(Source: Inland Valley Daily Bulletin)
Carlos Ugalde is the founder and chief executive officer of San Dimas-based WebMetro. Since 1995, Ugalde has been helping companies develop and implement online business strategies, build new e- businesses and provide clients with solutions to increase market penetration.
Ugalde has been directly involved in the management of WebMetro's larger scale e-commerce projects, including marketing strategy and direction.
This includes clients such as Pratt and Whitney Canada, the Student Assistance Foundation of Montana, and Public Storage. He also manages WebMetro's technology development efforts, including WebMetro's proprietary software DSMM.
Ugalde holds a bachelor's degree in civil engineering and is a registered professional engineer.
He recently took the time to answer Six Questions:
Question: How is WebMetro's business doing in this recession? Are you doing anything to help curb the effects of the economic slump on your business? Are you seeing the same pullbacks online that brick and mortar companies are experiencing?
Answer: WebMetro has been fortunate during this recession as our business has grown by over 20percent in 2008.
Our good fortune can probably be attributed in large part to the overall resilience of the Internet economy and our aggressive efforts to maximize the return on our clients' investments.
As a matter of fact, our clients' investments in online marketing have increased by over 58percent in 2008, outperforming the overall industry forecasted growth by more than 100percent.
Q: How did you get into online marketing? And how has the reality of the business differed from your original expectations? What are you the most proud of?
A: After selling a prior company in 1995, I fell in love with the potential I saw in the Internet as a medium capable of bringing together marketing, distribution and technology into a single entity. However, at the time, no one, including myself, was clear as to how this would work and how we could make money online.
In late 1997, after almost two years of research, we opened our first full-service Internet Center in Pasadena. We offered three different services, which included an online Internet software store, an Internet training and self-service center and Internet consulting and marketing services.
The financial and personnel demands resulting from the multiplicity of services offered, coupled with marginal revenue from some of those services during the first couple of years caused us to streamline our services and concentrate our resources on Internet marketing and e-commerce development services.
