In early 1996, Triple Point Technology Inc., a startup specializing in commodity trading software, had more than $5 million in new orders and needed to recruit 15 new programmers. To co-founders Peter F. Armstrong and Allie P. Rodgers Jr., that sounded like mission impossible.

The former Wall Street tech specialists had already tried want ads, headhunters, and the Internet. But Connecticut is no hotbed of tech talent, and when applicants ventured to Rowayton--a discouraging two-hour commute from New York--they looked askance at the dinky offices and secondhand decor. To get by, the partners used freelancers and reluctantly outsourced pieces of projects.

Then the firm launched a full-bore attack on its hiring problem. First, the partners, who wanted to stay in Connecticut, set up a second office in Houston. Tech workers are more plentiful there, and the company's pay went further in the lower-wage city. On the home front, they sprang for a swankier office on the Saugatuck River in nearby Westport. Refurbishing alone cost $300,000, while rent quintupled to $15,000 a month. They also threw money at their 20 staffers, giving each a $10,000 bonus when the firm met a key deadline.

Finally, realizing it had become a beggar in the job market, Triple Point changed its attitude. Consultant Mike Iserson, president of National Corporate College Consultants Inc. in Westport, taught the firm to sell its sizzle--hot technology, stock options, and a casual culture. Such attractions--and the view--lured programmer Ray White from New York. "They really sold me," he says. They sold others, too: Triple Point now has about 50 employees--and had revenues last year of $10 million. Mission accomplished.

By Edith Updike in Westport, Conn.

This article was originally published online as part of the May 25, 1998 edition of Business Week's Enterprise.

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