WATERLOO -- When Doug Worple and his wife moved into their new house in Cincinatti, Ohio, about a year ago, Doug quickly turned to the Internet to research the many items they would need to buy to update the home.

He quickly became frustrated, too.

Searches for items like electric ranges returned "millions" of results, he said. "And even if you find a site that was relevant, you came away with as many questions as answers.

"There was nobody really helping you decide what you should buy."

That's when the Waterloo native formed the idea for a new Web site, 3LUXE (www.3luxe.com).

Doug and his brother, Bill Worple, who lives in Minneapolis, used their own money to launch the Web site, a consumer research tool, in June. Bill is the president of 3LUXE. Doug is the CEO.

The way 3LUXE works is simple. People choose from a growing number of categories (150 when they launched the Web site in June, now up to about 350 categories), and the best three items in that category are displayed on the screen. Users are given links to various online shopping sites they have partnerships set up with, like Amazon.com or Shopzilla.com, where they can actually buy the products online.

The company makes money by getting a percentage of the online sales that originated on its site, and by companies advertising on 3LUXE, Bill said.

"People want to do research to avoid making poor purchase decisions, but time constraints and the overwhelming amount of information available online work against you unless you know exactly what you want. Comparison shopping engines currently help consumers with 'where to buy,' 3LUXE intends to be the destination of choice that helps you determine 'what to buy,'" Doug said. "One of the ways I explain this site is, we do the research you'd do if you had more time."

From Waterloo to Internet

Bill and Doug Worple grew up in Waterloo, the children of Fred and Pat Worple. Their parents still live here. Doug graduated from Central High School in 1982, president of his class and salutorian. Bill graduated from East High School 10 years later, in the top 10 percent of his class and a member of the National Honor Society. He was also class treasurer, and active in swimming, tennis, musical activities and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

Doug attended Iowa State University, originally studying engineering but then switched to finance. After graduating, he took a job with Procter & Gamble in Cincinatti.

Bill graduated from ISU in 1996, and got a marketing job with Caterpillar. He moved to St. Paul in 1999. Most recently, he was director of account development at Digital River, an e-commerce outsourcing company.

Bill left his job to become president of 3LUXE full-time. It was a risk, but taking it wasn't a tough decision for Bill to make.

"Well, yeah, absolutely. I left a good job at Digital River," Bill said.

"Just based on my experience at Digital River, I knew there was definitely a need and a benefit for doing this."

He had spent eight years at Digital River, where he had most recently been the director of account development. It was his job to help the company's clients increase their online sales.

Risk was nothing new for Doug. He left his job with Procter & Gamble to pursue a career in advertising, and started his own company, Barefoot Advertising (now just Barefoot), which he still runs.

Doug's experience at Barefoot also made him believe 3LUXE was not only viable, but needed. Barefoot specializes in goods or services that other people are willing to drop some serious coin to trade up for it.

Finding the best

Finding the "best" products is an admittedly subjective process. The company hires researchers across the country who research products in a category and come up with their top five. Doug and Bill, and sometimes the researcher, then narrow that list to three.

"One thing we do, because we know we're not always going to get it right, is we allow users to vote on the products," Bill said. In those cases, 3LUXE will remove items that don't pass muster with users and replace them. That has happened about 11 times so far, he said.

Because the site seeks to identify the best three products in a category, irrespective of price or popularity, the prices sometimes run on the high side. Doug said the Web site is geared somewhat more toward higher-end consumers, people with money to spend on things they are passionate about.

Look up refrigerators, and top three cost, in order: $2,599.99, $12,000 and $3,500. These prices are not in everybody's budget.

"What we've tried to do is to have one (site) that's kind of almost Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous," Doug said. "I can't afford an $8,000 bike or a $1.2 million sports car, but there's some entertainment value in reading about" them.

In its first month, 3LUXE had about 35,000 unique visitors. The goal, Bill said, is to have 1 million unique visitors per month by the end of the first year. He said 3LUXE needs about 135,000 unique visitors a month to generate a positive cash flow.

"And we're slowly but surely increasing every day," Bill said.

Doug and Bill are already looking ahead to how the site might evolve. One way is to eventually break down the "best" products not just by category, but by price range, Doug said. Another idea is to create categories for the best three places in a locale -- such as the best three places to eat in New York City, or to see a show -- Bill said.

"Right now, we're kind of letting users on the site dictate what we do next," Bill said.

Contact Jeff Wilford at (319) 291-1423 or jeff.wilford@wcfcourier.com.