Tech startup of the month: The Pulsenet Inc., Denver.

• Author: Peterson, Eric
• Position: High Tech Colorado Biz

WWW.THEPULSENET.COM

FOUNDED: AUGUST 2002

INITIAL LIGHTBULR: Jagdish "Jay" Maharjan is bringing Linux based applications to the masses. The 30-year-old Nepal native has been in the U.S. for a decade now, earning a bachelor's from Pittsburg State in Kansas and going into plastics R & D in Los Angeles, then receiving an MBA and consulting for large companies in Southern California. Maharjan worked with Yashuhiro Tsuboto, the retired CEO of Epson America, on joint ventures between American and Japanese companies, then embarked on a post-MBA program that led to research about future trends in IT. Through both of these projects, "Linux and open source really struck me," he said. "I thought it could be the next big thing"--because, without a license fee attached, open source allows for more affordable custom software: exactly what Corporate America has been seeking in today's belt-tightening environment.

Maharjan teamed with longtime pal Matt Dew and launched The Pulsenet Inc. from Denver last summer, opening offices in Los Angeles and New York. With Maharjan as CEO, the eight-employee company released its "signature product," The Pulsenet Compact Server, in April.

IN A NUTSHELL: While taking on IT consulting projects for "bread and butter revenue," Maharjan sees The Pulsenet Compact Server, or PCS, and other mass-market software products as the keys to his company's future. The PCS is a Linux-based consolidation server application that integrates file server, print server, Web server, authentication server and e-mail server. Maharjan described the product as "a reliable, easy-to-use solution that can be used by non-technical managers," touting, "We're going to make this solution a household name for our market."

"Linux is great," he added. "Everybody knows that. The IT community knows the value of Linux, but for your average Joe, we've come up with this proposition. We're trying to make it less complicated for small- and medium-sized businesses." The PCS software is priced for the mass market, starting at...