Article courtesy of Albany Times Union Published: Friday, September 10, 2004

Web page designers in sync

Former band mates have their Mountain Media company growing

By: Dan Higgins, Business writer

SARATOGA SPRINGS -- It was a real thrill for James Curley to hear his songs played on the radio. And getting royalty checks in the mail was fun, too.

But when the songs he wrote for Cold Sweat, his progressive-rock band, were raking in just $3 a quarter in radio royalties, it was time to re-evaluate his career.

"We decided we would be starving artists forever or try something else," he said.

Curley and his former band mate, Scott Fultz, formed Mountain Media, a company that provides Web page design for businesses and also writes custom software for Internet retailers. Curley said his business model is an all-in-one package, an effort to stand out from other Web-design companies.

Mountain Media, located off Broadway on Clinton Avenue in Saratoga Springs, employs 10 people and is in the process of hiring two more workers. It also has a data center in Colonie, which was relocated in April to the Time Warner Telecom Inc. facility on Airline Drive.

The company has been at work for six years, trying to be everything a client needs on the business end of a mouse.

"People were going one place for some graphic design, another place for Web hosting ... still another company to set up (the capability to accept) credit card payments," he said.

In addition to graphic design, Mountain Media provides Web hosting and custom software to run on clients' websites, especially checkout software for e-retailers.

Scott Silverman, executive director of the trade group Shop.Org, said online retailing is still growing. Because of that growth, there is room in the marketplace for companies like Mountain Media and for "specialist firms" that can handle just one or two aspects of a business's website, he said.

Shop.Org, a division of the Washington, D.C.-based National Retail Federation, estimated the volume of online retail sales at $114 billion in the U.S. in 2003. This year, it is projecting online sales of $144.6 billion.

Curley, who serves as Mountain Media's chief executive officer, started designing Web pages for fellow musicians, including the popular Albany band The Burners U.K. and The McKrells. As requests for Web-page design began to come in more frequently, he and Fultz founded Mountain Media. Fultz serves as president.

"I thought, everyone is getting a website, but I want to help people make money off them. That's where we were different, I guess," he said.

Now, Mountain Media has a number of local clients, including the Pepsi Arena in Albany and smaller firms like County Floors in Warrensburg, which sells and installs wood floors.

Bob Stehlin, co-owner of County Floors, said he leaves to the professionals the technical details behind his website, but acknowledges that even a flooring business needs to be present online.

"It's important if you want to grow," said Stehlin, who has eight full-time employees. He said the company's website, which is two years old, has helped gain customers from around the country instead of just the Capital Region and North Country.

Mountain Media's newest product is an upgrade to its so-called Mountain Commerce software, which it hopes will make the checkout area of a company website more flexible.

That includes allowing merchants to more easily offer coupons and other discounts to customers.