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Feature |
TIAS |
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1 Inventory / Traffic levels |
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1.a Hits per month |
~180,000,000 |
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1.b Unique visitors per day |
~200,000 |
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1.d Unique items listed |
~520,000 unique items |
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1.e Total inventory (some items are in multiples) |
1.6 million total items |
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1.f Inventory $ listed at selling price |
$150 million |
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1.g Pages on site |
1,000,000 + |
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2 End Customer Functionality |
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2.a Stores-based merchandise display |
yes |
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2.b Site-wide search engine |
yes |
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2.c Search engine methodology |
results returned based on relevance to customer search term; identical items weighted by sale price |
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2.d Site-wide display of merchandise by category |
yes |
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2.e Organization of merchandise in category-based display |
chronological; newest first |
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2.f Customer has 'own account' and can view order while in process at store |
yes |
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2.g Customer can see all orders placed in the mall on a single 'statement' |
yes |
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2.h Shipping /tracking information posted to order is accessible to customer online |
yes |
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2.i Customer is automatically notified of order shipment and order status changes |
yes |
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2.j Customer orders placed through shopping cart |
yes |
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3 Support |
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3.a Individual support via email |
yes |
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3.b Group support via bulletin board system |
yes |
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3.c Bulletin board type |
open |
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3.d Online tutorial |
yes |
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3.e Context sensitive help |
yes |
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3.f Option for custom design and programming |
yes |
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3.g Frequency of software features, additions and upgrades |
monthly |
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3.h Offer individualized business coaching and site performance improvement tutoring |
yes, no charge for basic support |
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4 Store Structure |
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4.a Each store has an individual appearance |
yes |
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4.b Stores permitted to have individual backgrounds, colors, text, etc |
yes |
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4.c Each store has individual search engine |
yes |
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4.d Ability to create and use custom inventory categories |
yes |
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4.e Ability to list in multiple categories |
no |
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4.f Limitation on number of items displayed |
no |
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4.g Ability to customize store performance (sales tax collection, shipping calculation, customer messages, inventory status set after order complete etc.) |
yes |
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4.h Store can define text content without using HTML |
yes |
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4.i Ability to define automatic inventory discount structures (after x days, change price by y%) |
no |
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4.j Option for displaying inventory at offsite auction |
yes |
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4.k Shopping Cart |
yes, free |
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4.l Integrated credit processing w/ cart |
Optional, not required |
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4.m Payment methods supported in shopping cart |
money order, check, bidpay, paypal, billpoint, amex, visa, mc, diners club, electron, |
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4.n Real-time tax calculation in shopping cart |
yes |
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4.o Supports multiple taxing bodies per store |
yes |
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4.p Supports tax rates by county, parish, zip code |
New York, NJ and California |
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4.q Real-time shipping calculation in cart |
yes; supports sliding scale calculation or UPS |
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4.r Shippers supported |
FedEx Ground |
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4.s Ability to create and issue coupons to customers ('use this coupon for $x off on your next order over $y') |
yes |
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4.t Coupon processing in shopping cart |
yes |
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4.u Ability to stock and sell downloadable items (pdfs, documentation, images, software, etc) |
yes, dispensing of item is integrated with shopping cart; requires real-time credit interface |
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4.v Ability to define inventory units of measure and display throughout system |
yes |
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4.w Ability to define inventory units of sale and show this as quantity of purchase in the shopping cart ('this item is sold in lots of six, so the consumer sees 6,12, 18 etc in the quantity selection') |
yes |
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4.x Ability to define minimum purchase quantities in the shopping cart this item is $10 in quantities under 10 and $8 in quantities of 10 or greater) |
yes |
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4.y Store owner can define and use optional inventory fields |
yes; optional fields are Year, Type, Weight, Size, ISBN, Author, Publisher, Edition, Pages, Dealer, Price, Retail/Book Price, Purchase Cost, Minimum Auction Price, Reserve auction price, UPC Code, Make Vs Buy, Country of Origin |
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4.z System generates pick tickets for shippable orders |
yes |
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4.aa System generates customer invoices |
yes |
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4.ab System generates paper file copies of orders |
yes |
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5 Extras |
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5.a Email / spam filtering |
optional |
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5.b Links page |
yes |
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5.c Tip of the day (or other variable content) |
yes |
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5.d Site Calendar |
yes |
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5.e Merchant Account |
yes, optional; will assist sites in obtaining merchant account. One-time charge payable to merchant account vendor |
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5.f Store owner can have own domain name |
yes, extra charge if URL hosting is provided by TIAS |
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6 External Interfaces |
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6.a Supports batch upload of inventory data |
yes, .csv, zip or txt |
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6.b Supports batch export of inventory data |
yes, .csv |
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6.c Supports batch export of order data |
yes .csv |
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6.d Supports real-time synchronization with external inventory system |
yes, (FAST XML-based protocol) |
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6.e Supports real-time synchronization with external system shopping carts |
yes, (FAST XML-based protocol) |
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6.f Supports data interchange with UPS Worldship |
both import and export |
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6.g Licensed UPS API developer |
yes |
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6.h Licensed USPS API developer |
yes |
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7 Inventory and Warehousing (Note: some features are available only on request, where noted these are special charge) |
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7.a Inventory allocation; pick ticket generation by order priority and location |
yes |
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7.b Bar-coded inventory picket ticket printing optimized by location code, |
yes (extra charge item, this is a LARGE piece of client-based software and also requires the purchase of an electronic scale and a bar-code scanner) |
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7.c automated inventory relief based on processing of bar-coded pick tickets) Automated interface of shipping process to external shippers (shipment registration, label printing, etc) |
