Jim Fowler on the business of Jigsaw

User-generated directory on track (yet again) to double sales this year

This is the second part of a three-segment interview with Jim Fowler, CEO of Jigsaw, a fast-growing, user-generated business directory. (See interview No. 1)

Jigsaw has been profitable for the past three quarters and its revenue has been doubling for the past four years. Despite the economic slowdown, Jim doesn't see sales slowing. He predicts 2009 will prove to be another healthy year in which revenue will double, again.

What's the business model? Jigsaw has several revenue lines. Individuals pay a monthly fee of some $20 a month for access to names. But the big bucks come from corporations paying hundreds of thousands in annual licenses to access Jigsaw's entire database of 15 million records. Currently, Jigsaw has nearly 1,000 corporate customers. IBM, one of Jigsaw's larger corporate customers, uses Jigsaw for marketing and phone campaigns. As Jim mentioned in our last interview, Jigsaw is mainly used by marketers and sales people rather than recruiters.

Another product is Jigsaw's Data Fusion, which cost as little as $10,000 annually. This is Jigsaw's SaaS product that costs roughly $99 per seat per month.

Watch the interview for Jim's outlook for Jigsaw and the company's recent partnership with DMB, owner of Hoovers and All Business, as well as how Jim sees the competitive landscape. Jim also discusses Jigsaw's plans to increase its research to enhance its directory business.