Vandercook Lake grad heads fast-growing Internet business

Jennifer Canty may have left Vandercook Lake and found success as the CEO of an innovative Internet business, but the 1989 graduate of Vandercook Lake High School didn't forget her hometown.

Dyscern, a business Canty started in her Virginia home in 2002, has been named to the 2007 Inc. 500 list of America's fastest-growing private companies.

``It's sort of validation for what we're doing,'' Canty said. ``It really speaks volumes to the staff we have here and in Michigan. Theoretically this could still be me in my basement.''

Dyscern, which recycles, restores and resells consumer electronics on the Internet, had sales of $6.9 million in 2006. It was ranked 167th of the fastest-growing companies from 2003 to 2006, was the sixth-fastest-growing retailer and the fastest-growing eBay Powerseller.

Dyscern is based in Sterling, Va., which is outside Washington, D.C. Canty's husband, Bill Frischling, is the chief operating officer, and her father, Herb, is the shipping manager. But the company's customer service department is in Jackson -- more precisely, the homes of three fellow Vandercook Lake High School graduates.

Canty said she prefers to work with people she knows, and she wants to do her part to help the local economy. ``I'm definitely giving back to the community I came from,'' she said.

Canty and Frischling met while attending Michigan State University. They have two children and are expecting a third. Canty came up with the idea for her business after having her first child. She said she wanted something she could do at home that would involve selling on eBay.

Canty, who received an MBA from the University of Maryland and did Internet consulting, and Frischling, a former Internet reporter, went looking for products to sell. They found a bunch of broken iPods, MP3 players, handheld computers, PDA phones and digital cameras waiting to be fixed.

They learned retailers can return only a small percentage of consumer electronics to the manufacturers. So they approached the retailers, offered to take the products off their hands and started to read manuals so they could troubleshoot and do basic repairs.

``We're both sort of gadgety people and felt sort of comfortable with that,'' Canty said.

``A lot of it was trial and error,'' Frischling added.

As Dyscern grew, so did its staff, including the customer service department. Senior customer service representative Kristin Carroll, who is engaged to Canty's brother Jeff, has been with the company four years and was the only customer service representative in the beginning.

Carroll had graduated from Michigan State University with a bachelor's degree in advertising but was unemployed when Canty asked her to join the company.

``I was very excited because it was something different. Not many people get the opportunity to work from home,'' Carroll said.

Carroll and the two other customer service representatives, Heather Luty and Sherri Larson, field e-mails and calls from people having trouble with the company's products, which come with a 30-day guarantee.

Luty, who has been with Dyscern for three years, said most problems can be solved without having to return the products and most customers are easy to deal with.

``If they call or e-mail and they're not happy, we can make them happy,'' Luty said.

Carroll and Luty both are grateful that Canty gave them the opportunity to work for her company.

``It's very meaningful with the way the economy is right now,'' Carroll said.

Dyscern projects its sales will double this year. It still sells through eBay, but now it also has its own Web site, www.dyscern.com. It offers auction and inventory preparation services and for the first time is developing its own products -- digital picture frames.

Canty has been getting a lot of recognition lately, both for leading a successful company and for succeeding in a male-dominated field. While acknowledging that being a mom affected her career choice, Canty said it didn't have much to do with her success.

``I'd like to think I'm just a smart person that came up with a good idea and just executed it,'' Canty said.