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TECHNOLOGY A marriage made -411.1t, ' � • in cyberspace T.„4 �L How three guys from Duluth met a Brit businessman, and a company was born • ,_ �� ;tiµ s.• - -- — BY FRANK JOSSI Vertical Publishing Inc.and moved the _ operation to Elk River as a tenant in a • ' #" business incubator operated by Harlan • *. About a year ago,three colleagues at a Jacobs,president of Columbia Heights- , ,., Publishin company in Duluth came up based Genesis Business Centers Ltd. with an idea for software that would put Newman signed on as a consultant and print publications on the Web.They saw a has traveled to Minnesota to meet the huge market,but they had a couple of founders,ink deals and get to know every- 4441, pressing problems:They didn't know any- one.The founders have now quit their old rr• ° , one who could write the code,and they jobs at the Duluth offices of Advanstar didn't have the money to pay a software Communications Inc.,a Cleveland trade firm to do it for them. magazine publisher with 103 titles and Most entrepreneurs like to think that branches around the country. their ideas are unique,but this trio figured It's not the first time that Newman has -., that great minds must think alike.Some met potential business partners over the inventor somewhere must have come up Internet,but his other two experiences MKAO with a product like the one they imagined turned out to be disasters.A San Diego —but who,and where? company contacted him about a joint rela- *N While David Held,one of the partners, tionship,but when Newman showed up in 4 INwas searching the Internet for clues,he California,he found the business`in seri- ` " "'�� found Online Publishing News,a Web site ous-to-terminal condition."A software COMPDOCTOR sponsored by the British firm MMP,which development company in India sent a rep- has a product called Littoralis For resentative all the way to England to dis- 11-! ! 7iPublishers that does precisely what Held cuss a business aimed at a market both LJ � g " . : and his partners wanted.Held traded e- parties ended up agreeing was"fairly well- ' ' mails with managing partner Charles developed"with"little commercial oppor 5zt Newman and began forming a business tunity left." LAINrelationship. Newman,a former technology and 4 ; "We saw a need in the market and once business journalist,says those experiences is .,r' we saw the software the`need'quickly taught him two lessons:"One is the old(by • 4,3•141.;i1 became a business idea we could all work Internet standards)saying that'On the together to bring off,"Held says."We didn't Internet,no one knows you're a dog.The A R K ET N G 56 start out thinking we were going to look other is to look for commitment,specifi- for software and that it was out there but cally financial,before taking anyone seri- once we found it we knew Charles would ously." E e w ," ' , save us a great deal of time." He was burned twice—so what appealed The trio—Darryl Arquitte,Frank W. to Newman about Vertical's pitch? Christopherson III and Held—formed First,Vertical Publishing's management 5.0 Ventures July 2000