Atlanta startup raising cash and hiring

Atlanta Business Chronicle – by Urvaksh Karkaria Staff Writer
Friday, April 3, 2009

Atlanta startup Cloud Sherpas recently raised $170,000.

The company — one of many that populate the cloud computing ecosystem — resells, integrates and custom develops Google Apps, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) suite of business email, information sharing and security applications.

“We are one of Google’s top business partners in the country,” Cloud Sherpas CEO Michael Cohn said Friday.

The new money will be used for product development.

“We are growing,” Cohn said. “We are hiring people,”

With consumer demand in paralysis, companies are scrutinizing every expense to resuscitate the bottom line. Many businesses are turning to SaaS applications which require lower upfront costs.

The corporate penny pinching trend puts Cloud Sherpas in a market sweet spot.

Using Google Apps, Cohn said, Cloud Sherpas can help enterprise customers save about 70 percent over traditional messaging and collaboration software like Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes.

“There’s an incredible demand for Google apps [among large companies],” Cohn said.

Cloud Sherpas, which has raised more than $300,000, is focused on growing marketshare in the mid-size and large enterprise market. The company expects 2009 revenues of between $1 million and $2 million.