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| SHEILA MASSON/ADVANCE Roopinder Tara, founder of TenLinks.com, has turned his single Web site business reviewing computer-assisted design and engineering software into a multiple-site company with the largest audience in his niche. His company recently purchased CADTalent.com, a job-listings site. |
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July 1st, 2009
Novato Web biz largest CAD reviewer on net
TenLinks adds seventh online site to its cadre of resources
for CAD, CAM
and CAE users
By Paul Jones
Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 16, 2008 2:21 PM PST
The Internet is a big place. So big, in fact, that good money is made by those willing to sort out the mess. Roopinder Tara knows. Since moving to Novato, he’s built Tenlinks — what he says is “the largest online media company for CAD, CAM an CAE professionals.” TenLinks survived the dot-com bust and spawned other online businesses; Tara just purchased his seventh: CADTalent.com.
CAD, or Computer-assisted design, manufacturing and engineering, software that allows businesses to create and trouble-shoot designs digitally, has revolutionized industries in the United States and around the world, Tara said. A former engineer himself, he realized companies and professionals needed help finding good information about the programs, including which are best and how to apply them efficiently.
“Our market is people who use the software … we’re sort of a directory,” Tara said of his original business site, “TenLinks.”
“The idea of TenLinks is that we rank (sites, software, articles, etc.) so that the 10 best links are ranked by a subject expert,” he said. “We have experts who find the software publishers. It’s free access to anybody, anyone can browse our site or newsletter, and we have enough (visitors to the site) that people will put advertising on our site.”
By offering viewers a directory of carefully evaluated Web sites and information about design and engineering programs, Tara said his company provided a time-saving service for businesses looking to use the relatively new technology. Online advertising companies, tasked with getting businesses exposure online, then pay higher rates to put advertising on Tara’s site, because of the large number of people who will see them online.
“We’ve been profitable for six years,” said Tara. “Almost everybody knows about TenLinks. We go to a trade show and our reputation precedes us. If you combine all of our Web sites’ traffic, we’re the largest as far as online publishing (for CAD, CAM, CAE). I think we’re easily the leader.”
Tara’s recent acquisition, CADTalent.com, is part of the growing list of similar, industry-related sites absorbed by his company.
“CadTalent is our seventh website,” he said. “The first one we had was TenLinks.com, and we started acquiring smaller Web sites and growing our own to the point where we currently have seven. We had one that had to do with CAD shareware, and one about civil engineering, and developed on that was about CAD articles, and we developed another site for free CAD applications.”
But CADTalent is also part of a new venture by Tara: sites offering services other than information-sorting.
“We haven’t had any sites that provide services to the users, but recently, we’ve had two that do,” he said. “The one before CadTalent makes CAD models, and we started that, ‘Innovate3D,’ as our first attempt at service. It brings in a whole new set of parameters. It’s no longer about distributing information, we have to take requests from customers.”
The site offers to make computer models of designs using CAD software and customer-submitted blueprints. Companies can then take the design information and test and develop it into a product or tool.
“(Innovato3D) has helped us in the review business, because now we use the products that we write about,” said Tara.
CADTalent.com is a job hunter site that posts opportunities and employee listings specific to computer-aided design and development.
“It’s like the Monster.com of CAD,” said Tara. “The founders wanted to go onto other companies, and they recognized us as a big player … I don’t think we’d have been in the running for the acquisition if we hadn’t had our reputation.”
The reputation of TenLinks was built on hard work, and, despite the innovative online market environment, traditional, cautious expansion, said Tara.
“I spent 10 years working as an engineer, and taught engineering and computer-aided design,” he said. “I became editor-in-chief of an industry-leader magazine in San Francisco.”
Tara said working for the magazine taught him how to compete with content for advertising. But the periodical went out of print. While working for IMSI in Novato, Tara said he realized the potential of using the Internet to fill in the information gap between software producers and consumers faster than print media could deliver.
“I had a personal website that was acquiring an audience … it got so popular people wanted to advertise on it, and I realized I was getting to the point that I could sustain a business,” he said. “I left my safe, warm office and ended up in a sublease office with my laptop and my cell phone. It was a bit scary.”
Worse, the dot-com bust hit.
“It was an interesting time,” he said. “At that time, we were looking for capital to grow the TenLinks concept … no one wanted to talk to a dotcom, or give them money, even though we could show we had revenue. We couldn’t even get an audience with anybody.”
But the business was providing a service in demand, and survived the period without investment capital. Now the company and its sites pull advertising from every major CAD-publisher in the industry.
“There isn’t anyone in the industry that we missed,” said Tara. “Adobe, Autodesk, Solidworks, Bently … If someone wants to advertise, they’ll run into TenLinks.”
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