Timothy Low

Despite cutting staff last week for the second time in five months, Daptiv's Timothy Low expressed optimism that the Seattle online project management company will emerge from the downturn stronger. "The situation isn't really dire. We are a full participant in the global economy and we made the decision to cut our staff a little bit," said Low, adding that about 24 workers lost their jobs in Friday's cutback. Daptiv now employs about 100 workers.

The 12-year-old company is pushing to become cash flow positive, but Low declined to say when that might occur or how long it can last at the current burn rate. "We have a comfortable cash position based on the changes that we've made," he said.

Low also addressed the outlook for 2009 and the recent trip to Hawaii for top producing sales professionals, topics of conversation on TechFlash over the past three days.

Low said that some potential customers are slowing down purchasing decisions this year, extending the amount of time that it takes Daptiv to close deals. But the vice president of marketing said the company still posted strong results last year, adding 58 new customers in the fourth quarter and growing revenue for the fifth consecutive year. "We actually had a very good Q4 .... but there is definitely increased scrutiny I think on all IT spending across the board," he said.

As to the Hawaii trip, Low said they did reward fewer than a dozen sales people who "hit it out of the park in 2008."

"It makes business sense to reward the high performers and that's exactly what that trip was," he said. As to some of the discussion on TechFlash, Low chalked that up to people being passionate about the company.

"A lot of the people we let go were really good people and worked hard," he said. "So, I think it just boils down to passion. And beyond that, who knows."

Looking ahead, Low said he's optimistic about the prospects in 2009. And while sales decisions are stalling to some degree, he said the $50 monthly charge per user for the online project management tool is a relatively inexpensive proposition when compared to other software programs.

"If we are prudent about how we manage our business in this crazy year of 2009, we will have a lot of options.," he said.