(Business 2.0 Magazine) -- Joshua Rand flies to Mexico on business every few weeks but rarely takes a laptop. Instead, he uses the virtual-desktop software made by his startup, Sapotek, based in New York and Toluca, Mexico.

The software, also called a webtop, lets users access personal files and software applications - including e-mail, word-processing, and spreadsheet programs - from any Internet-connected PC.

In 2003 the company began offering a free Spanish-language version of the webtop, which has attracted 100,000 users in Mexico and Latin America. The giveaway was not an act of altruism but a way to stress-test the service before its official debut.

It worked: Since last year Sapotek has licensed the software to six enterprise clients, including universities and companies with limited IT budgets, and in July it started marketing an English-language version in the United States.