By James McNair
The Cincinnati Enquirer

ERLANGER - Greater Cincinnati entrepreneurs take heed: The money and professional help to grow a new technology venture are right here, just as it was in the swine, soap and tool-and-die days.

That assurance comes from Dave Conway, president and chief executive of Construction Software Technologies of Blue Ash. He told more than 75 people at a Greater Cincinnati Venture Association event Tuesday that his company, also known as iSqFt, proves that a local startup can count on local investors and assistance.

"We believe that it can happen here," Conway said at a one-day workshop at Northern Kentucky University's new Metropolitan Education and Training Services center. "There are a number of organizations with a tremendous amount of resources right here in Cincinnati. We continue to lean on them very hard."

Cincinnati has the unusual dilemma of having too much investment capital for too few worthwhile startups. Most of the money raised for startups, investors say, leaves the region.

Construction Software is one exception. Its Web site, www.isqft.com, serves as a host for project blueprints and specification sheets. Developers pay to put the information online; and contractors, subcontractors and suppliers interested in bidding for work pay subscription fees to access the information. The service takes the place of mailing blueprints and specs to dozens of companies.

While so many other dot-coms have failed, iSqFt has established a solid market niche. Conway said the site hosts about 150,000 projects and 2.2 million pages of blueprints. The company entered into a strategic partnership with the Associated General Contractors of America and the American Society of American Estimators. It also allows customers to receive discounts on special Hewlett-Packard printers that can handle printouts of construction blueprints.

Founded a decade ago, Construction Software made its breakout during the high-tech shakeout. Today it has 85 employees, customers in 30 states and about $8.5 million in annual revenue.

The company got there without the help of investors on the coasts. Conway said it has raised $8.5 million from angel investors, bridge lenders and venture capital firms.

The company's low point, Conway said, came in late 2000. He drove alone to Chicago to meet a group of prospective investors, only to be told that the Internet boom was over. He didn't even have the money to spend the night.

"We got in late. Money wasn't falling from the sky anymore. The market had crashed. We were lepers," Conway said.

But with local law firms, consulting firms and other institutional backers, Construction Software got what it needed from its hometown.

"There's not a lot of evidence that it can happen here," Conway said. "The entrepreneur has the challenge to understand what it takes to raise the money and, if they do, they can raise the capital in this region."

E-mail jmcnair@enquirer.com