He cut his business teeth by founding, growing and selling the java-language software developer Modena Technologies in the 1990s.

Then he had a Eureka moment. He had a cell phone and he realized he couldn't send text messages across the world.

Fido customers were the first British Columbians to be able to text message, he explained. Telus Corp. and Rogers Wireless soon started offering the service, but initially they only gave subscribers the ability to message fellow subscribers, he added.

Zurkovic realized that enabling text messages to reach all cell phones worldwide could be big business. He founded Upside Wireless with the intention of developing just such a capability.

Telecommunication companies have since developed their own technologies expanding their subscribers' abilities to text message. Telus subscribers, for example, can send messages via an inter-carrier service to 25 countries. That doesn't phase Zurkovic.

"We offer a text messaging platform that can send and receive messages with any cell phone on the planet - from Uganda to Iran to Brazil," he said.

Having landed marquee clients such as Microsoft Corp. and Apple Computer, Inc., Zurkovic has 150,000 global users of his text messaging platform, and 97 per cent of those are outside Canada.

Zurkovic has guided Upside Wireless to a profitable $1 million in 2004 revenues.

He expects revenue to grow exponentially very soon. Zurkovic explained that text messaging is more popular globally than e-mail, and predicts that North America will join the rest of the world in the text messaging revolution. Text messaging will catch on quickly, he predicts, because senders pay for the correspondence. With e-mail, it is the recipients who pay, which opens the door to spam.

Now in 1,000 square feet of office space on Thurlow Street, Zurkovic is active with the Wireless Innovation Network of British Columbia, the British Columbia Technology Industries Association and the Vancouver Enterprise Forum.

He also spends time with his wife Tania and their three children.

Profession you would like to try: Photographer

Where do you feel most comfortable? My backyard

Favourite movie: Usual Suspects with Kevin Spacey

Toughest decision: To come to Vancouver and not to the U.S.

Car: Mercedes SUV

Would most like to meet: Intel founder Andy Grove

Birthplace: Subotica, Serbia

Last CD bought: Eric Clapton box set

Education: Computer engineering degree from University of Novi Sad in Yugoslavia; MBA from SFU

What's left to do: Climb Mount Kilimanjaro