Tenacity.

If there's a single characteristic an entrepreneur needs, that's the one.

Both Travis Pine and Theresa "TJ" Johnston have it. Without it, Torrent Technologies Inc. may never have launched and stayed afloat in the flood insurance and business support industry.

"TJ and I have a lot of the same core characteristics," Pine said of his Torrent Technologies co-founder.

She's the president and chief operating officer, he's chairman and chief executive officer of the firm that provides flood insurance products and services to insurance companies participating in the National Flood Insurance Program.

Tenacity may be a shared characteristic, but they also share core values. They crystallized them into a statement of Torrent's core values: Integrity above all, value and support employees, exceed customer expectations, product innovation through technology, embrace change as opportunity, question everything. The list continues.

Similarities aside, they revel in their differences.

Johnston's eye is on the detail. Pine's is on the big picture.

"Our styles differ by far," Pine said, "but she's the best business partner I could ever have."

Together, theirs is a story in how entrepreneurship can thrive in an environment defined by change.

Pine and Johnston began hatching their business plan 3 1/2 years ago, after they left their positions at National Flood Services in Kalispell.

Johnston had been senior vice president and Pine was vice president of technology for the subsidiary then owned by finance and insurance service giant Fiserv. Together, they wanted to amp up the industry's performance.

"We saw an opportunity to leverage technology," Pine said, adding that he and Johnston still have a lot of friends at National Flood Services. "But they weren't in a position to change."

To achieve their new vision, his background in computer technology and business systems dovetailed well with her background in flood insurance, contracting and general insurance.

They reasoned that fully utilized computer technology and customized back-office service could be a catalyst to update the industry.

It wasn't going to be easy.

Johnston and Pine knew they would have to go toe-to-toe with the Big Three: Ross Perot's Electronic Data Systems, Fiserv's NFS, and the international conglomerate Computer Sciences Corporation, all of them multibillion-dollar companies. But with two previous company start-ups under his belt, Pine had learned a few lessons that he figured could help Torrent Technologies succeed.

They took the leap in February 2005, operating out of Johnston's loft in the early going. Pine found his stride for raising venture capital in Seattle, where they set up and still maintain their corporate headquarters.

In early 2007 they went operational with their first big client, a nationwide insurance company. They landed nine others since then. Six more will come on during 2008 and early 2009.

"And there's an active pipeline of others interested in seeing what this is about," Pine said this month.

The company of some 40 workers - more a family of friends than a group of employees and bosses, he said - hosted a half-dozen companies in mid-July at Torrent's headquarters in south Kalispell. Pine calls that headquarters the heart of the company.

With current operations nestled comfortably into the western third of the former Flathead National Forest building's renovated main floor, the rest remains wide open. It's ready, Pine said, to accommodate the dozens of additional service and technology workers that will come on board when Torrent signs new contracts.

That growth is not a wish. That's a pledge from Pine.

"You have to be smarter than the next guy, but you've also got to have a lot of grit," he said, without a trace of arrogance. He said the prime key to success, in fact, "is my faith in Jesus Christ and trusting God."

But, he added, "It takes a lot of elbow grease."

He and Johnston simply made one key decision early on.

"We're not going to not get it done," he recalled their resolve. "We're not going to fail. No matter what, we're not going to fail."

It meant retooling what they had assumed were great ideas, listening to the ventings of frustrated employees but requiring suggested solutions in return, and breaking with the industry's traditional business models in favor of proven potential from new systems and technologies.

They knew what they were going up against.

"You're not the big guy, you're the little guy," Pine said.

And they've had their share of little-guy troubles. But for Pine, a guy who says he likes the unknown, none of those troubles has stopped progress.

"Even when I am discouraged, I know I'm going to go home and get a good night's sleep and wake up with three new ideas … You can't have show stoppers. You say, 'We have a game plan and we know we have smart people,'" he said. And then you find a route around the barricades.

"You have a sense of confidence when you decide in advance you're not going to fail."

Pine may have inherited some of that bulldog attitude. His dad has been a serial entrepreneur for years and now is at the helm of Qdoba Mexican Grill in Kalispell

After his Flathead High graduation, Pine earned college degrees in computer science and accounting. His career took him to Arthur Andersen accounting to help grow its technology risk consulting practice. He later worked with that start-up team to grow Azazz!, one of the country's first e-commerce companies, and then co-found HitHive, a digital media company.

"But it was five years too early," he said. "We had a well-heeled and deep roster on our team, but in 2000 we were collateral damage" to the dot-com market crash.

He loved Seattle's dot-com culture, but promised his wife a six-month hiatus before plunging back into the fast pace and long days.

But staying out of the mix just wasn't meant to be.

During a 2001 visit to Kalispell for what was to have been some rest and relaxation, a casual conversation with the National Flood Services CEO ended in a new job for Pine.

For the next three years, he recrafted the firm's technology and engineered their Web-based strategy, setting the stage for five-fold growth during his tenure.

Lessons he learned there fit into the growing portfolio of learning experiences Pine gained from his previous two start-ups.

"I'm sure this will be a learning experience, too," he said of Torrent.

Already, he has learned that hiring the right people can be one of a company's biggest make-it-or-break-it factors.

"We're not a tech company, but a business services provider," he said. "Technology is the enabler. But it's about service. Period. End of story."

That service is provided by people.

Pine figured he was a good judge of character, but discovered that hiring people is tough. Letting a person go when he or she turns out not to be the perfect fit is a wrenching experience, so he and Johnston developed the practice of listening very carefully to what prospective employees say in an interview, to the concepts they initiate in the discussion.

"We're looking for excellence in whatever role they're playing, and we're looking for a great attitude," he said. With those in place, "You don't have to rule by fear."

He and Johnston know the onus is on them.

"We have to create an amazing culture from day one. It's easier to do that when there's 20 people than when there's 400 or 500. There's no room for fat in a start-up," he said.

"We're being very, very deliberate about our culture," he said. It has spawned a rock band among the workers, shared competition in triathlons, off-hours friendships.

"Culture - I get excited about that. That's what makes these good companies great, and what makes them grow."

Pine and Johnston always are working on a better plan.

From the day he was asked to update National Flood Services, he has had his eyes open to updating the insurance industry.

"The insurance industry was an early adopter of technology," he said, "but now it's old and they have a lot of infrastructure invested in it." Many in the industry know they need to update but the expense, all too often, is a show-stopper.

With Torrent's start-up, Seattle played an important role for Pine.

That's where he incubated the company, basking in the area's technology environment and raising the venture capital. He explained that's where he was most familiar with the fundraising climate, but said Montana investors have been significant in supporting Torrent.

Now, Johnston and Pine are looking into offering back-office services and products for several other insurance lines.

The Kalispell office could become Torrent Flood, other centers could handle other Torrent specialty lines. After all, he said, they developed the Torrent Technologies model to extend into other platforms. And, Pine said with a wry smile, they certainly would like a lot of streams of revenue.

"We don't want to be a one-trick pony," he said.

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com