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TSL operates specifically in the technology sector and develops sales leads for companies, such as local firms Fineos and Eontec, who are trying to market new products or trying to launch into new markets.
TSL general manager Colin Sillery said the company is experiencing rapid growth and is now seeking an investment of around IEP1 million. "The investment would allow us to grow in three years at a level that would otherwise take five years," he said.
Sillery said the current economic downturn has helped TSL because tech companies are looking for new avenues to market and sell their products.
The company launched two years ago with seven employees. There are now 49 people working in the company with headquarters in Carlow and offices in London and Boston, Massachusetts.
With the investment the company hopes to expand its operations in Ireland and its other existing offices, increase its workforce to 200 within three years and create branches in Northern Ireland, India (where resellers or marketing partnerships already exist), Israel and South Africa. Over the next two to three months the company hopes to increase its Irish workforce by 12 and its Boston workforce by six.
The company said it is offering a fivefold return on investment to investors who commit to a three-year stay, and a tenfold return on investment to investors committing to a stay of five years.
"We have been profitable since day one," said Sillery. "Several offers have been made to buy out the company. A leading Irish stockbroker valued the company at between IEP5 and IEP8 million. We can operate with or without investment, but we would like to capitalise on our success."
TSL has also sought grants from Enterprise Ireland and the Industrial Development Board in Northern Ireland.
Last year the company received a capped investment, with no equity share, of IEP250,000 from Davy's Stockbrokers and TSL would be looking to some of their clients for investment. The investment that the company is currently seeking is likely to come from the US, according to company director Michael Kelly, and will give the investor shared equity in TSL.
TSL is just one of the firms in the outsourced sales and sales lead generation space. EDSI, an Atlanta-based company, has debuted a Web site designed to demonstrate how it can help marketing executives at high-tech companies generate sales leads.
The site shows how EDSI formats sales prospect information for corporate enterprise software, hardware and IT consulting services. The company is attempting to gain a leg up on several other IT specialists, who are attempting to merge traditional and Web-based lead-generation databases. Today, few companies offer information that includes a prospect's name, address, telephone number and e-mail address in a single record. It is anticipated that the lucrative and technically advanced IT industry will be among the first to develop such lists.
EDSI is at http://www.edsi-usa.com and TSL is at www.tsleads.com.
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