CANOPY SOFTWARE
Co-founded in 1996 with Steve Foster, who modeled steady, principled leadership and took a chance on building a company alongside his inexperienced son, Canopy Software, Inc. began by supporting state government agencies with case management and tracking systems designed to automate workflows and improve operational efficiency. The company later expanded its work to private-sector clients, creating custom backend systems including a nationally recognized food-safety certification platform and a custom CRM for a state agency. For many years, Canopy also served as an incubator for startup businesses, providing technical development, mentorship, and early-stage support that helped new ventures take root.
Role
- Evaluate emerging opportunities and direct the placement of technical talent to ensure successful project delivery.
- Guide the development of core systems while overseeing hosting environments, financial stability, and project execution.
- Lead business development through direct client engagement and strategic relationship building.
Audience
Canopy has a long history of building highly customized software solutions for organizations across the public and private sectors—often supporting complex workflows, specialized backend systems, and mission-critical operations. For many years, we took on a wide range of projects, forming deep partnerships that spanned strategic design, development, and long-term maintenance. Over time, that breadth of experience led to the creation of several vertical companies built from the patterns we repeatedly saw in our client work. Today, Canopy takes on new clients only when the solution is AI-based and aligned with meaningful, lasting positive change—reflecting our commitment to building technology that matters.
Impact
While Canopy directly served customers through tailored software systems and long-term technical support, its deeper impact operated more like the roots of a tree—quietly nurturing a wide range of projects, companies, and ideas over many years. The systems, infrastructure, and early-stage guidance developed within Canopy became the foundation for multiple vertical businesses and supported the growth of initiatives far beyond the original client work. The cumulative contributions of the team—spanning engineering, project management, hosting, development, and operational expertise—are reflected across these many offshoots, making Canopy’s full impact difficult to quantify but unmistakably significant.