SOLIDSPACE

The boxes scattered on the floor at SolidSpace LLC illustrate a busy company.

The company, based in Winston-Salem, has updated some of its computer and Internet systems and plans to add new Web-based services this year.

But the computer upgrades are just one part of the growth within the company, said Andrew "Flip" Filipowski, the chief executive of SolidSpace's parent company.

"SolidSpace has kind of doubled itself," Filipowski said. "It's stretching the limits."

SolidSpace, based in the Piedmont Triad Research Park, was created in 2003. It is part of SilkRoad Equity, the Winston-Salem investment company headed by Filipowski.

SilkRoad also owns about 15 other companies, including Primo Water in Winston-Salem and the House of Blues, based in California.

SolidSpace provides online-hosting services to small businesses and entrepreneurs. It has about 34 employees, with 11 in its office in the research park and the rest in an office in Singapore, said Jim Capps, the president of SolidSpace.

SolidSpace officials said that the company's revenue increased 30 percent last year but declined to discuss the company's financial profile.

"We have always been in tune to the evolving needs of our customers and continue to expand and grow our offerings to directly reflect that," Capps said.

An increased demand for different software programs has prompted the company to add newer - and more popular - software services, Capps said.

Many of the services have traditionally appealed to younger computer users. The business is developing real-time chat programs, and blogging and podcasting services, for example.

Real-time chat is a software system that allows computer users to type to each other simultaneously, while blogging technology allows users to create "blogs" for their business. A blog, short for a Weblog, is an online journal that's frequently updated and published for others.

A podcast is an online audio file, similar to a radio show.

Younger computer users have typically embraced podcasting, but now "it's become more of a business application, instead of just a toy," Capps said.

SolidSpace's growth echoes the growth of Silk-Road Equity, Filipowski said.

The investment company also plans to invest in more life-science research - particularly the work performed by Dr. Anthony Atala, a urologist at the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, Filipowski said.

Atala, who is also the director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, is performing landmark research into building human organs for patients. Atala's institute is moving into the research park.

"I think the technology businesses are going to grow, based on what I can see right today, very rapidly," Filipowski said.

• M. Paul Jackson can be reached at 727-7473 or at mjackson@wsjournal.com