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Sherry Smith has the proverbial right stuff - whether it's business, athletic competition or coaching.

She successfully built Boulder- based TriDigital, a marketing and Web development business, and navigated it through the dot-com disaster and the economic downturn. While tech businesses were collapsing with the speed of light, TriDigital survived and is celebrating its 10th anniversary.
At the same time, Smith is a competitive triathlete, participating in the sport's major events despite a fear of water. And she uses that skill and knowledge to turn wannabe athletes into triathletes for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training fund-raising events.

"She's very savvy, and she doesn't back down easily," said Courtney Faust, TriDigital's creative director and project manager, adding that Smith is both creative and determined to meet clients' needs.

The company's success is built on offering "a full set of solutions," Smith said, including Web sites, logos, business cards, letterheads, brochures and project and product management.

"We can create whatever they need," Faust added.

That versatility and can-do attitude is what attracted Debora Hankinson, owner of Boulder- based LS Planning Group, a planning and architecture firm, who had TriDigital create a Web site, new logo, cards and letterhead for her business.

"That's the nice thing about TriDigital," she said. "They can help you with the whole range of things you need."

When the economy went south and other companies started folding under the pressure, Smith and her staff dug in their heels and pulled TriDigital through. And they did it while Smith was living in California for the past three years.

"When the economy crashed, we started working on business development," she said. "If you get through something like that, you've got holding power and will stay around for a while."

The company tightened its belt, cutting expenses, decreasing vacation time and stepping up marketing and networking. It also outsources certain tasks and overload work when things get busy.

"I look back and say, 'We had to make tough yes-and-no decisions,' " Smith said.

But she got through it with her staff of two full-time and three part-time employees intact.

Determination and toughness come naturally to the Westport, Mass., native, who graduated from Boston College in 1984 with a degree in math and computer science.

Although women were few and far between in the high-tech world of Silicon Valley 20 years ago, Smith headed to California after college and signed on as a systems software engineer with Convergent Technology, which was bought by Unisys. She then went to 3Com, working with network software. Next she put in stints with a couple of startups, where she made contacts and picked up valuable management and market management experience.

In 1994, she started TriDigital, working with businesses to bring their marketing efforts into the technological age.

"I put out the word that I was looking for gigs," she said. "I got a three-month project in Boulder."

Enamored with the city, she stayed and worked out of her house, eventually renting office space on Pearl Street as the business grew.

At that time, the Internet was still in the embryonic stage. But always on the forefront of technology, Smith created a Web site for TriDigital.

"I really had a blast," she said, adding that it allowed her to pull together her programming, graphic design and marketing skills.

"That's how I got into Web design," she said.

Businesses started asking her to create sites for them.

"I was getting so many requests to build different kinds of Web sites," Smith said.

As the business grew, she hired staff, and work was rolling in.

"We kept getting customer referrals," she said. "I didn't have to focus on business development back then. It was just very natural momentum."

Three years ago, the tech world was still booming when a client who was launching a startup in California asked Smith to come and help for six months.

"Then six months turned into eight months and so on," she said, noting that she lives in Portola Valley in the San Francisco Bay area.

"I still have a house and storage unit in Boulder," she added. "Half of my things are in Boulder. I just go back and forth."

Smith and Faust agree that technology - instant messaging, e-mail, conference calls - makes the arrangement doable. It also works, Smith said, because she and her staff have established trust and loyalty.

"It's really not that important that I'm here now," she added. "My employees are so great. They're on top of things."

To maintain balance in her life, Smith competes in triathlons - "so I don't work 100 hours a week," she said.

She started competing in 1989, after getting involved in cycling and soccer when she moved to California.

"I've always been active," she said. "So it was a natural progression."

But first, she had to overcome a longtime fear of water.

"It was just another challenge," said Smith, who has participated in three Ironman Triathlons, which involve a 2.4-mile ocean swim, 112-mile bike race and 26.2-mile run.

She's also a traveling coach for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training fund-raising program. She coaches and trains participants to take part in national and international triathlons to raise funds for blood cancer research, public education and patient aid programs.

Completing a triathlon can be a truly life-changing event for someone who's never done it before and isn't too sure that they can, she said.

And it can be a lesson for living, she said.

"A triathlon is similar to life because there are so many different parameters, and how do you fit it all in."

INFOBOX

TriDigital, Inc.

* Business: Marketing, Web design and development
* Founder: Sherry Smith
* Headquarters: 767 Pearl St., No. 240, Boulder
* Phone: 303-440-3877
* Web site: www.tridig.com