The first strategy session for what would become Caelo Software Inc. took place on David Clark's deck, overlooking the scenic town of Nelson, B.C., where he fled in 1992 as a self-described urban refugee.
The mountain setting proved symbolic, as the meeting led to a decision by Mr. Clark and two partners to attempt to build a company from their own backyard.
"We came up with a wish list of what we wanted to do," says Mr. Clark, 51. "We wanted to build new, innovative, world-class software. And we wanted to grow a business out of Nelson."
Today they have customers, revenue and a product, an e-mail management system called, fittingly, the Nelson Organizer.
They also have the headaches that come with running a business -- and that can threaten the very lifestyle they've sought in Nelson, a town of about 9,500 in the Kootenay region, halfway between Vancouver and Calgary.
An Ontario native and lifelong outdoors enthusiast, Mr. Clark admits he's spent more time programming than either skiing or hiking in the past year. But he doesn't face an arduous commute or other big-city pressures, and he works with like-minded partners who share strong opinions of the kind of company they want to build.
All of Caelo's founding partners have worked on big information technology contracts for large corporate customers. Mr. Clark says the financial rewards and technology challenges from such contracts can be great, but the work often left him feeling drained.
At Caelo, the partners hope to build a business without losing their balance.
"It's great to be in a company that has that kind of experience," Mr. Clark says. "We're all housebroken."
Caelo, or "the heavens" in Latin, was founded in 1997 by Mr. Clark, Tom Gibson, 46, and David Bracewell, 39, all of Nelson. A fourth partner, Jeff Kwan, 39, joined the company later and lives in Toronto.
Between them, the founding trio had a wealth of technology programming and management experience.
They arrived in Nelson at different times over the past decade. When the three men got together, they began wondering whether there was a way to pool their talents to build a company -- without getting sucked back into the rat race.
"We set ourselves a task -- to look at whatever we do every day, and see what doesn't exist," Mr. Clark says.
The light bulb went on when Mr. Clark was sifting through his old e-mails, hunting for a message that did not come up using his e-mail program's search system.
Working on weekends and after hours, the trio devised an archiving program that gradually evolved into a system for managing and tracking e-mail messages.
By mid-1999, they cut off their consulting work to focus full-time on Caelo. Family and friends put in startup capital, which was bolstered by several grants from the National Research Council.
Launched in January, 1999, the Nelson Organizer is designed to work with Microsoft Outlook and sorts e-mail messages so that, for example, "spam" or unsolicited messages are winnowed out from personal messages. The software also lets users manage e-mail attachments, and use hot lists to sort messages by topic or by sender.
Some of those functions are available in conventional e-mail programs, including Outlook, but Mr. Clark says the Nelson Organizer is easier to use.
For those who receive hundreds of e-mails a day, he says, the system provides a quick way to manage what can be an overwhelming task.
Caelo has just begun to see revenue from its product, which sells for $29.95 (U.S.) over the Internet. The primary shareholders of the company are its four founders. The friends-and-family round of financing has been nearly exhausted, and the company is seeking more capital for development and marketing.
As revenue has grown, so have expenses. Caelo now has two part-time employees and leased office space.
Richard McMahon, an investment officer with Vancouver venture capital firm Ventures West, says products such as the Nelson Organizer can carve out small, but profitable, market niches.
"In reality, it may not be a mass-market tool. But it may be something for a select group of users who get 300 e-mails a day and are looking for a solution."
Joyce Graff, who tracks the electronic messaging sector for consulting firm Gartner Group Inc. of Stamford, Conn., says users may be reluctant to pay for a management tool when their existing e-mail systems, typically included with new personal computers, already offer some of the same features.
"They [Caelo]might make it quicker and easier, but I don't know that people will pay $29.95 for it."
Mr. Clark, however, says the Nelson Organizer offers features, such as being able to sort messages by the type of attachments, that Outlook doesn't. And he maintains that many users are hungry for a better way to deal with overflowing inboxes. Caelo's research shows the people who get the most mail use the fewest e-mail software features.
Caelo can also trade on its location -- both to attract employees and to keep its costs down, Mr. McMahon says.
"It may be that a small company, that can keep costs down in a place like Nelson, can get a nice profitable business."
Mr. Clark says he and his partners have no plans to be anywhere but Nelson.
"Some things would be easier in San Jose [California]" he admits. "But it's nice to keep the business home base as somewhere you can keep the lifestyle."
Wendy Stueck