Cloud elements.

• Position: SMALL BIZ: TECH STARTUP - Usage of cloud based applications

INITIAL LIGHTBULB: As CEO of Channelinsight, a Denver provider of channel data management software, Mark Geene says the company spent hundreds of hours integrating cloud-based services.

"We had to connect data from clients' CRM and accounting system," he explains. "We started building stuff ourselves. It was hard to do. We saw an opportunity for a business there."

Geene subsequently left Channelinsight to co-found Cloud Elements, and serves as CEO.

IN A NUTSHELL: Cloud Elements cuts the time required to integrate cloud-based apps with a suite of "elements" ranging from Salesforce and Sendgrid, to Dropbox and Zendesk. "We connect apps to the cloud, both mobile and SaaS, at a fraction of the cost and time," says Geene. "Our special sauce is you write to a single API."

The company helps developers integrate more than 20 cloud-based services, and he expects that number to roughly double by year's end. With 25 employees under one roof at Industry in Denver's RiNo neighborhood, Geene expects the head count to hit 40 by the end of 2014.

"Cloud Elements helped us prototype quickly ... and lets my team focus on our product and its uniqueness instead of the commodity integration components," says Michael Clark...