THE CAPRIO GROUP PRINCIPALS

Electronics and computers are in his blood. Max's Dad was an Electrical Engineer who worked on ENIAC-2 in the late 1940s, one of the first electronic computers ever built. (It took up an entire floor of a building!)

Max has been working with computers for over 25 years. Before the advent of the personal computer, Max studied electronics at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology and worked for a number of years as an electronics technician. In the late '70s, he was Programming and Technology Manager at a Canadian public library, where he was placed in charge of a test program for the latest gizmo, the TRS-80. (Those who are familiar with it know it as the favorite personal computer of the T. Rex during the last part of the Cretaceous Period). Max then mastered DOS, and later programmed in FORTRAN and then PAL for IDS Bank & Trust, later moving on to other programming languages.

His web career began when he started as Operations & Technology Manager for Contact, a cutting-edge technology company that specialized in website market research with Fortune 500 clients. He not only managed, but also custom-built, the first high-tech, multi-user website focus group lab in the nation; where every aspect of focus group website interaction was captured for later analysis and multimedia reporting. It was here - after observing zillions of focus group sessions, editing and evaluating stacks of video and tons of data - that he learned not only what makes a website fail, but more importantly, what makes websites work. Usability became his middle name (it used to be Maxwell)!

Max does most of the website design and programming usability evaluations. He also provides most of the technology support for clients, and if you ask him nicely, he will build you the computer of your dreams!

Computers were not in Joe's blood. "I remember in high school I avoided taking computer classes because I figured I'd never use a computer in my life. I planned on being a writer - why on earth would a writer ever need to use a computer?" But that was before the advent of the PCs, the Web, and the technological revolution that followed.

It was while Joe was working in ticketing at the State and Orpheum Theatres in Minneapolis that he realized where his gifts lay. Programming on an antiquated and limited ticketing system he was able to create miracles for both clients and staff. When a colleague invited him to strike out on his own and provide technology solutions for other organizations, Joe was able to stretch his wings and create unique solutions for a wide range of new clients.

Working with non-profits and small businesses, Joe found a great deal of satisfaction designing affordable and powerful databases and interfaces that filled the needs of all clients. Joe's motto is simple "Never say no." He believes "there's always a way to provide what a client wants, and there's always a way to take that solution one step further, to offer new ways for our clients to work, to provide them with new visions of what they can do and how they can make their jobs and lives easier."

Joe's specialty is designing online databases that can do anything your heart desires. And in his spare time he's still writing, but not using the typewriter he mastered as a child. Instead he's using computers for every aspect of his stories - spreadsheets to map out plotlines, genealogy software for family trees, architecture programs to design the layout of rooms and buildings in a story, and (of course) a database he specially designed to track all aspects of a character's personality and traits.