Lured by the Net

It says something about the allure of Silicon Valley that David Dorman, who as chief executive of Pacific Bell managed 50,000 employees, last week took the top job at an unproven Internet start-up with a work force of 260.

Dorman was named chief executive of PointCast, a Sunnyvale, Calif., company that pioneered so-called push technology, which packages and delivers news and other information to computer users over the Internet instead of making them retrieve it themselves.

The 43-year-old said he was enticed by the opportunity to build a company, as well as a plethora of stock options. In an interview Friday, Dorman said PointCast is poised for a stock offering within a year and expects to double its subscriber base within that time.

“If we can grow this company successfully and win, I’ll win with it,” Dorman said. “If we don’t, I won’t.”

PointCast has had mixed success since its launch five years ago. The company has built a widely recognized brand and attracted 1.2 million subscribers.

But the company has struggled to shake early complaints that its service clogs the networks of its corporate customers. PointCast also faces increased competition from Microsoft and Netscape Communications, software giants that have equipped their browsers with push capabilities.

“The technology side of this business will be dominated by Netscape and Microsoft,” said Harry Fenik, vice president of Zona Research. “But the media side is far more interesting.”

And that is where Dorman plans to focus PointCast, which depends almost entirely on advertising revenue. The company was originally conceived as an information service for a mass audience, and it still has mainstream content “channels” such as sports, weather and stocks that appeal to everyday computer users.

But as others crowd into that space, analysts say, PointCast’s future hinges on the success of its plans to bundle content for narrow, professional audiences such as doctors and lawyers.

Dorman agreed. “Get real focused--that’s how we win,” he said.

Dorman’s move to PointCast was somewhat puzzling considering he has spent his entire career in top posts at telecommunications companies such as Sprint, Pacific Bell and SBC Communications.

“But I’ve been very balanced in my career,” he said. “From direct sales to using advertising to make the phone ring to building brand awareness--I’ve done all that stuff.”

Dorman said he turned away overtures from Apple Computer, which is also seeking a chief executive. He cited the looming presence of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and the company’s shrinking market share.

“It just wasn’t a situation that was appealing to me,” he said. “I was interested in a pure growth opportunity, something where I could put my mark on it.”

Pumped Up: Firetrucks could get a whole lot smaller with a new multipurpose device from an El Segundo inventor.

The cylindrical energy module, or CEM, is a hybrid pump and compressor and, with a few minor modifications, can also be used as an engine. Eddie Paul won a patent for his creation--slightly larger than a roll of paper towels--in 1993 but struggled for years to find a marketable application. Based on suggestions from several firefighters, Paul decided to turn his pump into a fire extinguisher.

In July, Paul traveled to Baltimore to conduct tests with a 115-pound prototype that fits easily into the back of a pickup truck. While the traditional fire engine was unable to extinguish a test fire after spraying it with water for an hour, the CFX--short for CEM Fire Extinguisher--put out a fire in less than a minute using water mixed with FireStopper foam, Paul said.

“Eddie’s pump is far more efficient than anything I’ve seen to date,” said James Morand, president and chief executive of EnviroFoam Technologies in Gilbert, Ariz., which sells fire-suppression products.

Traditional pumps use a turning crankshaft to move a piston up and down inside a single, stationary cylinder. Each revolution of the crankshaft produces one piston cycle.

The CEM has six cylinders arrayed lengthwise inside a symmetrical structure. As a motor spins, the CEM spins, a groove in its outer shell guiding the pistons back and forth inside their cylinders. By the time the CEM makes one full revolution, each piston has completed two cycles. And because the device has openings at two ends instead of one, each cylinder does twice as much work as those in traditional pumps.

When water or another liquid is coursing through the device, it works as a pump. If air is being pumped, it functions as a compressor. By attaching a spark plug to burn a mixture of fuel and compressed air, the CEM works as an engine.

For starters, Paul and his wife, Renee, are concentrating on the firefighting market. With its compact size and comparative efficiency, a single CFX unit could fit into a sport-utility vehicle with 250 gallons of water and spray foam for four hours in places that would be hard to reach with a firetruck. The Pauls are also exploring the firefighting benefit of loading a CFX into a helicopter.

Since displaying the CFX at the Fire Rescue International trade show in Dallas last month, Paul’s company, E.P. Industries, has been fielding inquiries from manufacturers and distributors. Although the fire industry is slow to adopt new technologies, potential buyers say the CFX can find several successful niches.

“You’d be able to add this on to a firetruck” so that it could fight fires with either water or foam, said Paul Darley, vice president of sales and marketing at W.S. Darley & Co., a Melrose Park, Ill., company that makes fire pumps and trucks and distributes firefighting equipment. “It certainly has some good potential.”