Christopher Haupt and Bay Area resident Michael Slater launched Webvanta Inc. (webvanta.com) in September after nearly a year of testing.

“We’re building a project so that Web designers can (build Web sites) themselves,” Haupt said. “It gives creative professionals a lot more capability in their tool box. They’re able to do more for their clients without having to bring in more expensive resources.”

The service is free of charge to Web designers. Instead, the company earns money from the designers’ clients, Slater explained.

“(For example,) if a designer builds a Web site for a restaurant, the restaurant pays our monthly hosting bill,” he said.

The idea for the business evolved from talking to Web designers who were worried about losing customers.

“People were really good at coming up with beautiful creative designs, but were not able to do the programming,” Haupt said.

“They can let us do all the hard work of getting the computer setup and handling security of the software. They can focus on what they do well, and making their clients’ business be very attractive to the end customers,” he added.

Haupt and Slater previously worked for software giant Adobe before deciding to launch their own Web products.

They speak at conferences and for design groups to get word out about the business.

Besides Slater and Haupt, the company has several part-time contractors.

Everyone works from his or her home office.

“The majority (of our contractors) are U.S. based,” Slater said. “But we have people in India, Scandinavia and the U.K.”

Slater and Haupt believe they represent the leading edge of a new trend.

“The user doesn’t need to deal with managing software,” he said. “We manage it for them.”

~ Gloria Young