One of the founders of Nua, a company whose dotcom era struggles became the subject of endless media interest, Niall O'Sullivan is back in fighting form with content management firm Arconics.

Entrepreneurs tend not to go away. If one project fails, chances are you'll find them before long deep into another one.

That's the case with Mr Niall O'Sullivan, one of the founders of web design and content company Nua, perhaps the best known of the Irish companies to stumble when the economic downturn began. Mr O'Sullivan always kept a lower profile than Mr Gerry McGovern, the person most immediately associated with the company.

He also tended to work slightly peripherally to the company, with independent but affiliated spin-offs such as Frontend.com, a company that helps people with the usability of their websites. Therefore, many people might not connect his name to the company.

But Mr O'Sullivan is back in fighting form with a content management company called Arconics.

Now 18 months old, Arconics content management software uses some of Nua's base software, but much of the company's energies over the past months has been the "intense development" of new products.

"From our Nua experience, we know that content management is in its infancy.

"We still believe in the opportunity, and believe in the space," he says. "People think the internet rush has come and gone, but it's only just starting."

Arconics' software enables the people who create and edit content on websites for organisations to manage it more easily. Mr O'Sullivan points out that these people are typically writers and editors, not people with broad knowledge of technology.

He says many of the existing products in the area are too technically complex and are organised from the viewpoint of what the technology can do, rather than what a person might want to do with the technology.

"If someone can use email, they can use our system," he says.

The company is small and lean at the moment, employing six full- time developers and six contractors - mostly drawn from the core development team at Nua. Mr O'Sullivan notes they are also self-funded by the company founders, although the hunt for outside money will probably begin in the coming year, he says, so the company can expand.

"We focus very much on selling and running off cash flow," he says. "Sales are everything. I think you can get carried away by the technology, but at the end of the day, a successful business is built on successful sales."

That conservative approach is common to many of the entrepreneurs involved with the Irish companies that crashed at the start of the downturn.

He acknowledges that the experience has probably made him push the company forward more slowly, but he also notes that at the height of the boom, companies were happy to push large amounts of their money at "concept projects", while investors were willing to chance money on companies with big ideas and sketchy business plans.

"Now, companies want to know the business benefit. You're dealing with the bottom line," he says. "We found that the market was telling us what it wanted, as opposed to the dotcom era, when we all had big ideas and big budgets." All of which suits him, because he feels Arconics has a product that addresses company concerns.

Certainly a number of high-profile clients think so. Arconics provided the software that manages Ryanair's intranet, as well as content software for Media Lab Europe in Dublin, Spar UK, the Irish Examiner and the University of Limerick. It has also put its product into a Wall Street analyst firm and some companies in Australia.

Some of the contacts abroad are from the Nua years, though work comes to it from inquiries through the company's website as well.

Mr O'Sullivan says Arconics doesn't "highlight" the fact that it is Nua's core design team. Not because it thinks it is a problem to be associated with a company whose dotcom era struggles became the subject of endless media interest, but more because he doesn't feel it's particularly relevant to a new company: "That was two years ago," he shrugs.

Mr O'Sullivan wants Arconics to stand on its own feet, especially as he gears up to seek funding early next year. "We'll tighten our business plan and get our case studies lined up, so we'll be in a strong position to go for funding. We wanted to drive value into the business first."

Attention to business detail is important, he notes. "These days, it's not about getting money for a good idea, it's about getting money for a good business."

His current focus is on Irish companies with foreign operations, which have large internal and external websites to run and perhaps with foreign offices with which they can co-ordinate.

A funding round will enable the company to concentrate on the British market as well, which he thinks has great potential.

"I think we're doing some very ground-breaking work, and that's exciting," says Mr O'Sullivan. "It's doing innovative research and development that drives us on."