September 18, 2000 - Upstarts: GalleryWatch.com
Austin American Statesman
What it does: Follows legislation for lobbyists, associations, businesses, government agencies and colleges.
How it does it: Employees gather in the Capitol galleries and legislative committee rooms in Washington, Austin and Sante Fe, N.M. They report every action on thousands of bills, sending immediate updates over the Internet to the company's database. Customers are alerted by cell phone, pager or e-mail when something affects a bill they are interested in. GalleryWatch.com's database contains hundreds of thousands of bills from the past four years and every action involving them, including amendments and legislators' votes. The technology allows clients to customize the information. GalleryWatch.com acquired usbudget.com, and is integrating its federal budget analysis as well as content from the National Journal. Clients pay $2,000 to $25,000 each session.
Its roots: The business is owned by LNNI.com, which founded GalleryWatch.com in 1996. LNNI was founded a year earlier by Walid Touma, Co-chairman and CEO; Haidar Khazen, co-chairman and chief technology officer; Brent Golemon, president; and Philip Battelstein, treasurer, controller and vice president of administration. Touma is a former fellow at the IC2 Institute; Khazen was president and CEO of GeoCel International, an Austin company that makes software for the Internet. Golemon is a lawyer with eight years of experience working for the Texas Legislature; Battelstein, a certified public accountant, formerly was CFO at GeoCel.
Why to watch it: Hundreds of thousands of bills are filed every year. GalleryWatch.com, which has 57 employees, puts them online days before government agencies make them available. It is only in three of 51 markets. The company has raised $1.5 million from Triton Ventures of Austin and others in the spring, and is in the process of raising $10 million in first-round backing, Touma said. he said GalleryWatch.com will be profitable by next September.
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