BillHighway.net uses money pools to create triple-digit growth

metromode, 8/21/2008

It's a familiar college story. A group of hungry co-eds orders pizza but when the pie comes they have trouble figuring who owes what. Such a sticky situation with bills led to a successful business in Troy – Billhighway.com.

The web site that specializes in figuring who owes what is the brainchild of Vincent Thomas. The inspiration came from trying to figure out bills between him and his fellow roommates at Eastern Michigan University in the late 1990s.

That's the baby of Billhighway.net, a spin-off of Billhighway.com. Bill Highway.net handles that sort of money pool sharing. Billhighway.com is a finance management service for not-for-profits.

The company overall has experienced fast growth in its first nine years. It went from Thomas' start-up to a firm that employs 35 people and handful of contractors. It has experienced 100 percent growth in the last few years and expects to hire up to six people soon.

"We're actually hiring right now," Thomas says. "I don't see us stopping the hiring process ever."

The company has facilitated nearly $1.1 billion in not-for-profit group fund collection transactions. It serves 1,200 organizations and some 100,000 users throughout North America. It hopes to hit more than half a million users sooner rather than later.

"Our customer numbers have more than doubled," Thomas says. "We're growing at a very fast clip."

Source: Vincent Thomas, CEO and founder of Billhighway.com
Writer: Jon Zemke