Steve Achelis' s Vision

Equis International- A Vision for the World of Financing

Founder
Steve Achelis (pronounced a-kay-lis) started his company, Equis International, in 1983. He was heavily involved in
investing his own money, and was always looking for ways to get better returns. Originally bootstrapped from the
basement of his home in West Valley City, Utah, Steve has grown Equis into one of the world's leading developers
of investment charting and analysis software.
From the beginning, Steve has had a vision of how computers would change the way people invest their money.
Long before personal computers became popular, he clearly saw that computers would be the great equalizer for
investors everywhere - the average investor would have the same information and analysis tools that only the large
Wall Street firms could previously afford.
At that time, Steve had absolutely no experience with computers. But he believed in his vision of the computerized
investing market. So he took the first of many future business risks by purchasing a computer (an original Apple II+)
and teaching himself how to write programs that would eventually change the world of investing forever.
As he started to build a company around this new breed of software, Steve's only business assets were his energy
and enthusiasm. He would sit in front of the computer and write code for days at a time (often in his bath robe,
eating all his meals at his desk), making sure that what he was creating would have real value for investors.
As a result, Equis helped to create an all-new industry: computerized investing. Equis has customers in over 70
countries, and 140 independent user groups spread across the world. Since 1983, Equis has sold more than $25
million in investment software and data. His products have received numerous awards, including PC Magazine's
Editors' Choice Award, the Readers' Choice Award from Stocks & Commodities Magazine (the industry bible) every
year since its inception, and many others. Plus, the financial press continues to give Equis software rave reviews,
including Barron's, The Wall Street Journal, and many others. Steve's company is so highly regarded as the leader in
its industry, it was recently acquired by Reuters - the global leader in financial news and information.
His success with Equis stems from two very important attributes: (1) Steve has the ability to see technology trends,
and then turn that vision into products for customers; (2) Steve can then motivate, organize, and lead his employees
to build that vision.
Giving back to the community has always been a priority for Steve and his wife Denise. In 1990, they created The
Achelis Foundation to donate money to charitable organizations throughout Utah. Equis was also a charter member
of the Utah Information Technology Association (UITA) - one of the largest technology organizations in the country.
Equis is actively involved in sharing business ideas with smaller UITA members to help them grow and develop as
Equis has.
Getting to the Vision
In the early 1980s, Steve was actively trading the markets while working as a mechanic. While reading a popular
investment book, he realized that one day all of the charts and calculations being shown could be done by anyone
with a personal computer. So Steve decided to risk it all. He quit his job, bought a computer, and taught himself to
write software. His wife, Denise, worked as a bookkeeper while the couple struggled to build the business.
Steve's original vision was to enter what was then a very narrow vertical market and create a product for it as if it
were a horizontal market. The main competitor was selling their product for $1,900 with a manual printed on a dot-

matrix printer. Steve priced his product at $195 and provided his customers with high-quality packaging,
documentation, marketing materials, and product support.
He worked out of his house to keep overhead down. He also wanted his employees to share in the growth of Equis,
so he compensated them based on the company's performance - something he still does today.
Steve's core management belief is that if you trust people, they'll perform. "I'm not nave enough to think that
everyone is rewarded for their good deeds," says Achelis. "But I'm certain that what comes around goes around. If
you treat people - employees, customers, and business partners - right, they'll reward you."
In those days, computerized investing was a new industry. The challenge was to educate people and sell them at the
same time. "Many of our marketing efforts - advertisements, trade shows, user groups, and brochures - were really
educational pieces hidden in a sales wrapper," Achelis says. "We tried to use every marketing tactic available,"
Achelis continues. "One of our biggest successes was to create unique packaging that people would be proud to
display, and which would get the attention of their friends." This high-quality packaging has also won numerous
awards over the years.
As he read industry publications, Steve created a database of industry influentials - almost a Who's Who of
investment software. Then, every day, he wrote personal letters to different people in the database to build
relationships and position Equis as the company that really was trying to help investors. Many of those relationships
are still valuable to Equis today.
Even though Equis is now a strong industry leader, Steve still strives to instill the customer-oriented attitudes that
helped his company get where it is today. This is particularly important as Equis takes advantage of the new
opportunities presented with the acquisition by Reuters and the explosive growth of the Internet.
Equis Product Line
Equis was created with one central vision: to help people make better investment decisions with their computers.
Steve's ability to grow and develop Equis into a world leader is largely a result of his ability to stay focused on this
vision. Through the years, he has had many opportunities to take the company into different directions. But he's
always stuck with what he knows best - investment software.
Here's a complete look at the Equis product line:
MetaStock is the star of the Equis product line. It helps investors chart and analyze their investments to reduce their
risk and maximize their profits. Clearly the market leader in its category, MetaStock continues to win industry
awards and rave reviews. ($349)
MetaStock RT gives investors all of the charting and analysis tools found in MetaStock, but is used by professional
traders to track the markets in real-time. With MetaStock RT, users can plot price quotes as fast as they are released
by the stock exchanges. ($495)
The DownLoader is a program designed to be used with MetaStock and other similar software. Investors use The
DownLoader with their modem to retrieve stock quotes at the end of each trading day and save them on their
computer. Then they can analyze those quotes with MetaStock. ($99)
Pulse Portfolio helps investors keep track of all their actual investment transactions, their portfolio value, their
return rate, and more. It handles nearly every type of investment available - even futures, collectibles, and real
estate. ($195)

