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Interactive map of Greater Boston tech layoffs in 2009
How is the economic crisis affecting tech companies?
Dark days aren’t dampening some local tech executives’ outlooks. In the middle of a brutal recession, more than two-thirds of local technology executives surveyed expect company revenue to stay flat or increase for the first quarter of 2009, which ends next week.
Tech executives generally expressed optimism about 2009 in the survey, conducted by Mass High Tech and NETSEA (the New England Technology, Sales, Marketing & Business Development Executives Association). Almost 70 percent of those surveyed expected first-quarter revenue to remain steady or grow, and more than 80 percent expected sales to stay flat or grow for the year. Almost 30 percent said they plan to hire between one and 50 employees this year.
Companies will be tapping their installed base: Only 15 percent of respondents expected the majority of 2009 revenue to come from new customers, while almost half expected it to come from existing customers.
More than 60 percent said they expected sales cycles to extend by at least one month.
Lauren Kelley, CEO of OpExEngine LLC and the board director and membership chair of NETSEA, said she was surprised the responses were so positive — particularly that only slightly more than 5 percent planned layoffs in the coming year.
Tech companies may be well suited to weather the recession because they were there earlier this decade, when the Internet bubble burst, Kelley said. In addition, tech sector companies may be more nimble and customer-focused this time around due to prevailing technologies such as software as a service and cloud computing, she said.
“You weren’t hearing that kind of thing 10 years ago,” Kelley said.
Alberto Correia, vice president of operations at clinical trial-services company Cambridge Biomedical Research Group Inc., took the survey. He said he’s seen a drop in the number of trials due to biotechs struggling to find funding, but the Brighton-based company is “chugging along,” and still growing. In his line of work, boom or bust, people get sick at the same rate, Correia said.
“When you wake up, you know you won’t have a billion-dollar molecule, but you will still have a job to do,” he said.
The biotech market has gotten tougher, Correia said. Venture capitalists are demanding a higher percentage from startups and focusing more on companies already in their portfolios. VCs are also less interested in hearing about a startup’s tech than they are about how it plans to survive the next 18 to 24 months. Correia said he hears a lot of “woe is me” from industry peers.
Still, Cambridge Biomedical just completed a move into a larger facility, something Correia said people find surprising. “At the end of the day, people still need clothes and food. They have kids. So you have to work harder,” he said.
SALES EXPECTATIONS FOR Q1
What are your revenue expectations for the quarter ending March 30, 2009?
| Answer Options | Response Frequency | Response Count |
| More than 50% growth from the same period in 2008 | 5.9% | 10 |
| 20-50% growth from the same period in 2008 | 10.6% | 18 |
| 5-19% growth from the same period in 2008 | 21.2% | 36 |
| Essentially flat with 2008 | 29.4% | 50 |
| Up to 20% decrease from the same period in 2008 | 19.4% | 33 |
| More than 20% decrease from the same period in 2008 | 13.5% | 23 |
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