Freddie Rick has a simple goal for CodeReady Solutions, the all-purpose IT firm he founded last year – find the best people and turn them loose.
He estimates that his Suwanee-based company has received 1,000 resumes in the last 60 days. The company currently has 53 employees and plans to continue expanding through the end of the year. Rick chose Suwanee because his company already had its servers housed at a local data center here.
"We're probably the fastest growing IT company in Gwinnett," says Rick, the company's founder and CEO. "Every recruiter in the state of Georgia knows who we are."
CodeReady is technically a subsidiary of Long Term – Short Term, Inc., Rick's Nevada-based company that markets a line of stock trading courses named BetterTrades. Last year he decided to spin off the company's IT department into a stand-alone IT brand that can provide services to BetterTrades while also bringing in outside customers.
CodeReady's main focus is on web marketing. That means Rick has brought in SEO experts, web designers, e-commerce specialists, .NET programmers, web advertising experts and software designers.
"We want to make sure that we're broadened into as many different technologies as possible," he says.
At this stage in the company's growth, 90 percent of CodeReady's business is with BetterTrades, but Rick says his five-year goal is to reduce that ratio to 20 percent, with 80 percent of the firm's revenues coming from outside customers.
"Once we got all this talent on bard, we had the opportunity to share that expertise and build relationships with other companies," Rick says.
One outside customer that CodeReady has already been able to land is The Investment Club Network, an Ireland-based financial training company. Rick says BetterTrades' own experience building customized CRM software gave CodeReady the kind of expertise it needs to provide solutions for other companies.
But perhaps the major question looming over Rick's infomercial-heavy empire is the overall health of the investment training business. BetterTrades' website insists that it's not a "get rich quick" scheme, but the system does purport to train its customers maintain a steady cash flow from stock options trading.
Will that still draw in new customers at a time when confidence in Wall Street hits a new low and massive government bailouts are on the front pages? Rick says he's confident.
"It couldn't have been scripted any better if we had done it ourselves," he says. Rick believes that the failure of large money management firms means more those with money to invest will be more likely to do it themselves.
"No one is more concerned about your money than you are," he says.
Even if BetterTrades does see a drop in revenues, Rick says he's confident CodeReady can move out beyond its shadow and establish a foothold in an already-competitive industry.
"We're growing quickly and we're doing it with no debt and no outside investors," he says. "We've got millions in the bank."