The Technician is similar to MetaStock. But instead of charting individual stocks and other investments, The
Technician helps investors monitor the direction of the overall stock market to determine whether or not it's a good
time to invest overall. Equis also maintains the database to which users of The Technician can subscribe. ($49, plus
$10/month for database subscription)
Innovative Approaches
Early on, Steve knew that he needed a strong staff to help him accomplish his goals with Equis. So he developed a
variety of ways to make Equis the best company in the world to work for: bonus trips to Hawaii, cruises, and cash.
He also instituted a quarterly profit bonus plan that gets paid to every employee, from top-level managers to parttime shipping clerks. Steve even provides free health insurance to all employees.
When the company was at only 20 people, he had the foresight to hire a full-time in-house Public Relations staff to
promote Equis around the world. It's been a valuable tool to access the influential people in the industry, such as the
press, user groups, business alliances, and industry VIPs. In the last year alone, the number of independent Equis
user groups has grown from 65 to 140 - largely through the help and attention of the PR staff.
Steve knows that helping customers is the best way to succeed. "Treat them fairly, and help them become better
investors" is still the bottom line in most company meetings.
Equis customers are active investors who need access to accurate investment information. Steve recognized the
importance of partnering with key information providers in the industry to make it easier for customers to get access
to that information. So Equis created a software product called The DownLoader and positioned it as the
information "faucet" for historical investment information. In fact, the DownLoader gives customers access to more
data suppliers than any other software program of its kind.
These partnerships gave Equis customers access to high-quality data, competitive prices, and a wide variety of
information. It also brought Equis significant new revenue in the form of data royalties that helped the company
continue to grow. With data royalties, Steve was also able to keep the price of his software affordable and increase
market share.
Through the years, one of Equis' main strengths has been superior product development. In fact, Equis' flagship
product, MetaStock, was far ahead of its time in the mid-1980s with an easy-to-use interface that let the customer
track his investment charts in individual chart windows within the program. Equis customers were benefiting from
this well-designed graphical user interface well before Microsoft or IBM got into the "Windows" game. And it was
all implemented in the DOS operating system.
When Achelis saw that Windows was becoming mainstream, he developed products built around an object oriented
interface - a trend that is just now surfacing throughout the industry. As a result, it places Equis far ahead of
competitors in the development race.
Future Plans
Achelis sees a very simple plan for Equis: to help people use technology to make better investment decisions, from
top-tier investment firms to the average next-door-neighbor investor.
He plans on accomplishing this through combining the company's strong product development skills, existing
business partners, and new opportunities available through the recent Reuters acquisition.
These plans include:

