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Springboard has been a small agency since Cilea started the company by himself in a spare room in his house in Marlboro in May 1995. But Cilea said he has used the fact as a marketing tool for the company, which specializes in public relations for technology companies. "I knew there was a niche for seasoned consultants who could go in and be an impact player and do p.r., but not carry the overhead of a (large) agency," said the 34-year old who grew up in Marlboro. Springboard, which now has six full-time employees, including Cilea, charges less than some larger agencies. More importantly, clients know they will not get lost in the shuffle at a large agency with many accounts, Cilea said. "Focus was an issue," he said. "When you go to an agency or you go to an accountant or a law firm, are you getting the principal's time or are you going to get an associate's time? ... You're able to get a little more face time with a principal of a small company, and that's really how we build the business." After a year working out of his house, Cilea hired his first two employees and rented a 1,000-square-foot office at 15 Main St. in Marlboro. The company moved to its current space, which is twice as big and spread over two floors of a house at 25 Main St., in August 2000. "We kind of bill ourselves as 'Look, come with us and you're going to be a very big fish in our sea,'" he said. In addition to its fulltime staff, Springboard hires free-lance or part-time help for projects as needed. Springboard has grown from $150,000 in revenue in its first year to $1.2 million last year, Cilea said. It was a fortunate timing to start a public relations company that specialized in technology clients in 1995, he said, because a lot of technology companies were starting then, many of them spinoffs from larger companies. These companies are too small to have their own public relations staffs, but will hire consultants. "Most of our clients are start-up companies with $10 million in sales (or less) or $10 million in funding," he said. As the technology boom has shown signs of going bust, Springboard has managed to weather it without much damage so far, Cilea said. Most of Springboard's clients provide software for businesses, they are not dot-com companies selling directly to consumers, he said. None of Springboard's clients have gone out of business, he said. While some clients have cut back on expenses, they have not cut their public relations budgets. They might see public relations, hiring someone to help get free publicity for a project or service, as more cost-effective than buying advertising and hiring an advertising agency to create it, he said. Cilea expects that this year, Springboard will at least equal its$1.2 million revenue total of last year. His goal for the company is to hire six more full-timers within 12 months and grow to 25 people within three years. Ocean Township-based Commence Corp., a 12 year-old company that makes software which companies use to manage information about their customers, hired Springboard in February 2000. "We've had more press coverage and publicity in the past year and a half than we've ever had before," said David Valentino, vice president of sales and marketing for Commence. Commence does not have its own pubic relations staff, he said. "Springboard has a talented group of people who understand the high-technology marketplace," Valentino said. "They're local and they're affordable for a smaller company." Many of Springboard's clients are New Jersey-or New York-based, Cilea said, but the company also represents companies around the country. Cilea, who is married with three children, graduated from William Paterson University with a degree in business administration in 1988. He received his master's degree in business administration from Monmouth University in 1990. He started Springboard after working for six years for a 10-person firm in Manhattan, Set Marketing On, that specialized in technology companies. Cilea said he used $5,000 in savings to start Springboard. He expected there was enough demand for a technology-oriented public relations for him to succeed, and he had developed many contacts in the industry. His first two clients at Springboard had been former clients of Set Marketing On, Cilea said, emphasizing they were not current clients that he took with him when he left.