Q: After five years of steady growth, the economy started to slow in 2007, mainly as a result of a slump in home construction and a crisis in the subprime mortgage market. The economy shows signs of slowing even more in 2008. How has that affected your markets and strategy for growing the business?

A: We have not scaled back. We view this economic time as a great opportunity for Cbeyond to help our small-business customers to become more productive. We added three cities last year, and we'll add three cities this year. We add 80 to 100 people every time we launch a city. One of the reasons why Cbeyond has been successful is that we're very focused, we don't get distracted by different market segments. We haven't deviated from that mission.

Q: What is there about your business or your business strategy that resulted in a Top 10 performance?

A: Cbeyond is a sales-driven company. We believe in having face-to-face selling with our small-business customers.

We are solely focused on the entrepreneurial class, the small-business owner who is trying to stabilize his business or grow his business. Cbeyond is based on sound economics. We really understand our revenue and margins and investment that is required. We're fully funded, with a business plan of high growth, which really takes on a lot of the financial risk.

Q: One result of the mortgage crisis was a virtual cutoff in credit in the broader financial markets. How has this affected your operations or planning? How have you responded?

A: The fact that the credit markets have gotten tougher for companies has not impacted Cbeyond, but it has impacted some customers in certain segments.

Q: Even if the economy does not sink into a recession —- a broad downturn in many parts of the economy —- analysts see slow growth and weakness ahead for an extended period. What is your forecast, or guidance, for the economy and especially the sectors that most affect your business?

A: The growth that we do see is really in the small-business market —- many people leaving big businesses either on their own decision or by layoffs, and they start their own small business. From our perspective, it's a good opportunity. We're not seeing any slowdown there.

> Ticker symbol: CBEY

> Where traded: Nasdaq

> Chief executive: James F. Geiger

> Headquarters: Atlanta

> Business summary: Cbeyond sells a host of telecom and Internet applications to small businesses. The Atlanta-based company partners with firms such as Cisco, Microsoft and Research In Motion to sell, among other things, telephone services, high-speed Internet and mobile-data systems. The company started in 1999 and has grown from five employees to more than 1,000.