Leverage Equis' core technology strength by tailoring products that appeal to both ends of the investment spectrum:
mass market individual investors and high-end institutional investors. This is why he chose to partner with Reuters,
because it gave him better access to both of these important markets.
A strong Internet presence - not only as an online storefront, but more prominently as a software solution to
investors who want to analyze the investment information they find on the Internet.
Give customers access to more types and sources of investment information. This not only pleases customers, but
increases Equis revenues.
By constantly monitoring what Equis customers are looking for and then giving it to them, Achelis will continue to
position Equis as the industry leader. And he has the track record to prove he can do it.
Facing Risks
"Entrepreneurism is all about the willingness to take controlled risks."
And Steve's developed a keen sense of how to use risk in his favor over the years. In the start-up days, Steve was
willing to risk it all by quitting his job as a mechanic to devote all of his time and attention to creating great
software. Through the ensuing growth years, he faced the challenge of constantly-changing technology, which
created an environment where a false move would result in sure failure. In his private life, Steve enjoys adventure
sports such as back-country snowboarding, mountaineering, and windsurfing.
When hiring employees, Steve looks for three qualities he thinks are crucial to success. He wants employees who
are honest, hard-working, and willing to learn.
As overachieving employees contribute more to the success of Equis, Steve rewards them with more responsibility
and accountability. That's how he's grown his team of key management employees. By careful promotion from
within Equis, Steve ensures that every member of the key management team is familiar with Equis as a company,
how it's run, how it fits in the industry, what the strategic issues are, and how it can succeed in the future. The Equis
management structure is very flat, and is shared by many important employees. For strategic planning, key
management members include:
Mike Denison, Vice President of Sales and Marketing. With experience as a writer and an MBA degree, Mike has
helped grow the company's marketing for the past six years. His contributions include building the direct mail
efforts into a vital revenue source for Equis, increasing the marketing scope by creating an in-house advertising
department, and leading the charge into electronic marketing through email and the Internet.
Ken Hunt, Programming Manager. Ken has a wealth of experience from his days as a military simulations
programmer, combined with his 7 years at Equis developing state-of-the-art investment charting and real-time data
handling software. Ken is actively involved in creating new Equis software and manages the team of software
engineers.
Allan McNichol, MetaStock Evangelist. As a broker and trader, Allan's insight into how customers use Equis
software is priceless. He plays a vital role in designing product interfaces and features. In addition, Allan travels the
world speaking to Equis user groups about MetaStock and other Equis products.
John Slauson, Technical Writer. With nine years of Equis experience, ranging from Technical Support Manager to
creating all product documentation to managing the company's Internet presence, John rounds out the key
management team with unique insight into the Equis market. He currently helps develop the company's key business
partners and industry VIPs into revenue-generating relationships.
Attitudes About Capitalism
Steve readily admits to being a capitalist, and that he creates products that support capitalism.

He says that, "growth comes from risk, and the system must therefore reward risk." But he's quick to follow with his
belief that the system doesn't adequately support people on the lower end of the social strata, and that everyone has
an obligation to help the people that aren't supported by capitalism.
That's one of the reasons he and his wife, Denise, created The Achelis Foundation. Through this charitable
foundation, Steve and Denise have contributed significant amounts of money to the Guadalupe School in Salt Lake
City, Utah. The Guadalupe School focuses on helping children, through early intervention, develop the skills they
need to succeed in our society.
"I've spent a lot of time searching for different ways to personally fulfill my responsibility of making this world a
better place. One of the best ways I've found is through the influential work being done at the Guadalupe School."
Steve has also helped local students at Murray High School get a glimpse of life in the business world. Through a
program designed to link successful local companies with ambitious students, Equis has helped several of these
students understand not only how to get a job in the real world, but how to stand out and excel.
How does Steve summarize his views on helping others? "Everyone deserves the opportunity to succeed; and
everyone carries the responsibility to see that those opportunities exist." Through his own actions, he strives to make
this happen every day.
Questions for Discussion:
1. What questions did Steve probably ask himself in order to come up with his ideas for Equis International?
2. How would you define his management style? Why?
3. What did you learn about the investment industry by reading his case study?
4. What attitudes does Steve have about risk?
5. What did you learn about Steve as a person and his development as an entrepreneur?
6. How would you describe the responsibilities of Steve's key personnel and which of the jobs would you enjoy?
Why?