Quelle: The Business Journal / Tampa Bay

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Stand-up comics
CrossGeneration Comics Inc. bridges the Web
Pamela Griner Leavy Staff Writer

Mark Alessi doesn't spend valuable time worrying about all the things he didn't get to do during the Florida Venture Capital Conference.

Alessi, founder and chief executive officer at CrossGeneration Comics Inc. in Oldsmar, doesn't give a drop of printer's ink that his PowerPoint presentation sometimes lagged behind his brief 12-minute "elevator speech."

He was among 21 entrepreneurs who pitched for venture capital at the Jan. 15-16 conference sponsored by the Florida Venture Forum Inc. and held at the Wyndham Palace Resort & Spa in Orlando.

In a massive dimly lit ballroom, flanked by a starry backdrop, Alessi sought backing from 300 potential investors, lawyers and accountants for his consumer entertainment company.

He did tell the audience that CrossGen's intellectual property morphs into comic books, graphic novels and anthologies.

CrossGen licenses those properties worldwide in 35 countries and 12 different languages through print, the Internet, films, television programs, video games, wireless devices and role-playing games.

And while Alessi described CrossGen as the sole presenting firm that wasn't technology-focused, he did pump the intellectual property and proprietary technology that drives CrossGen's business including Comics on the Web.

The setting wasn't perfect, but nothing in business ever is.

As Alessi delivered the PowerPoint presentation, doors to the ballroom opened and shut as attendees talked in the adjacent hall and constantly answered cell phones.

Alessi pressed on, touting CrossGen's future including Chameleon, the patent-pending universal media delivery system that Alessi said displays virtually any media type on virtually any platform. (Anm. d. Mod.: AHA!!!)

But in midsentence, the official digital timer signaled that his time ended.

Here's what Alessi never got to:

He didn't get to talk about the "Way of the Rat," a live-action figure film deal involving Castle Rock Entertainment and Steven Speilberg's DreamWorks LLC.

He didn't get to talk about proposed projects with producers such as Chuck Russell of "The Mask" and "The Scorpion King," and with Hollywood lawyer and CrossGen consultant Michael Uslan of "Batman" fame.

He didn't get to talk about "Bridges," his sweeping technology-based education program designed to motivate students of all ages to read and appreciate books.

He didn't get to talk about the irony of educators who face 4 year olds who can operate extensive "Master of the Universe" video games but get "Dick and Jane" books to read in school.

He didn't get to talk about the fact that his company avoided commercializing events surrounding Sept. 11, 2001, and did not rush to produce comic books featuring firefighters and policemen and that it produces cross-cultural "respectful" products.

He didn't get to talk about the CrossGen's coverage in, of all places, Southern Living magazine or an upcoming article in Better Homes & Gardens.

He knew what the game was going in.

"It was very much akin to trying to put 20 pounds of sausage in a five-pound wrapper and not ripping it, " Alessi said.

"We are just starting to take our kimono off now, so to speak. People don't realize it, but for an entertainment publishing company, we have invested more than $3.5 million in proprietary software development."


Beyond paper and ink

As soon as his speech ended, Alessi headed to a white tent outside the Wyndham. In what served as a makeshift exhibit hall, CrossGen and other presenters squeezed into 10-by-10 foot booths to showcase their products.

While visitors gathered three-deep at the CrossGen booth to sample Comics on the Web on notebooks, DVDs and personal computers, they also lined up to meet Alessi.

In 1989, he founded a Tampa-based object-oriented software programming company called Technical Resource Connection Inc. In 1996, TRC, boasting annual revenue of more than $25 million, placed No. 36 on an Inc. magazine's top 500 list.

That same year Alessi sold TRC to businessman and former presidential candidate Ross Perot's Perot Systems Corp. for "less than $100 million and more than $10 million," Alessi said.

He founded CrossGen in 1998, entering a comic book industry that had sales that shrank from $850 million in 1993 to $275 million in 2001.

