Attitude spurs new address

As the result of a chance meeting, two childhood friends teamed up to build a business.
By DON SHILLING
VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR
BOARDMAN -- For a high-tech business, free advice is a good thing, and so is free high-speed Internet access. And you can't beat free rent.
Proscout Video had all of that at the Youngstown Business Incubator but recently decided it was time to move out on its own.
With just a handful of employees, Proscout didn't outgrow its space at the state-funded downtown incubator, but it did outgrow the attitude that it was a start-up company needing protection.
"It's the next step in being a real company," said Dean Cicoretti, founder of the company which provides a better way for sports teams to handle game video. "You don't want to be an incubator company forever."
Being a real company in the eyes of potential customers is important, said Dan Policy, Proscout chief executive. They need to have confidence that Proscout will be around long term, he said.
Cicoretti said the partners also knew it was time to leave the incubator when Proscout's success made them less eager to share information with other tenants.
The incubator companies share a lot of information with each other, which helps fledging companies but is awkward for growing ones, Cicoretti said.
Of course, the downside to being out of the incubator is increased costs. The company is leasing space at an office complex at 5500 Market St.
"Nothing motivates a company like paying rent," Policy said.
More programs
To help pay the bills, Proscout is broadening its offerings beyond its original software for football teams. It now has programs for baseball and basketball teams and is considering adding other sports.
"Any sport there is can benefit from filming and breaking it down frame by frame," Policy said.
Football coaches spend hours reviewing video of past games of their teams and opponents. Proscout's product helps coaches prepare better because it makes digital copies of videos so they can be indexed on a computer.
As the game is loaded, a coach clicks on items he wants indexed for each play, such as down and distance, field position and ball carrier.
Once a video is indexed, a coach needs only a few seconds to call up all the plays that meet just about any combination of variables.
"He can call up every play that's third and 10 inside the 20 yard line when No. 22 carries the ball," Policy said.
The system for high school football costs $11,000 with a computer, but Proscout is offering a special promotion for its new products. It is selling 50 packages that combine football, basketball and baseball for $6,000.
Proscout has sold the football software to 35 high schools, including Boardman, Fitch and Liberty, several small colleges and the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League.
Cicoretti said the industry has about a half-dozen companies vying for the business of 17,000 high schools in the country.
Proscout stands out from competitors because of the flexibility of the system and the company's customer service, he said.
"They can call us at 1 a.m. Saturday after a game, and they do. They ask us simple questions like, 'I know I can do this but I forget how,'" Cicoretti said.
Like backgrounds
Cicoretti and Policy, both 33, were grade school friends and Cardinal Mooney High School classmates who stumbled into a business partnership.
Both have sports backgrounds. Cicoretti played football and baseball at Cardinal Mooney High School and baseball at Youngstown State University.
Policy is the son of Carmen Policy, an area native who had been an executive with the San Francisco 49ers but now is president and chief executive of the Cleveland Browns.
Cicoretti said he got the idea for Proscout in 1998 when he was writing software for a bank security system as an independent contractor. He downloaded some football video to experiment with and realized how valuable a digital system would be for football coaches.
He started his company at his Canfield home and then moved to the incubator in 2000.
Policy, who had been living in San Francisco and working on a start-up software company, walked into the incubator last April to check on another business deal when Cicoretti noticed his old friend.
Partnership
Cicoretti was looking for an investor, and three months later the two signed a deal, with a Policy becoming CEO. Cicoretti said the partnership works great because he can focus on technology, while Policy can build the business.
Policy said he knew right away Cicoretti was onto something.
"I've been an investor for all of my professional career. You just get a gut feeling when it's right," he said.
They looked at moving the company to California but decided to stay here because rents and salaries were more affordable.
Policy said he originally planned to spend a week or two here each month but later moved to Howland so he could work with Proscout full time.
Cicoretti said the goals are to grow the company by signing up more of those 17,000 high schools and increasing the use of the baseball and basketball software. More sales people and programmers will be added, he said.
The software isn't limited to sports, either, he said. While not wanting to reveal any secrets, Cicoretti envisions Proscout developing indexing software for other industries.
shilling@vindy.com