Cruzio Flips the Switch on the Future

Many remember a business tragedy on April 9, 2009, when the cables that bring Internet to Santa Cruz were accidentally cut by a chain saw user in the mountains.

But for Cruzio founders, Chris Neklason, and his wife, Peggy Dolgenos, it spelled opportunity.

"I remember my students were walking around like zombies," Mayor Ryan Coonerty said of the day two years ago when the Internet was down for more than 250,000 people. "They didn't know what to do with themselves."

That was when Dolgenos and Neklason, who had founded their service provider in a garage and moved to an office on Pacific Avenue, had a bigger vision. The city needed guaranteed high-speed lines with wireless backups that would be dependable.

"We thought, if we build it, they would come," Neklason said Monday, in a staged presentation that included the flipping of a big lighted switch that looked like something from a Frankenstein movie. 

"These days Internet is as important as water, power  and sewage," he added. "You would never locate a business in a building without bathrooms."

Because it is in the old Santa Cruz Sentinel building at 877 Cedar St., Cruzio has a dedicated electric line that is more dependable than those that feed the rest of downtown. The company's goal is to add more businesses to its fiber lines, which are served by a $500,000 server room and can reach speeds of 10 gigabits and reach the kind of bandwidth and security that would let companies stay on this side of the hill.

The building, which celebrated its $4 million remodeling in February, has become a mecca for new and green technologies, housing Ecology Action and 30 companies renting workspace from Cruzio. 

Future plans are to increase access to the fiber network to such places as the library across the street, businesses and public servants, such as police and fire, depending on financing.