In a January 2002 article featuring Alessi, Inc. magazine compared his entrepreneurial skills to traits exhibited by comic book superheroes.

The superheroes are "blessed by fate or cursed by science with extraordinary powers and compelled by some anomaly of character to exert those powers in the service of forces greater than himself," the article stated.

CrossGen's revenue grew from $2.8 million in 2001 to $6.1 million in 2002, and the company expects revenue of more than $13 million in 2003, Alessi said.

And Alessi expects CrossGen to show a profit in the first quarter of 2004.

"We could have shown a profit this year if we had not enabled these other initiatives through an investment of $3.5 million in software but those are the future," he said.

CrossGen's conference booth attracted attention because it was the most interesting table in the room, said Steve Vazquez, a transactions and securities lawyer at Foley & Lardner in Tampa.

Vazquez holds a vested interest in CrossGen, a Foley client.

"You could see the actual product, including DVDs with story lines," Vazquez said. "It was much more of a visual presentation."

CrossGen was lauded as the "buzz" of the venture capital conference by Vazquez and other conference participants.

"They created a buzz because people were asking 'Where have these guys come from?' " Vazquez said. "They exploded on the scene and had an interesting presentation."

Alessi's energy outweighed his punctuality during his 12-minute pitch, said Vazquez.

"Mark was passionate about this company, and it was impossible for him to talk about CrossGen in a 12-minute period of time," he said.

"It would have taken him an hour to talk about his vision of the company. It's very detailed. That's why they couldn't fit it all in a little period of time."

Despite venture capital reports that show Florida investments lagging, money is forthcoming for CrossGen because of its strong track record, said Vazquez.

"It's harder and harder for companies to get funded, and there are a lot of prevailing factors," he said.

"They have to have a longer track record. A lot of funds do have a lot of money they need to deploy."

Others caught Alessi's bug, too.

At the conference, Lee Spiegelman, managing director at Strategic Group Corp. in Miami, told Alessi his merchant and investment banking firm was interested. A meeting is planned for mid-February, and it doesn't matter that CrossGen has not yet turned a profit, Spiegelman said.

"They (CrossGen) fit our profile because they have revenue and able management," he said. "What concerns us mostly is we bet the jockey. We don't bet the horse."

As both a merchant and investment entity, the Strategic Group risks its own money, said Spiegelman.

"CrossGen is in an established industry, but they are coming from a totally different point of view," he said. "We like that contrarian approach. It's not an easy deal in today's marketplace, but we think if they go along with us we can accomplish their goals."


In the bullpen

Meanwhile, CrossGen's magic begins behind the doors of a nondescript corporate business center in Oldsmar.

Inside visitors find a creative "bullpen" filled with more than 78 staff members, including fulltime writers, inkers, illustrators, colorists and programmers.

CrossGen's management team includes Alessi's cousin, Gina Villa, who introduced him to Marvel Comics in the 1960s and has grown CrossGen's female readership to 30 percent versus 7 percent for the comic book industry.

Other management members include general counsel Jennifer Phelan Hernandez, a former city of Tampa attorney and former in-house counsel for the Tampa Bay Lightning, and Jim Stikeleather, chief technology officer.

Also on the team is the vice president of product development, Tony Panaccio, a former journalist and managing director at public relations firm Hill & Knowlton. There he represented superhero comic creator Stan Lee Media.

CrossGen has experienced follow-up interest since the conference, Panaccio said.

But that comes with a caveat.

"The one thing that seems to be universal reality is that people still walk in with the connotation that it's a comic book company and that's OK," he said. "By the time they walk out, they have realized it's something far more."

CrossGen lined up major investor money well before the conference, said Alessi.

"For some extent for CrossGen, this was an opportunity for local exposure," he said. "The result has been that eight to 10 firms have called us back and are dealing with us.

"The response has been somewhat overwhelming, and the real beauty is most of the amazing things we have prepared, we never shared with people at the Florida Venture Forum and to have this level of interest without showing our best cards is wonderful for us."