As Derek Mebus sowed the seeds for Treetop Design from his Union College dorm room at the turn of the millennia, the climate for opening a Schenectady area business portal was capricious at best.
At the time, Treetop was a small-scale web design nerve geared toward helping small, incubating businesses establish themselves on the Web.
“Though we ran our business from the dorm, we were an independent business,” says Mebus. “It was weird – we had Union College interns working for us when we were seniors.”
In thinking further ahead, Mebus and partner David Ward thought that Schenectady as a community would benefit through the creation of an online business portal, or directory, to help different small businesses and non-profit organizations network their skills and services.
During the late 90's, the expansive groundswell of potential resulting from the Internet boom led many entrepreneurs to believe that web design would be paramount in keeping their small businesses ahead. While they may have been correct in the long run, a pessimism prevailed that struggling communities (like Schenectady) would not truly benefit from an online business portal.
“During that time, some people saw the internet as a fad that would go out,” says Mebus.
Although Schenectady's local business market did not see the need for a portal at the time, Treetop insisted on opening one nonetheless. The aptly named “Schenectady 1” portal opened in early 2000 with the ambition of raising awareness among small businesses to jump on the web-wagon.
“The only way a small business can compete in today's business market is through strong partnerships,” asserts Mebus. “We wanted to help these businesses grow, because rising water raises all ships.”
Offering their talents primarily as Web designers for startups, Mebus succeeded in networking his clients through Schenectady 1, though admittedly, revenues were weak. “We were getting a lot of hits, but we just weren't turning any cash,” he recalls.
It was only a matter of time before an outside investor bought the domain for Schenectady I out from under them, soundly mopping up their old clients and effectively shutting the Treetop portal.
Later that year, Mebus and Ward instituted Treetop Hosting to revitalize their business. This allowed their clients having their website information stored securely on a remote server; in this case, the server was located some 200 miles way in New Jersey.
During this time, Mebus realized that he had three separate businesses under his thumb: Treetop Design, a defunct Schenectady 1 portal, and the newfangled hosting service. To streamline his operation towards an increasingly turbulent, yet lucrative e-market, he decided to consolidate his microcosmic triumvirate into a single entity – Tree Top Solutions, Inc.
With its complex network of resources extending and multiplying into the future, Treetop Solutions displays the promise and convenience that web solutions can have for small businesses, chambers of commerce, colleges and nonprofits alike.