Cafe.net serves up technology

CNY Business Journal (1996+), Mar 05, 2004 by Dickinson, Casey J

SYRACUSE - Cafe.net started out as entrepreneurs Gregg Ordon and Walter Addley's plan for a downtown cafe. Their business plan morphed into an Onondaga Hill computer-repair shop, but they kept the coffee.

Cafe.net provides computer repair and servicing at its 600square-foot shop at 4800 McDonald Road in the town of Onondaga. The shop is open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. six days per week and also sells Paul deLima coffee.

Before opening the shop in November 2003, the entrepreneurs had worked at jobs in the retail and advertising fields but had always enjoyed working with computers.

"We've been around computers all our lives," says Ordon.

Unable to secure bank financing for their venture, the men financed the shop's lease and equipment from their own savings at a cost of about $5,000.

"We took everything we had and put it into the business," says Ordon.

Cafe.net tries to create a comfortable atmosphere where computer owners aren't intimidated by technical jargon or looked down upon for not knowing how their machines work. The company charges $39 per hour for service. Ordon and Addley also provide IT services for small businesses.

Spyware, the Internet programs that report information back to advertisers, create the most business for Cafe.net. The growing use of high-speed connections and the advancing technical features of Internet browsers have spawned a new age of ad programs that "spy" on users' surfing habits. The programs cause computers to run slowly and malfunction, sometimes rendering them practically useless. Many popular peer-to-peer file sharing programs, such as Kazaa, install spyware along with the technology to download stolen music.

"The biggest problems are caused by a combination of kids and Kazaa," says Ordon.

To fix spyware-laden machines, Cafe.net favors the free AdAware anti-spyware program. Ad-Aware identifies, isolates, and removes spyware programs, improving a computer's performance.

Many customers have never heard of spyware but only know that their new computers, plugged into high-speed connections, seem to run slower than the ones they replaced.

"Spyware makes your PC run like it's five years older," Ordon explains.

No matter what the problem, Cafe.net optimizes the performance of each machine it works on, adjusting settings so the computer works faster.

"We can have them running better than when they were new," says Addley. Satisfied customers have begun refer ring friends to Cafe.net, says Ordon.

"We get one person," he says, "and then three customers sent by that person.

Ordon projects revenues of more than $100,000 for the c

ompany's first year.