An American hi-tech company, DayBreak Data, started operating from Malta yesterday with plans to create 1,000 jobs by 2014.

The company, owned by Doug Monahan, an Austin, Texas based entrepreneur, describes itself as offering “the largest and most comprehensive contact list databases available today.”

Speaking to The Times Business from Austin, Mr Monahan said: “We expect to hire around 100 people by the end of 2011, and have a full time staff of 250 by end of 2012, and 500 by end of 2013 and 1,000 by end of 2014.”

Mr Monahan said DayBreak Data, which has roughly 12.5 million contacts in its database, is funded solely by him. “I have invested over $3.5 million in the project,” he said.

“The positions we are hiring for include data entry, data verification, web search expert, database administrator, web programmer, mysql programmers, php programmers, and roughly 30 sales people. We will be receiving roughly 50 per cent of our business from the United States and the other 50 per cent from Europe,” he added.

“We expect the average age of the staff members will be less than 30 years old. Employees will receive stock options in the company and we plan on going public on the London Stock Exchange within four years.”

Mr Monahan has been working in high-technology since the early 1980s. He moved to Austin in 1992 and set up a company named Sunset Direct.

“With only my credit cards as my venture capital, I was able to build Sunset into the 28th fastest growing company in the United States per Inc. Magazine’s Inc. 500 list. We provided outsourced sales and marketing services to Apple, AT&T, Borland, Canon, Dell, IBM, Intel, HP, Oracle, Symantec, Wordperfect, Novell, Ingram Micro and hundreds of other Tier-1 players in the technology and communications market segment.

“In 2004, I sold my company Sunset Direct to create a new company DayBreak Data. Over the past six years, I have invested over $3.5 million to create the ‘Holy Grail’ of B2B contact lists. Our technology is ‘disruptive technology’ meaning we are offering significantly more value for far less money than our competition.

“Over the past six years I’ve employed a small army of software developers to create the DayBreak technology. The engineers with the most talent, creative juices and entrepreneurial spirit have hailed from Malta – hence the reason for me exploring Malta as our global headquarters,” he told The Times Business.

Mr Monahan said he was very excited about moving to Malta and had no doubt the business was going to be very successful.

“I tell my friends we are going to become the Microsoft of Malta. The way I look at it is if I was able to build my last company and become the 28th fastest growing company in the United States, I should be able to build the fastest growing company in Malta. We are going to pay 20 per cent over fair market value in order to ensure we attract quality staff members.”

He said when people in the United States ask him why he was moving to Malta he tells them: “Well, let’s see, it is beautiful, there is an effective corporate tax rate of five per cent vs. 40 per cent here in the United States, the country speaks English fluently compared to most foreign countries so I don’t have to learn another language, the country is based on the English legal system, it has excellent intellectual property laws and is encouraging US businessmen to set up their company with incentives and tax breaks. Great laws, great people, island setting – what’s not to love?”

Mr Monahan said that since DayBreak Data is not allowed to sell to Maltese businesses – in order to be eligible for tax rebates – the company is offering a free license to any Maltese company to use its database as well as to any unemployed person in Malta in order to find a job.

Although the company started operating from Malta yesterday, Mr Monahan said DayBreak Data’s offices have not yet been identified but will be based either at SmartCity or in Sliema, Ta’ Xbiex or Mriehel.

Mr Monahan will be moving permanently to Malta in about three months and for the moment will continue living in Austin “fairly close to where Michael Dell lives.”

Mr Monahan is a graduate of the US Military Academy at West Point and the University of Oklahoma.

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