Our program also makes the spreadsheet run faster, and the custom look makes it more user-friendly,” he added.
The software is available in several versions: Express for basic spreadsheet users, 6.0 for more experienced spreadsheet users and XE for high-end use. Prices run from about $300 to $800. German- and Japanese-language versions are available in XE.
A second program, called Ice, also customizes and secures Lotus 1-2-3 programs. However, Ice is geared to single users of Lotus 1-2-3 because it requires each user to run a spreadsheet program to work. It sells for about $400. (Code-named “Ice” during development, the name refers to where Reimann grew up: There’s a lot of ice in St. Paul in the winter.)
Ice also is used as an application-construction tool for users creating advanced Baler applications.
As elaborate as the software may sound, Reimann said its real goal is simplifying the arcane methods of spreadsheets. Even the name reflects its humble Indiana beginnings.
“West Lafayette is in the middle of a lot of cornfields,” he said. “And the program, when it was originally written as farm software, covered the function of baling hay-putting things into a nice, neat bundle that you could easily distribute to people. It was the same thing we wanted to do with a spreadsheet.”
Reimann always dreamed of being an entrepreneur. “As a kid, I had a lawn-mowing service and sold pet turtles to people,” he recalled.
He first became involved with personal computers at the University of Minnesota School of Management in Minneapolis.
“I was treasurer of the student government at the university and for accounting purposes, I spearheaded an effort to have a computer installed for the student government,” he said. “The lobbying that was involved with that taught me what computers could do.”
After graduating in 1982 with a bachelor’s degree, he realized PCs were going to be a mushrooming industry.
“When I got out of school, a lot of my classmates were going to work for places like Control Data, Honeywell and 3M,” he said. “I took a job at the local Computerland outlet as a salesperson. My friends were shocked. But the whole PC arena just seemed like such an exciting and fascinating opportunity.”
This was when he got his first spreadsheet experience. “I was working at Computerland when Lotus 1-2-3 first came out and was at the store when they sent out the demo disk,” he recalled. “I took an interest in spreadsheets and built a spreadsheet model that the sales department used for customer information.”
In 1985, he was an area sales manager for database-software producer Ashton-Tate in Minneapolis. Two years later he came to the Chicago area as district manager (and later national sales manager) for now-defunct Migent Inc. of Incline Village, Nev.
A year or so later, Reimann began investigating the idea of starting a software firm. “I figured I was experienced in the various channels of the PC, and had a strong education by then on how to run a company,” he said.
He began making phone calls and hooked up with Brubaker. After Reimann and Brubaker fine-tuned the product, Reimann quit his job, raised seed money and they created Baler Software.
“We rented a small office in Hoffman Estates with two phones and opened our doors on Jan. 1 of 1989,” he recalled. “At 10 a.m. the phone rang, and (one of Brubaker’s customers) bought a copy.”
Reimann took orders in Hoffman Estates and faxed them to Brubaker in West Lafayette, where they were shipped out. The assembly line was Brubaker’s kitchen counter, Reimann said, and his kitchen cabinets were the first storage area.
Initial customers included current users of Brubaker’s product and spreadsheet users who had seen ads in computer magazines.
The product also got attention when a competitor began a well-funded ad campaign. “When they lined up reviews of their products in the trade press, the reviews would drag our product in,” he said, “and it turned out we had a better product.”
Since then, trade shows, direct mail and public relations have been added to the mix. Reimann has acquired the rights to the technology from Brubaker, who remains a consultant.
The result? The company has revenue in the “low millions,” Reimann said, and more than 6,500 copies were sold last year. “We sold more units last year than we did in the first three years combined, and our revenue last year was also three times what it was in our first year.”
