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Bill Adamowski isn’t new to start-ups, especially in the mortgage industry. In 1999, he helped assemble a team of technology experts to launch MortgageHub, whose software was the first to bring online transactions to the mortgage industry. He then put together the strategy that led India-based ISGN Technologies Inc. to combine Fair Isaac Corp.’s mortgage banking division and Dynatek, a mid-market mortgage software provider, with MortgageHub in 2006.

Now he is jumping on board the social media movement, creating a concept of online professional networks centered on specific industries or issues.

His new venture, VerticalLinkz Inc., started with business partner Steve Adamson and based in Grimes, spent a year developing the technology for the new social networking platform. In January, it launched two sites: MorLinkz.com, focused on the mortgage industry, and MyGreenLinkz.com, focused on the green movement and businesses’ efforts to be more environmentally friendly. Though building these two sites is the company’s primary focus right now, it also is looking at other opportunities, such as sites that would bring together teachers, churches or even local networking groups.

Using a format similar to general social networking Web sites, such as Facebook.com, MySpace.com and LinkedIn.com, and focusing on a specific industry or topic is becoming a new trend. Meredith Corp. recently launched MixingBowl.com, a social networking site centered on food, and Ning.com is a platform that allows users to create social networking sites on any topic they choose.

“I think it’s a new but logical extension that you would expect to see with new technologies,” said Brian Mennecke, an associate professor of management information systems at Iowa State University. “People start to find different ways to make money or add value by extending within the community that’s already familiar with it.”

VerticalLinkz, however, is more focused on the professional community and allowing people within a specific industry to have a more dynamic interaction with applications such as a job center, a marketplace and file-sharing capabilities.

“We’ve seen it done before, not in social networking but with other types of things,” Adamowski said. “You see it on job sites where Monster.com might have all kinds of jobs, but then Dice.com comes along and does a specialization just for (information technology) people and they’ve been successful. So the concept of verticalization has been there. We haven’t seen anyone do it on a social networking site.”

Custom built

About a month after the sites launched, MorLinkz has around 700 users, and MyGreenLinkz had around 300 just four days into the staff’s marketing efforts. The sites are open for the public to join, but Adamowski said the company is still in beta testing mode, seeking input from users and working out the kinks.

“It’s growing pretty quickly right now,” Adamowski said. “The key for us is rolling out new functionality.”

He describes the concept as more collaborative than LinkedIn – a professional networking site that allows users to post their job experience and connect with other users – but less social than Facebook – where users can post a profile of their interests and activities, upload photographs, give updates on their status and much more.

Users of MorLinkz and MyGreenLinkz can create a profile and connect with other users on the site, as well as participate in blogs, find or post jobs in the career center and form and join industry-specific communities. The home page also has a feed that provides news updates specific for the industry.

VerticalLinkz is working on more features, including a marketplace and file-sharing capabilities. On the mortgage side, it also is working with organizations such as the Mortgage Bankers Association to find ways to encourage people to continue to collaborate after training sessions or conferences.

Building interest

The company chose the mortgage industry and the green movement as targets for its first sites because they have garnered a lot of attention lately and both lacked an online collaboration mechanism, Adamowski said.

“We were looking for industries initially that were in what we felt was a dire need of collaboration (so) that we wouldn’t have to convince them to collaborate – the necessity was there,” he said.

Given the effects of the housing crisis and the economic downturn on the mortgage industry, Adamowski especially sees a need for collaboration around issues such as loss mitigation and ethical lending.

“When the (interest) rates were low and everyone was buying homes, everyone focused on money,” he said. “No one got creative. Everyone just tried to get more capacity. Now everyone has to think about how do I lower costs and still maintain quality.”

On green issues, a lot of Web sites offer information about becoming environmentally friendly, but there has not been much collaboration on ideas, said Randy Califf, who is in charge of marketing and product development for MyGreenLinkz. Attention on the green movement is especially growing after President Barack Obama called for creating millions of new “green-collar” jobs in his campaign.

“There’s currently no forum or platform for green professionals to collaborate and information-share,” Califf said. “There’s a lot of consumer-oriented green Web sites out there that are looking on an individual basis – what can I do to become more green and how can I reduce my carbon footprint – but in our research, we found on the professional side there wasn’t any platform for enabling professionals to network.”

Still, the process of getting people to use the sites’ tools and collaborate has been slow. VerticalLinkz is working on putting a few key people in charge of each site to help encourage people to become more active. Tyler Osby, co-founder of West Des Moines-based Four Legacies Mortgage and an avid user of social media, has become a consultant for MorLinkz, and Adamowski said he is looking for a couple more people like Osby from across the country. Kris Moorman, founder of Bamboo Consulting, a green consulting firm, is leading the efforts to expand MyGreenLinkz.

“I think in order to get collaboration started, you’ve got to get some people who get it and they become sort of a mentor for the rest of the people,” Adamowski said.

The challenge, especially on the mortgage side, is that a lot of people in the business are used to doing things a certain way and are uneducated about what social networking is and how to use it, Adamowski said. However, they may be more open to a site like MorLinkz, because it is more professional than Facebook or MySpace, which people often associate with rowdy college kids.

Jorge Valencia, senior vice president and national sales manager with Bank of the West and a MorLinkz member, said LinkedIn is his main social networking tool. He thinks MorLinkz has the potential to benefit the mortgage industry, especially if users share best practices and connect with others in the business, but he said, “I haven’t seen it yet.”

Osby agrees that the biggest benefit could be the discussions that can take place with this technology. “The whole aspect of social networking as a business-building tool is something I don’t think has been implemented in an industry type of approach, which is what is so unique about their model,” Osby said.

Money maker?

At this point, VerticalLinkz isn’t making money, Adamowski said, but he expects it will bring in revenues from the career center, advertising and the marketplace. But the idea also is that these social networking sites have gained huge value lately (Facebook is worth more than $1 billion), and VerticalLinkz could eventually be bought.

“Hopefully the valuations people are talking about are real,” Adamowski said.

But first, the company must expand its user base. Most of its advertising will be viral – users inviting others to join. It also is looking at e-mail campaigns and more traditional advertising. For MyGreenLinkz, the goal is to have 1 million users by the end of the year.

VerticalLinkz has around 20 people working on the development of the program right now, and a number of part-time support workers. “It’s a traditional start-up in a lot of ways,” Adamowski said. “We have some more resources than traditional start-ups.”

Adamowski also is looking to add more sites in the future. He and his colleagues are in discussions with different people on creating sites for topics such as horse enthusiasts, churches and a military site to help soldiers transition to civilian life.

An idea that especially seems to be gaining traction is a regional network that would strive to bring together several networking groups in Central Iowa. This could lead to a physical networking event, which would then carry into further collaboration online. Cassandra Halls, who owns 2 the Top Inc., a career advancement strategies consulting company, is helping to lead this effort.

“We can create as many communities as we want,” Adamowski said, “but the key is we have to get good sponsorship for a good leader to do that.”