Initial lightbulp.

In 2002, a friend introduced software consultant Greg Reinacker to weblogs--a.k.a. blogs, online journals that have grown increasingly popular. Reinacker dove into blogs headfirst. "Like everyone did at the time, I downloaded a blog tool and started my weblog," he said. (Reinacker's blog is www.rassoc.com/gregr/weblog.) He also got hooked on RSS (Rich Site Summary) feeds, XML-based documents published by a website, be it a teenager's blog or the New York Times, to keep readers up to date on the latest blog content updates.

Then Reinacker took his blogging one step further. "I wrote my own weblog server. It's what every programmer does over Christmas break." Next, he started shopping for a tool to read his RSS feeds--only there wasn't much out there, and what was available didn't jibe with Reinacker's sensibilities. "And then the lightbulb went on: I thought, 'Why can't I read this in Outlook?'"

So Reinacker wrote his own software that allowed RSS feeds to be delivered straight to his Outlook inbox. He started selling the product in February 2003, and made 24 sales on the first day at $30 a pop with "no publicity, no marketing, no nothing"

In January 2004, his new company released NewsGator Outlook 2.0 and NewsGator Online, a Web-based tool that allows users to aggregate RSS feeds onto their own personalized page. Later, NewsGator released editions for mobile phones and the Windows Media Center. Reinacker now serves as NewsGator's CTO; the company hired former Yahoo! Europe and Ziff Davis exec J.B. Holston as president and CEO in September.

Where: Denver

www.newsgator.com

Founded: 2002