Company: Clear Path Labs [a DBA for clear path group LLC].

• Author: Peterson, Eric
• Position: [small biz] TECH-STARTUP

INITIAL LIGHT BULB: Sam Solt said he and his Clear Path Labs co-founders Kevin Kaiser and Michael Dillon "came from different career paths," as Solt had a background in software development, Kaiser in data security and permissions, and Dillon in geographic information systems (GIS). "We were all working for a quasi-competitor," Solt said. "They didn't want to do what we were doing, so we went off on our own."

The trio developed a location-based asset management system--which Solt dubbed "a weak spot in the market"--for customers with geographically disparate assets and large work forces. "Combining mapping technology and the Internet has brought location into business information," Solt said. "It's the convergence of location-based information with traditional business information." Clear Path Labs is a client company of the recently re-branded Rocky Mountain Innovation Initiative, formerly the Fort Collins Technology Incubator, which took on its new moniker when it expanded its geographic scope to Loveland and Greeley.

IN A NUTSHELL: In July 2007, Clear Path Labs launched its flagship product, Clear Path Explorer. It allows a scattered work force to effectively deal with scattered assets over the Internet, with secure file-sharing and other collaborative features.

"You can have a single dot in Wyoming and you can go to that dot in a browser, open up that dot, and you can see all the available files and media," Solt said. "It's a way of discovering; it's a way of learning about information. The real power comes from being able to access it anywhere in the world. The whole idea of collaborating through location-based information over the Internet is the point of departure. Mobility is critical."

Solt said it allows workers to access not only documents and media of any kind, but any data streams that are appropriate to the location, including data from sensors or environmental monitors.

After the Clear Path Explorer launch, the company quickly landed a top client in the National Geographic Society's maps division. The organization uses the software to...