Leading Web company founded by area native

Those who surf the Internet in their pajamas looking for information on their favorite author may never encounter it. But serious Web users, especially business travelers, most likely will. Go2.com and its locator sites are becoming the fastest way for Internet users equipped with Web-enabled devices to find real-world services.

Built on a combination of Internet and wireless locator technology, Go2 provides users of Web-enabled devices with business locations based on their exact location. And the combination seems to be working, according Nielsen/NetRatings Inc., Go2 was one of the top 25 Web properties in May.

"Go2 was an idea I had several years ago," said founder and president Lee Hancock. "As a recreational pilot, I could see where Global Positioning System and other navigation systems were going. So I tried to devise a system that was easier for the average person to use."

The idea led to patents on the technology before the idea of Web-enabled devices became popular, Hancock said, and set the stage for Go2's rapid expansion.

That growth lead to a recent agreement with TravelNow.com, a Springfield-based company specializing in hotel and travel reservations. While the agreement may have been the first contact for Go2 in the Ozarks, it wasn't for Hancock, who is the son of former state Rep. Mel Hancock and a 1973 graduate of Republic High School.

"By the time I was graduating from high school, I had narrowed my career choices down to two or three, and quickly gravitated toward law," Hancock said. "But I added that within a couple of years I wanted to buy or start a business."

After receiving an accounting degree from Southwest Missouri State University, Hancock attended Southern Methodist University Law School, returning to Kansas City to practice law for nearly a decade before a job offer took him to southern California.

"The head hunter who recruited me knew I had another connection," Hancock said. "My wife, who was with me in Kansas City, is from Newport Beach, Calif."

A successful law practice kept the idea of owning a business in the background until 1988, Hancock said. It was then he decided to "take the plunge. I began to incubate some ideas."

From those ideas came two companies. The first, Hancock said, wired multi-tenant office buildings for high-speed Internet access and was sold successfully after a merger. The other was Irvine, Calif.,-based Go2 Systems Inc.

Although Go2 got its start in 1995, Hancock said developing the technology needed to run the company took several years, adding that he didn't "jump into it full time until 1998."

"Just a year ago we had six employees," he said. "Today we have more than 100. That's phenomenal growth when you factor in that we didn't start selling our product aggressively until this year."

The secrets to Go2's growth, Hancock believes, are the company's vision, its ability to see ahead of the market, and the people who make up the Go2 team.

"And 18 years as a lawyer working in securities, mergers and acquisitions doesn't hurt, either," he said. "I knew what we needed to do to make a company that would be one of the best in the U.S."

But along with every opportunity there is a challenge. And Hancock said Go2 was no exception.

"The first challenge was personal," he said. "Being willing to leave behind a very successful law practice and take the risk to do a start-up business."

With that decision behind him, Hancock said the biggest challenge facing Go2 was the accelerating development of technology and use of the Internet.

The technology that powers Go2 is the World Geographic Reference System, and company officials such as Dylan Bromby, director of wireless product development, are hopeful it will become the industry standard.

"The system tiles the world with squares that form regional grids," Bromby said. "Each of these cells are defined by X and Y coordinates numbered from one to 10. Inside these cells, smaller cells are defined in the same manner. The process continues from 100-kilometer increments on down. Coordinates from the squares make up a number that defines a space on the ground. The more numbers, the more accurate the position."

Bromby said the resulting number string identifies a position and can be replaced with a word, or the name of a Go2 customer, making it easy to find businesses nearby. All that's missing is the location of the user.

"Right now, users have to tell us where they are," Bromby said. "But this year we're conducting trials with providers of location information so in the future that won't be necessary."

Bromby said cellular phones already transmit location information, such as the data used by E-911 systems to locate users in an emergency. Now, he added, companies are working to extract that information and put it to more interesting uses.

Hancock said he doesn't see Go2 as purely an Internet company. Instead, he sees it as a way to help users navigate toward real-world businesses.

"There are a half-million users today," Hancock said. "It's projected that there will be 500 million Web-enabled cell phones in use by 2003. More than 100 million of those will be here in the U.S."

Go2's strategy seems to be working. Ross Summers, TravelNow.com's general manager, said what makes working with Go2 attractive is its relationship with wireless providers such as Sprint.

"Anytime you can say you are a content provider for Sprint wireless, that's very interesting from a business perspective," Summers said. "Sprint is going to be at the forefront, and that's certainly where we want our business to go."

Hancock's leadership was recognized in another forum on June 22 when he received Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Orange County, Calif. One of seven finalists, Hancock was selected on the basis of Go2's performance. He will compete for Ernst & Young's National Entrepreneur of the Year Award in November.

"This award is real a tribute to what we've built here at Go2," Hancock said. "The vision we've created, the great team we've attracted and our increasing acceptance in the marketplace."

He and his wife, Kathy, and their five children, live in Newport Beach, Calif. And although they travel to southwest Missouri several times a year, Hancock said a move back home is out of the question for now.

"We spend most of our vacations here, and we really love the area," he said. "But I need to be out there for business reasons."

Looking to the future, Hancock said Go2's biggest challenge will be the same one it faced in the past: managing the accelerating technology and growing use of the Internet.

"We've done a spectacular job proving ourselves to the industry," Hancock said. "We have some of the largest companies in the country wanting to deal with us now. We just have to continue to grow and educate the public on the power of these devices and how they can be used on a daily basis to change your life."