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Nova Development Corp.

Business: Software

Location: Calabasas

Revenue Growth: 594%

When Nova Development Corp. was just getting off the ground, a delivery service representative asked founders Todd Helfstein and Roger Bloxberg how many weekly pickups they would need. Three, they answered.

Twelve years later, the number is closer to 2,000 per day.

Nova, a maker of creativity software for Windows and Macintosh platforms, has seen its revenues shoot from $1.7 million in 1995 to $11.8 million in 1997, and its workforce rise from six to 35 during the same period.

The company’s products, sold at retail stores and through direct mail, range in price from about $20 to $100, and include lines such as Art Explosion, which are libraries of clip art for home PC users to use in desktop publishing applications.

It also sells clip-art libraries for use on Web pages and in other graphics applications.

Bloxberg attributes part of the success to staying focused. “I like to say it’s the product of keeping our eyes on the ball,” he says. “A lot of the folks with whom we compete, I think, have had some degree of difficulty in focusing on a particular product category. We’ve focused entirely on creativity products. We haven’t allowed our attention to veer.”

The two founders, both 33, are gratified by their growth, but they try not to forget their roots as a small company. “We’re feeling very fortunate about the way things have gone, but continue to be almost neurotic about financial management, because we know where we came from and where we could go if we’re not careful,” Bloxberg says.

Like most tech companies, Nova must constantly innovate to keep growing. This month it is releasing a new product, the Art Explosion T-Shirt Factory, which includes thousands of designs for T-shirts, and an easy way to apply those designs onto shirts. The product should be a boon to amateur sports teams, Bloxberg says.

R.W. Greene