Here’s one from my colleague, San Francisco bureau reporter David Lawsky:
The recession is good business for Volusion, whose business is demonstrating the common wisdom that some people who lose their jobs become involuntary entrepreneurs.
The company hosts Websites for businesses. Its soup-to-nuts site requires no programming experience and lets beginning entrepreneurs — or anyone — start out at $29.95 a month. Corporations pay more.
“We’ve been on a hiring binge. We definitely need people to keep up with the growth,” said Clay Olivier, Volusion’s chief operating officer.
Since October the number of companies using Volusion to host their businesses is up 27 percent to 15,000, including both presidential campaigns, which created business websites to sell merchandise, he said.
As massive lay-offs grew in the United States this fall, so did Volusion’s business. Since October the Simi Valley, California company has nearly doubled in size — from 65 people to 120 people, according to Chief Executive Kevin Sproles.
