August 2009

TOPOGEAR.COM was a few years in the making. Initially thoughts kicked around by a Father and Son team. Both of which are avid Outdoor people. What were once ideas started to take on form in early 2009. Years prior to that both experimenting independently creating websites on outdoor subject matter. Info sites that promoted common interests.

One living in the Midwest, the other in the Southwest United States. Both enjoying, backpacking, kayaking, hiking, rock climbing and more. Both separately enjoying adventures in varied climates. Finding the websites a great place to share with one another and keep in touch when not possible to visit each other.

One a CNC Machine Programmer with 16 years experience working for a major manufacturing company. The other a Data Engineering Manager with 32 years experience working for a major Telecommunications company. The catalyst that accelerated the formation of TOPOGEAR was the fact that one founding member was to become unemployed due to a Telecommunication Company Corporate take-over. A pending job loss seemed guaranteed as the new company shed duplicate employee's.

Mid 2009 for TOPOGEAR was a flurry of activity, hard work, long hours, and Capital expenditure trying to come on line. The formation faced many roadblocks. What would be the company name? Logo? Along with all the legal issues to form a company, satisfy the taxing authorities, etc. Then trying to find suppliers that would deal with a start-up company. The goal was to be on-line by the end of 2009. TOPOGEAR did obtain that goal, celebrating the first sales way ahead of the originally set time-line.

2010 promises to be a year of growing the business and customer base, striving for name recognition, creating a Monthly newsletter, and crossing that boundary into generating possitive cash flow by the 4th Quarter of 2010.