Atlanta’s Contact At Once selling for $65 Million

Urvaksh broke the news last week that Atlanta’s Contact At Once is going to be bought for $65 million by LivePerson. Contact At Once (CAO) makes web-based chat software and tailors it to industries like car dealerships and apartment complexes. Online chat programs, like LivePerson, have been around for decades. CAO took a standard idea and built a business from the ground-up to service specific verticals, which continues the trend of vertical-specific Software-as-a-Service applications as the next wave.

Here are a few interesting notes about Contact At Once:

• Started in 2005
• 2009 revenue of $2.2 million and 34 employees (per the Inc. 500 page)
• 2012 revenue of $12.3 million and 86 employees in 2012 (per the Inc. 500 page)
• Raised $3 million from Fulcrum Equity Partners in 2012 (went seven years without raising money and got to a $10 million+ run rate)
• 127 employees on LinkedIn today (November 2014)
• Using the 2012 revenue and employee count, CAO is likely in the ~$20 million revenue range based on having 50% more employees now

Contact At Once is a great success story that shows you can take a straightforward idea, build a great business, and do it with limited capital. Congratulations to the team!

What else? What are some more thoughts on Contact At Once?