The dot-com implosion in the early part of this decade left lots of workers on the unemployment lines, but it also created opportunities.

For Brad Leiby, chief technology architect and founder of Greenwood Village based Uncommon Solutions, it meant the chance to take his ideas and tech background and create his own company.

Leiby and Jonathan Defez, the company's solutions architect, recently sat down with Rocky Tech Editor Darrell Proctor to discuss how the company - which has about 20 employees (and is "adding one to two people a month," according to Leiby) - got started and how it's continued to grow.

1 How would you describe your business?

Leiby: We're an outsourced IT company. We have a focus beyond the PC and the network, to look at what technology can make a business succeed.

2 You've taken advantage of the metro area's wealth of technology expertise to build your company. What type of employee are you looking for?

Leiby: There are a lot of good tech people here, a lot of IT people who need to be connected with other IT people. We try to find independent people who can bring us their ideas.

Defez: Networking is important. We've found IT people who are burned out, but they have client bases that we can tap.

3 How is your business model - using technology and people's ideas to help a business succeed - different from some others?

Leiby: Technology has taken a shift. A lot of businesses think they can buy expensive software to solve their problems.

But with the open-source revolution, you can do a lot of development very inexpensively. We're replacing that (software) model with business-minded IT people.

I call it the Dilbert principle of IT. (Information technology) is supposed to be a tool to help a business succeed, rather than just an expense.

4 How do you convince customers they need your service?

Leiby: The bar has been raised for small business. People thought they needed to be big to get that (level of service).

A business says "what are my options," and they look at something pre-canned. Everybody has a computer. Your PC has become like your stapler. But if you don't know how to make it work for you, it won't do you much good. Transactions on the Web are pretty standard, but some IT guys can't do it. We can, and provide a central database. A small business needs to know how it's doing with a click of a button.

Defez: You help a customer by asking business questions. What are they looking to accomplish? Do they need to track customers, track data . . . it's about providing business solutions, not just a new phone system that might not do them any good.

You don't have to spend 25 or 30 or 40 thousand dollars on a phone system anymore.

5 You said you're not in business just to sell people something. What about that?

Leiby: Every small business is concerned about cash, and they see a sales guy coming and think "This guy is going to sell me something."

But we want to show people what resources are out there. There's an open-source site, dotnetnuke.com, that can provide a lot of help. And it's free.

We're all about the fun of making a business better. That's why technology exists.