Heroes in Business - Mike Muhney founder of ACT Software is interviewed by David Cogan

Episode Date: July 26, 2024

Mike Muhney founder of ACT Software is interviewed by David Cogan of Eliances heroes radio show amfm. Muhney created the CRM industry with ACT which to date has been purchased by over 10 Million users. His new project is VIPOrbit Software and Vipor Plus, an Apple focused platform designed to integrate all global user needs for collaboration, organization, and relationship management.

Welcome back to Alliances Heroes, where heroes in business align. To be part of our super community and find out more about Alliances, visit www.alliances.com. Now, back to our super host, David Kogan, founder of Alliances. That's right, the builders in the community. What a morning it's been with heroes. We have the startup founder who's been on the featured cover of Inc. Magazine. We just had the candidate for Maricopa County Sheriff. And we had J.D. Hayworth, anchor with Newsmax and former U.S. Congress rep for 12 years.

But it doesn't end, because listen carefully. How amazing is it when a hero can create a category for something that hasn't yet even been created? That's right, creating what is called the CRM, Customer Relationship Management Software. And with us is Mike Muni, who could be reached at VIPOrbit.com or Alliances.com, who was the founder, co-founder, created ACT Software. I mean, the entire planet knows ACT Software. So Mike, what was the driving force to create ACT Software?

What was the driving force to create ACT Software? Well, I was born out of desperation, along with my business partner, Pat Sullivan, who is a Scottsdale resident himself, if you didn't already know that. And we literally had our backs up against the wall and had to come up with another idea or close down our business from our first failed software product. And on July 4th, 1986, we had a brainstorm session, said, what do we need? And the rest is history. We walked away from that breakfast knowing we were onto something and started the company and started raising some money. And nine months later, it was on the market. I mean, isn't that just incredible, though, that because of what

was going on at the time, you mentioned desperation. Suddenly now you create, I mean, an entire industry. I mean, in itself is incredible. Well, it is, but I don't want to pretend that neither Pat nor I were that visionary where we knew that's what we were doing. It's just that it happened that that's what we did do. And we recognized it, had the vision for the product, had the vision for the type of users that could benefit from it, had the vision for the product, had the vision for the type of users that could benefit from it, which was basically anybody, because who doesn't deal with people, and who doesn't have a calendar of things to do? And we just built a great company, a great culture, got great investors, and had a lot of fun doing it, but it was not an overnight success like people might believe.

You know, you're right. Nobody knows what goes into it. They think suddenly here it is. You hit it and kaboom. I mean, but then let's talk about it. You end up selling ACT to Symantec. I mean, that in itself is pretty incredible. How does one know, though, when the time is right to sell their business? Well, that's a good question, and I'm going to give you a couple of answers. Looking back, and I keep in touch with many of the ex-Board of Directors and Pat himself, we wish we had not have sold it because we sold it two years before the internet. And had we kept it, we would have either been a public company today, we certainly would have been the leader, and Salesforce might just be this little sideshow

because we literally owned the market of that category. However, at the time, it was the best decision because there was a product coming out from Microsoft that they alluded to saying it was going to handle all of your contacts and calendar information. And it turned out to be Outlook, which never did pose a threat to ACT. But because of that, we felt competitive pressure as a little company, and we put ourselves out on the block to see what we were worth, and that's the short story of how we sold the Symantec. And we're talking here with Mike Muni. He can be reached at VIPOrbit.com, which we'll be talking about here real soon.

He is the co-founder of ACT Software. So you sell the company. I mean, what's it like selling basically you sold your baby act to such a large company? I mean, what did you do the next day when it was sold? What was the feeling like? Well, good and bad. It was a high and a low. You know, we were proud of the accomplishment. And you know, it was obviously recognized financially and our investors walked away very, very happy, of course. But at the same time, our life that we had built and had passion about was now amputated. We were off of the fast train and, you know, had the freedom to do what we wanted to in

many ways. But we, you know, everything beyond that, David ended up being anticlimactic. When you literally create something, I mean, it's born out of your loins, right? Your heart, your soul, your passion, everything that you've put into it, and then it's no longer yours. There is a great sense of loss, along with the exhilaration. I mean, I can only imagine. That's why I reference it to literally, it's like it is your baby. I mean, and will always be. You're listening to Alliance's Heroes.

