‘Caveman Curt’ Sleeper, technology guru and creator of XLab.com, brings sensibility and expertise in web development and networking to local businesses. The 46-year-old St. Louisan wrote and sold his first software package, a punch-card accounting system for an IBM System 3. He first implemented the accounting system in his grandmother’s business, Truck Equipment Company of St. Louis. Then a dozen more downtown St. Louis businesses bought the software, kicking off Sleeper’s career in a full range of technology services when he was still a pre-teen.

 

Over the last thirty-five years, Sleeper has alternated between freelance work and business partnerships. His largest and best-known company was Digital Solutions Laboratories, for which he was CEO, co-founder, and majority shareholder. At its peak, the company’s programmers wrote software for numerous fortune-500 companies including Compaq, American Airlines, NASCAR, and Hewlett-Packard. In 2007, Sleeper sold DSLab’s 14-year software library to one of his clients, closed the company, and shifted his focus to local small business advocacy. After decades of creating sophisticated software packages for large corporations, he wanted to focus on something that would boost local economies rather than eliminating jobs through automation. 

 

Sleeper credits this shift in priorities to his newfound community in Festus, Missouri. Five years ago, he and his wife, Deborah, fell in love with an historic property they found on eBay while searching for a commercial building to expand their offices and investment portfolio. Caveland, a former limestone and sand quarry, had been open as a roller rink and concert hall from 1960 to 1985, but recent attempts by investors to revive it as a public venue had failed. Sleeper bought the property in 2004 and spent the next four years camping with his family in the back of the 15,000 square-foot cave while building his home inside its 5,000 square-foot entrance. During that time, he got to know many of the town’s small business owners and became involved in the Downtown Business Development Association, a group taking steps to revive the Festus-Crystal City Main Street business district.  

 

Collaboration with other small business owners reawakened Sleeper’s passion for entrepreneurship and opened his eyes to the challenges that small-town businesses face competing with big-box stores and getting their message out to local consumers. Local businesses needed affordable technology with more flexibility than what’s available in shrink-wrap, and most needed solutions simple enough that they could maintain it themselves. “If you’ve ever said this damn phone or this damn computer, you probably need a simpler solution,” Sleeper often says. With end-user friendliness in mind, he opened up his services to smaller businesses, developed websites that his clients could maintain for themselves, and bought the XLab.com domain to showcase his small business solutions. 

 

Sleeper lives in his cave-house in Festus with his wife, Deborah, 15-year-old step-daughter, Kian, 13-year-old son, Perry, and eight-month-old son, Wes. He spends most of his free time at home with his family where he enjoys rock-gazing and doing carpentry projects. When he ventures above ground, Sleeper’s favorite haunts are local diner, White Grill, and the fishing lake at the Crystal City Elks Lodge.