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Meet business partners Steve Shearer and Stephen Fry.

Shearer typically has his hands deep in chocolate, local chocolate that spills over a variety of concoctions made at his West Des Moines fixture, the Chocolate Storybook.

Fry is a co-founder of the multifaceted businesses that fall under the Spindustry umbrella in Clive. His mind is in a world of bits and bytes and data-driven Web sites and computer training and the intricacies of directing the online presence of Fortune 500 companies.

In the end, they both are down-to-earth businessmen who have combined talents to launch an online store that has given Shearer a national presence and provided some solid proof to Fry that Iowa-bound companies can grow their business through judicious use of the Internet.

The business at hand is LogosOnChocolate.com, a partnership between Spin Ventures Inc., a 10-year effort that musters all of Spindustry’s expertise in the online world, and one of Shearer’s specialties – placing company logos on chocolate treats.

“We were becoming experts in logo chocolates, and we thought we could transfer this to the Web,” Shearer said. “I’m an expert in about 50 percent of this business; the other 50 percent is Internet, and I told Steve, ‘That’s your specialty.'”

The business launched last October, with Fry and the crew at Spin Ventures using their talents in Web design and programming and search engine optimization to extend the local business across the country.

They have sold chocolate logos to a wind farm in Hawaii; another customer is in Wyoming. And when all is said and done, after marketing and production costs are factored in, the two partners split the profits.

Shearer and Fry are impressed with each other’s specialty.

“Spindustry put together a beautiful Web site,” Shearer said, and also provided the ever-practical ability to optimize keyword searches to a degree that has made LogosOnChocolate.com one of the top five Google hits under a random “chocolate logos” search.

“What I like about what we’re doing is that I don’t want the person who wants to send out hams or pens as gifts,” Shearer said. “I just want the people who send out chocolate logos.

“The hits you do get are really qualified buyers. That’s all you can ask for in a business, good prospects.”

And good prospects are just what Spin Ventures looks for in setting up online stores, whether a partnership or pay-for-performance arrangement.

Fry said the goal is to generate growth for Iowa businesses, whether they are online vendors for multinational corporations or local manufacturers with a desire to move their products around the globe.

It is an area of growth for Spin Ventures and its partners.

In addition, Spin Ventures could provide hands-on business experience for interns who might turn their experience into a career.

“We can build an empire right here in Des Moines, Iowa,” Fry said. “It’s the kind of thing where kids could come here from school and then come here when they graduate and build a career.”

The potential for that kind of growth has been confirmed in part by the success of Spin Ventures online storefronts.

SpinmarketSports.com is a Spin Ventures-owned store that has been two years in the making and is partly a collaboration with one of the company’s Web clients, Schutt Sports, a manufacturer of protective sports gear based in Illinois.

Spin Ventures launched SpinmarketSports.com to sell products made by Schutt and other vendors. It requires all of the company’s skills in design, application development, programming, search engine optimization, even customer relations.

Alison Ellis is the customer service manager for SpinmarketSports.com. She said much of her time is spent making sure that customers are comfortable with the online experience. She can talk them through questions about size and fit, color, even the various components of a football helmet.

In the end, the customers might complete a purchase online or buy from Schutt Sports. It’s not a matter of where they buy, but that they make the purchase.

“People buy the way they want to buy,” Fry said. He later noted that “this is a distribution agreement. If we don’t make a sale, we don’t make a penny.”

But Schutt and Spin Ventures probably have made plenty of pennies from the arrangement.

“In its first year, we have grown the order volume by 91 percent and revenues by 203 percent,” Fry said. “I think we can do that again and again and again.”

Later this year, Spin Ventures will launch another online store, also managed by Ellis, called ItsAllBoxedUp.com, which will provide gift baskets for a variety of occasions, such as baby showers, with the items provided by several vendors.

Some elements of the business could involve profit sharing, such as a basket that includes items from LogosOnChocolate.com; otherwise Spin Ventures will carry the risk and rewards.

“We will order what we need, be aggressive in our selling point and off we’ll go,” Fry said.

The source of the product is not important, he said.

“At the end of the road, we’re here in Des Moines, Iowa; we can grow Iowa’s businesses,” Fry said. “We can help with opportunities for young people to work on great projects. That’s what we’re doing, that’s what Spin Ventures is all about.”

Spin Ventures is cautious about whom it partners with. In its early days, the company might have delivered on its commitments, whereas a partner backed away. That is all part of the learning process, Fry said.

But now, Spin Ventures wants to make certain that a company has the resources to back up its part of the partnership, including finances and the ability to conduct its own marketing for storefront sales.

In other words, Spin Ventures does the same kind of due diligence that a venture capitalist would. The difference is in the type of capital, primarily its skills and manpower, that Spin Ventures provides.

“We have limited resources because what we are doing is we are leveraging all the other entities of the Spindustry family,” Fry said. “We do put our risk-reward hat on.”

But if the fit is right, Spin Ventures can help Iowa companies achieve a worldwide presence, he said.

“We can help Iowa companies get a lot more business around the world without ever stepping out of the state – all online,” Fry said.