Be a hero. Go to where alliances, where entrepreneurs align. Be part of the community. Go to E-L-I-A-N-C-E-S.com. And we're talking with Mike Muni, the co-founder of Axe Software. You can contact him at VIPOrbit.com. In fact, let's get right into that, too, now.

So you go on, you create something else new called VIP Orbit. I have an idea of what it is, but I want you to more explain to our listeners. What is it and where did this idea stem from? Well, first of all, presently, not to stay this way for the future, but presently it's an Apple-only product, app and application for the Mac. So it runs on the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and even the Apple Watch. I became an Apple user many, many years ago, abandoned Windows, which meant I abandoned Act myself, and I wanted to be an Apple purist.

And when the phone came out two years into it, so this is late 2009, I was frustrated that there was not a single application on the App Store that was even close to anything that ACT ever did. And, you know, I'm a user too, David. And I said, you know, I've got this device that's with me 24-7. I could have only lusted after that back in the ACT era. It doesn't exist. I need it. Therefore, I'm going to start a

company. And I did. And I built some of the old ACT team members are part of my team. Some of the ACT investors are part of the team, and one of whom is a board of director that was a board of director of ACT. So we set out a new path to take advantage of newer technology, but it's not an ACT 2. You know, as a parent, if act is one of my child, which one of my children, excuse me, Viper, the name of the product with an O, V-I-P-O-R, Viper Plus is another child that has its own personality, but it actually has learned from the first child the things that the first child never did and still isn't doing to this day. And so it's a better way to manage your contacts, calendars, collaboration,

and communication, but selectively where you build your own personal structures of relationships across both your business and personal networks in one solution and keep track automatically of everything going on in your life. And who's the target market for this? I mean, who specifically are you targeting? Well, the person that wants to be, you know, on the top of their game that wants to be perceived as the most distinguished and professional amongst everybody else that's being sized up that they're competing against. But you know, it's like the same question was asked during the act era, who is this for? And the comment, the response was, it's designed for people that deal with people. Do you deal with people? Well, yeah. Well, how well do you deal with them? And how many applications today, if you look at it, David, are we running to keep track of siloed information? And I got tired and fed up with that. And so I wanted to put everything back in one

practical solution with a great, you know, seamless interface so that I didn't have to go to a bunch of different applications to keep track of business over here, a separate business function on top of that over there, Facebook for personal over here, you know, a to-do list over there. You know, it just grew and grew and grew and got out of control. I wanted to regain control and efficiency and productivity. So whoever is looking for relationship organization, relationship distinction, and just wants to do more with less in the constraint we call 24-7. And we've got a little less than a minute here and stuff, but I got to ask you too, is what kind of secrets of advice can you share perhaps with the children or parents of children

listening now that have an idea and someday want to be able to maybe create a category that hasn't existed like you have, what advice would you have for them to be able to implement it? I mean, it's one thing thinking of it, next thing implementing it. Well, I'll tell you what, I'll give you a baseball analogy, okay? So imagine you're the batter at the plate. If you've got an idea and a dream, you've got to go for it and play the game, and you've got to play it with gusto, 100% gusto. Here's the analogy. Every attempt is not going to produce a hit,

and every hit is not going to produce a home run. But if you want a home run, you've got to make the attempt and get the hit. Go for it. Oh, incredible. A hero in business is one that not only can create a software tool that has been purchased by over 10 million at the time, but one that can create a whole new category in business, revolutionizing the way in which people manage relationships and continue to develop more tools to make our life and our communications better.

That's the hero, Mike Muni at VIPOrbit.com, where you have to have the gusto to do it. David Kogan with Alliances. You have been listening to Alliances Heroes, where heroes in business align. Alliances is the destination for entrepreneurs, investors, CEOs, inventors, leaders, celebrities, and startups. To present your superpower, visit www.alliances.com. To unmask Alliance's heroes' secret identities, be sure to tune in every Thursday at 9 a.m. right here on Money Radio 1510 and 99.3 FM.