The Willow Glen resident is vice president of marketing for MerchantCircle, a local startup with aspirations to become a national business-to-business website for independent merchants.

"The company is funded and run by lots of people with small-business experience in their past," Hull says. "I always wanted to find a way to help these businesses compete more effectively and connect with each other and with customers. The web is a leveling tool."

Before joining the startup's staff, Hull ran Yahoo's community user groups and worked for the San Mercury News' online services.

"They're both services designed to bring people together," he says. "Both experiences helped me build MerchantCircle."

MerchantCircle provides small-business owners with marketing tools such as blogs and an online newsletter.

"It's the same thing a lot of Willow Glen merchants are already doing," Hull says. "Elva's Coffee Stop has a great blog."

What sets MerchantCircle apart are its service offerings. Merchants in the same area can place ads in neighboring businesses' newsletters to drive shared-customer referrals.

Directory listings on MerchantCircle are free, and business owners can earn credit toward ads on Google whenever they bring another active user to the site.

"Our bet is that our best customers will be our most successful vehicle to get this thing to grow," Hull says. "If they're successful, they'll tell their colleagues."

MerchantCircle also has a wide reach, allowing business owners to touch base with colleagues across town or across the country. Hull says about 14 million small businesses nationwide are listed on merchantcircle.com, although their owners might not know it.

"We pulled them right out of the phone book," he says, adding that MerchantCircle staff is working to increase awareness of the website. "Our primary focus is trying to connect with as many merchants as possible."

Once the website is off the ground, MerchantCircle plans to start charging for advertising.

"Ultimately, we want to get customers to merchants," Hull says. "If merchants are finding that valuable, we think they'll pay us. We know they're already paying $150-$300 a month for a Yellow Pages ad; we're not going to charge that much."

Hull says MerchantCircle is test-marketing its website in different areas of the country, including San Jose, to determine how many active business owners it will take to make the site vibrant.

The first step is connecting small-business owners with others in their own neighborhoods. Hull says downtown Willow Glen is one neighborhood that could benefit from these connections. More than 60 Willow Glen restaurants and about a dozen retailers are already listed on merchantcircle.com.

"They're trying to draw from each other to get foot traffic going," Hull says. "We're trying to do the same thing online."

MerchantCircle's website went live in December; Hull says a more formal launch is set for early summer.

Down the line, Hull says, his company plans to connect with local chambers of commerce and with groups such as the Willow Glen Business and Professional Association.

"We want to tell them who we are and what we can do for them," he adds.

For more information, visit www.merchantcircle.com.