Jamilla: Hi! You’re listening to “Meet the Team” and I’m Jamilla Murray. We decided that we would start our “Meet the Team” sessions with the person who created the team. And so today, I’m here with David Cummings, CEO. Hi David, how are you?

David: Great, thanks for having me on the show.

Jamilla: Why don’t we just jump right in? What made you want to start a company?

David: Well, I got started about ten years ago building websites for different small businesses. And then after I’d build the website, I would turn the site over to them and then they would promptly ask, “how do I change the pictures,” and “how do I  update the texts and create new content.” So, I had a simple idea one day, which  was “lets make some software that makes it really easy and efficient for [businesses] to manage the site themselves.” The idea is to put the content ownership back into the hands of the subject matter expert and that’s where Hannon Hill was born.

Jamilla: Wow! So, tell me, where did the name, Hannon Hill, come from?

David: Hannon Hill is actually a street name in Tallahassee, Florida; it’s the street my family lives on. And I was looking for something simple and non-descript, something that had a little bit of alliteration in it. And of course the domain name, the dot-com name, needed to be available.

Jamilla: Is that where you grew up?

David: It is; I grew up in Tallahassee, Florida.

Jamilla: What college did you go to?

David: I went to Duke University in North Carolina, and I studied Economics. That was the closest thing Duke has to a Business major.

Jamilla: Any hobbies? What do you do when you’re not working at Hannon Hill?

David: I’m an active tennis player. I play in a singles and a doubles league. I actually play in a mixed doubles league with my wife as my partner; that’s a fun exercise. And I’m a sports car enthusiast; I enjoy cars and generally I just like the internet and the web. I’m a big fan of reading as many different technology websites as I can. Learning as much as I can about different software, hardware programs. I recently just got a new Mac book; so, now I’m a tinkering Mac aficionado. And one day I hope to be a better enthusiast of the Mac. 

Jamilla: Wow, that’s really cool! So tell me, what is the most exciting thing coming up on the horizon for Hannon Hill?

David: Well, we’re really excited about 2007. Right now we have a lot of good features and changes we’re working on for the product. We’re working on some new marketing campaigns that’ll be coming out in the next few months. And of course we’re excited about the market place and we’re always happy to see the success that our customers have with our product. We’re really just excited about all the different pieces that are coming together for 2007, and we think that it’ll be a great year.

Jamilla: Lastly, if you hadn’t started Hannon Hill, what would you be doing?

David: Oh, I’d definitely be doing some other software company – something that’s Internet or web related. It’s what I’m going to be doing the rest of my life.

Jamilla: Well David, thank you for your time and thank you for sharing yourself with us!