USPS, UPS (extra charge item, see above; account must have daily pickup option arranged with UPS if UPS is desired. Worldship is a better choice for small organizations) |
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7.d Annual Physical Inventory (generate count sheets, support batch input, provide trial balance and actual reports) |
yes |
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7.e Inventory transaction visibility |
yes, (shows all changes in price, title, quantity, reservation/allocation/release activity by shopping carts, sales, etc) |
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7.f Multiple warehouses per store |
yes, common use is for stores that sell things like restoration supplies or display items to show buyers a fixed amount of product while maintaining larger stocking levels (for instance, the store may have 100 of something, but displaying a LONG dropdown list tends to blow up Netscape and there's no point if no one buys more than 5 of the item) |
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7.g Inventory Types Supported |
Almost any type of inventory that can be sold online. Specific support for these types:
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8 Purchasing / Planning / MRP (available on request) |
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8.a Allow creation of purchase orders for recurring items |
yes |
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8.b Ability to define inventory items as 'made', 'purchased', 'drop ship' etc. |
yes |
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8.c Ability to define critical stocking levels on items and to receive automated reporting of stocking level threshold triggers |
yes |
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8.d Ability to create POs from items at or below critical stocking levels |
yes |
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8.e Support Inventory receiving versus PO |
yes |
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9 Auctions |
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9.a Ability to upload inventory in batch to auction |
yes |
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9.b Auction upload fees |
no |
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9.c Limitations on number of items at auction |
no |
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9.d Automatic interface from closing auctions to secure shopping cart |
yes |
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9.e Revenue reporting on auction revenue, margins, etc. |
yes |
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9.f Licensed eBay API developer |
yes |
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10 Site Promotion Tools |
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10.a Dealer listings on main 'mall' page |
Optional, no more than twice per week, no charge |
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10.b New site promotion type and cost |
yes, main mall page and in newsletter |
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10.c New site submission to search engines |
free submission to 85,000 search engines and utilities |
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10.d Scheduled marketing events |
yes; 'secret sale' and other events to drive interest and site traffic |
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10.e Site indexed by public search engines (Google, Yahoo!, etc) |
yes |
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10.f Ability to feature merchandise on store's own pages |
free |
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10.g Ability to feature merchandise on site home page or category pages |
$5/5000 impressions on the main page, billable in $1 increments; $1/2000 impressions on other pages. |
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10.h Automatic inventory feed to offsite sales venues (Froogle, Yahoo! shopping, Yahoo! Classifieds, etc) |
yes; all inventory uploaded nightly |
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10.i Dealer can list inventory on more than one site |
yes |
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10.j Dealer tools include the ability create and use email lists from prior sales |
yes |
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10.k Ability to create targeted email lists (by product type, geographical region, and by customer performance characteristics such as annual or lifetime sales value) |
yes |
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10.l Ability to create physical mail lists/labels (by product type, geographical region, and by customer performance characteristics such as annual or lifetime sales value) |
yes |
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10.m Newsletter or other routine corporate publication program |
Newsletter: 254,000 circulation, distributed 2x week; Antique Business News (trade publication) 1x month |
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10.n Purchased print advertising |
no |
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10.o Company has active press interface program (major media -- Time Magazine, WSJ, other similar mainstream periodicals as well as specialize print and broadcast media such as Kovels) |
yes |
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10.p Corporation is active in conferences, shows and other public forums |
yes |
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10.q Provide discounted 'show' opportunities for dealers and customers |
yes |
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10.r Free, downloadable professional marketing materials (business cards, tent cards, store placards, etc) |
yes |
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10.s Other advertising materials -- shopping bags, pens, etc |
Available at shows and other physical venues only; no charge. Actual items available vary, shopping bags are common |
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10.t Portal links (MSN, AOL, Yahoo! etc) |
Yahoo!, MSN |
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11 Financial and Accounting Tools |
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11.a Sales tax reporting |
yes |
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11.b Cost basis reporting on sales |
yes |
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11.c Revenue /margin reporting by product line (category) |
yes |
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11.d Revenue /margin reporting by month, day, year |
yes |
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11.e Uncosted inventory report/ costed inventory, etc |
yes |
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11.f Physical Inventory Trial Balance / Application reports |
yes |
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11.g Credit Card Clearances by day, by month, and year, card type |
yes |
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11.h Credit Card Declines by day, by month and year |
yes |
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12 Management Reports |
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12.a Detailed Daily Traffic reports (traffic source, referring phrases, etc) |
Extensive; standard web-trends type reports |
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12.b Trended Site Traffic |
yes |
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12.c Advertising Measurements (views and click thrus on banners, feature items, etc, by location) |
yes |
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12.d Customer Returns analysis |
yes |
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12.e Abandoned Shopping Cart Trends |
yes |
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12.f Abandoned Shopping Cart Detail |
yes |
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12.g Open Orders Reporting |
yes |
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12.h Order Backlog Reporting |
yes |
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12.i Customer History Analysis |
yes |
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13 Charge structure |
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13.a Monthly fee per item listed |
no |
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13.b One-time fee per item listed |
no |
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13.c Option for monthly-paid fixed price store |
yes, $99 (merchandise must qualify, however) |
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13.d Commission on fixed price sales |
10% |
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13.e Commission on auction sales |
2% |
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13.f Minimum monthly fee |
$29.95 |
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13.g Mandatory fees (advertising, etc) |
none |
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13.h Fees for enhancing search engine performance |
TIAS does not accept payment for improving the rank of sites in our results. |
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13.i Main page listing price |
Free to store owners |
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13.j Payment Structure |
Fixed price sites billed in advance, commission sites in arrears |
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14 Corporate |
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14.a Year founded |
1995 |
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14.b Corporate Structure |
Delaware Corporation, domiciled in Texas, privately held |
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14.c Financing type |
Revenue-based |
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14.d Financial Health |
Excellent |