Manage Your Board

When Zach Katkin joined the board of directors of a children's charity, he admits he felt a bit lost.

There was no central place for him to read minutes of previous board meetings, find biographies and contacts for the other board members and learn on which committees they served. “It took me a long time to figure out what's going on,” says Katkin, principal of Atilus, a Web-design firm in Bonita Springs.

So Katkin, 29, and business partner Harry Casimir, 34, started a separate company called BoardMa, creating a Web-based software system to help boards of directors manage documents, list important contacts, send messages and reminders of “to do” tasks, and schedule meetings on a secure network. “It centralizes everything,” says Katkin.