Factbox: Cubit Planning

TORONTO (Reuters) - A nightmare environmental project turned into a call to action for Austin, Texas entrepreneur Kristen Carney. A couple years ago, while working for a large engineering consulting firm, Carney was hired to complete what she thought was a straightforward analysis: directly connect two roads that were currently joined by an intermediary road. More than 100 hours later and thousands of dollars over budget, a frustrated Carney felt there had to be an easier solution.

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Company: Cubit Planning www.cubitplanning.com is a Web-based company that has developed an open- source tool that provides cut-and-paste ready environmental data for environmental engineers

Location: Austin, Texas

Founded: 2008

Founders: Kristen Carney and Anthony Morales

Startup costs/investment: $2,000 to launch and $16,000 in seed funding

Number of employees: 2

Target audience: Environmental engineers

Biggest challenge: Raising awareness for their new technology