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ALUMNI COUPLE’S ADVENTURE IN ONLINE SHOPPING
The Focht family spent many years traveling in an RV so they could stay together while they ran their nationwide software company, Commerce V3.
Georgia Southern alumnus Nathan Focht (‘94) was thriving as a web developer when he reached a crossroad in his career just as the dot-com bubble exploded in 2000. Undeterred by the lack of investment capital, he decided to take a chance and launch his own software company. In 2001, the College of Engineering and Information Technology graduate co-founded what is now Commerce V3 (CV3) in Savannah, Ga., a firm that handles online shopping carts for nearly 400 e-commerce retailers. Anyone who has shopped online will be familiar with his technology that allows shoppers to, among other things: place items in a shopping cart, see the total bill, the taxes, the shipping charges and complete the payment during the checkout process.
To get his firm off the ground, the new business owner traveled often and sometimes spent days away from wife Bonnie Brandt Focht (‘97) and their three children. At one point, Focht was gone for a week-and-a-half, and said when he returned, his kids barely noticed he had been away. A business trip to California motivated him into making a crucial decision that would change his family life. “I was in San Francisco, a city I had visited many times, and I realized I had never seen any of the popular attractions,” he said. That is when the company president decided to enact a plan he and Bonnie had dreamed about doing sometime in the future. In 2007, they sold their home in Pooler, Ga., bought a 40-foot RV, and hit the road with their daughter, two sons, Focht’s mother-in-law and a 200-pound mastiff.
“Our two youngest children weren’t in school yet so we decided it was either now or wait until they were all in college,” said Bonnie, the company’s comptroller. For four years, they traveled the country – homeschooling their kids and building a successful company. “The experience benefited our business as well because I could visit customers as we traveled,” Focht said. “At one point we had a ‘Where’s Waldo’ type newsletter, and customers would always ask ‘Where are you?’ instead of ‘How are you?’ We may have missed some creature comforts but it was a great experience.”
During that time, Focht closed the corporate offices and turned CV3 into a virtual company that allowed employees to work from home. Today, his firm has 25 employees, earns just under $3 million in annual revenue and the company’s software has processed more than $1 billion in sales for mainly small to mid-sized merchants. Its clients are across the country and Canada, and they include Smithfield Hams, The Virginia Peanut Company, Paula’s Choice and such Georgia-based companies as Savannah’s Candy Kitchen, River Street Sweets and Mo Hotta Mo Betta. Focht said he is able to compete with big name competitors because he offers a strong product at a fair price and gives customers personal attention. “Even in the technology driven world we live in today, people still make business choices on personal connections,” he said.
The business owner advises Georgia Southern students preparing to enter the job market to focus on their work ethic and professionalism. “It is surprising how many young adults know their ‘talent’ but don’t know how to get to work on time, to work unmonitored or how to interact with co-workers. You have to be a good employee before you can be a successful individual.”
Now that the Fochts have settled in Orlando, Fla., where their kids — ages 13, 10 and eight — are involved in activities, it is much easier for Focht to return to Statesboro to visit his family and attend the football games of his beloved Eagles. “I have so many memories of Georgia Southern going back to the Eagles playing in the Hugo Bowl and the first lit game at the stadium ever,” he said. The University graduate attends at least five games a year and he traveled to the two semifinal games in North Dakota.
– Sandra Bennett