BY MARK HARRINGTON
STAFF WRITER

August 6, 2004

Ever go to a convention and find yourself passing your business card to a complete stranger?

Steven Morgan, president of Northport-based Salesrecruits.com, has built a business on the likelihood that you have - or will.

His new company, called CardBrowser.com, canvasses technology conferences and conventions nationwide, collecting thousands of business cards.

He then electronically stores and sorts them into a vast database that he sells on a subscription basis to some of the largest tech companies in the nation.

With a database of 125,000 cards, and growing, Morgan says his company is filling a niche for those who want to reach out to attendees of large conventions without actually sending representatives to attend.

He sells the database, which is updated monthly, to companies as large as Apple Computer Inc. and Oracle Corp., which pay an annual fee to view the names, and receive updates.

Since business cards often include cell-phone numbers, e-mail addresses and direct phone lines, the quality of the contact information in his database tends to be a better quality than other methods of collecting names, he said.

In less than a year, Morgan said the business is already approaching $1 million in revenue, about the same as his Salesrecruits.com, a service that offers online resumes of thousands of software-industry sales people.

But Morgan says he understands the sensitivity of CardBrowser.com's business. He said he tells his canvassers never to lie to those whose cards they collect - if anyone asks. But since tech conventions tend to be fast-paced networking events, few people appear to be asking, or complaining.

"Only two or three people have contacted us to say, 'Remove my card from the database,'" Morgan said.

But do those who give up their cards know of CardBrowser's plan?

"Did you say anything other than, 'Thank you,' when asking for someone's business card?" Morgan responded. He tells canvassers to "just shake hands, and if they ask, tell them why" they've asked for the card.

Users pay $10,000 a year for a full-access subscription to the service, including monthly updates and the ability to use a spreadsheet in marketing and e-mail campaigns.

For $2,495 a year, clients get a read-only spreadsheet, with updates.

Morgan said he's aware of the database's potential use for spam campaigns, but said internal safeguards prevent it.

He said guidelines that come with the database urge against it.

"A lot of clients send out very targeted correspondence," he said. "They may send out an e-mail saying, 'I met you at Comdex Canada,'" or they may call the person directly, before pitching them.

"Our customers agree they will not spam," in contracts, he said.