Ex-CMP Media exec. starts up a company to foster self-esteem in

Long Island Business News, Mar 21, 2003 by Adina Genn

Deborah Capone faced most of the same the challenges met by any new parent when she brought home a baby girl from China in 2000.

But there was an added challenge in being part of a multi-racial family.

It would be great, Capone thought, if she could find a character in the children's market whose life resembled Noelle's -- a role model that could help empower children whose race and ethnicity differed from their families.

But she came up empty handed. "There was nothing there," she said.

So Capone, a publishing, marketing and sales veteran who has launched print publications such as InformationWeek and InternetWeek for CMP Media, decided to do something about that. So she created As Simple As That, a company run out of her home office in Manhasset that aims to foster self-esteem in children and teaches them to understand, accept, respect and celebrate all cultures. Products include children's books featuring a little girl named Rain who is modeled after Noelle. Craig Shermin, a veteran staff writer for the Jim Henson Co. whom Capone knew through a mutual friend, serves as the fledgling company's lead writer. Stories are told in the "viewpoint of the child in order not to be preachy," Capone says. As Simple As That also offers sweatshirts, T-shirts and coffee mugs. It will add audio CDs to that list in May.

Julie Abrams, formerly a senior marketing manager at Ziff Davis Media, heads up the company's marketing.

Funded by angel investors, the company is actively pitching for capital. Capone expects to be a $3 million company within 18 months.

The company launched its Web site, www.simpleasthat.com on January 18. Three days later, it received its first order. The site includes games for children and online discussions for adults. There are plans to host subscription parenting guides.

"We're offering information in a way that they're not getting. I haven't seen anything this specific," Capone said.

The success of Dora the Explorer, a bilingual Latina character on Nick Jr., hasn't escaped Capone. "Asians and Hispanics are the largest growing segment in the population. It's time for a lead character who is Asian." Also on the rise, she noted, are international adoptions. In talking to other parents, librarians, educators and adoptive parents, she confirmed that "families need a way to talk about the differences."

Taking the road out of road show

As the head trader for a brokerage house in Freeport, companies would often send Frank Ferraro their corporate videos in the hopes that he could help drum up support from investors in the financial industry.

Rather than serving as the intermediary, Ferraro thought the Web would be a more convenient venue for executives to get their information out to investors. Online corporate videos, he figured, would give CEOs a vehicle to present their corporations before global investors. They would complement the CEO's face-to-face presentations -- or in some instances eliminate the need to travel altogether.

So in 2001, Ferraro started CorporateRoadshow.com, producing corporate videos and hosting them on his Web site. He had a few clients, but Ferraro remained a full-time trader, devoting his free time to the new venture.

That is, until eight months ago, when he raised $500,000 in funding from an angel investor. With some money to fall back on for a while, Ferraro dedicated himself to the business full-time and opened an office in Bohemia.

Aside from video production, the company provides video conferencing and infomercials. It also offers keyword marketing that drives traffic to both the CRS and clients' Web sites. The company has about a dozen clients. One client, Genesis Bioventures Inc., a biomedical company in British Columbia, had "756 video views in a three-and-a-half week period," Ferraro said.

Vincent Epifanio, the company's vice president, handles sales. Up until recently, he owned a Manhattan company that subcontracted information technology consultants to the financial community.

The company has attracted advertisers, including American Express, which is running a banner ad on the Web site, and is in talks with television networks about producing Sunday morning infomercials starring CRS clients.

Ferraro hopes to raise another $500,000 and eventually go public. "A lot of companies we deal with ask us, 'Are you a public company?' If we were public, it would lend Corporate Roadshow more credibility," Ferraro said.

Though navigating the economy is their No. 1 challenge, Ferraro and Epifanio remain optimistic. "I'm taking my story down to Wall Street," Ferraro said. "Hopefully, I can make it happen."