nwasianweekly.com
Sept. 23, 2006

By May Leong
For the Northwest Asian Weekly

When asked what advice he would give potential entrepreneurs, Qiang “Ching” Wan, owner and founder of SeaTab Software Inc., laughs, “Don’t do it!”

Yet in the same breath, he acknowledges, “Wow, it’s fun.”

For Wan, starting his own company felt like being on an emotional rollercoaster.

“After we got some early customers, for a period we were still not able to fund our payroll, we were not getting traction from the investment community and the sales model did not seem to be scalable,” recalls the co-founder and chief technology officer of SeaTab Software, a Bellevue-based company that provides software to businesses to allow them to retrieve and analyze their electronically-stored data faster.

He said he “burned through” hard-earned family savings to make ends meet. At the same time, he watched former colleagues join other companies, including Yahoo, where they received stock options that quickly became worth millions. Wan questioned whether he was smart to go into business for himself.

In the end, he did not pull the plug on SeaTab, now an 8-year-old company. He said he felt a strong sense of responsibility to those early customers who believed in him and were convinced they would ultimately succeed.
“The key lesson I learned is that I need to focus on delivering true values to the marketplace and not be distracted by short-term financial gains and losses,” Wan said.

Wan believes there are three reasons for his success: his decision to come to the United States for an advanced degree, his experience working in a variety of settings and his wife, who supported their family, including their two young children, during the early years.

After completing his master’s at the University of Southern California, Wan joined a start-up company with eight people. He quickly moved up the ranks, from software developer to one of the chief architects. Wan later worked for two other software companies before joining the highly respected Cambridge Technology Partners as a senior member of the technical architect team. Sent around the U.S. to work at client sites, Wan gained a variety of experiences while solving lots of problems in the existing technology.
SeaTab’s main product is software called PivotLink Business Intelligence. “Businesses use our software … to analyze and understand historical and current data,” Wan explains. “They can look at the performance of all aspects of their business and determine key performance indicators in areas such as sales, human resources, inventory and merchandising.”
Early on, Wan would offer free trials to pessimistic prospective customers to prove “that I could deliver real solutions within days, not months.”

As SeaTab grew and gained more customers, it also attracted high-profile talent. Retired REI CEO Dennis Madsen joined its board of directors. The new CEO, David Weld, formerly of MessageGate Inc. and Loudeye Corp., is busy working on building a strong management team to take the company to the next level.

For a company that until recently “spent nothing in marketing,” according to Wan, SeaTab Software has accumulated some well-respected clients, including REI, Car Toys, Bartell Drugs and Associated Grocers, to name a few.

It was included in Consumer Goods Technology magazine’s 2006 reader’s choice list of top 10 vendors in business intelligence. “The award is a surprise since SeaTab was an unknown vendor,” says Wan.

In addition, Wan has been nominated for the 2006 Asian American Entrepreneur of the Year Award, which will be given out Oct. 14 by the Northwest Asian Weekly Foundation.

As for advice to those thinking about starting a new company, Wan says, “Really, the key is to have a diverse background. I began with a start-up, moved to a mid-size company and then later joined a leading consultancy. These various experiences and situations helped me to accumulate multiple experiences in different areas.”

For more information, visit www.seatab.com.

May Leong can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.

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