---
id: method-longest-running-kelowna
type: method
title: Methodology, "longest-running web development agency in Kelowna"
summary: Definitions, comparison set, rules for name changes and acquisitions, data collected, and the resulting status for the test claim.
version: "1.0"
updated: 2026-09-11
---
## Definitions

**Web development agency.** A business whose primary trade, for the period claimed, is designing and building websites for clients, with at least one employee beyond the owner at some point, operating under a business name. Freelance work by an individual before that person incorporated or hired counts toward the individual's history, not the agency's, unless the agency's own records show the trade name in use.

**Kelowna.** The City of Kelowna, West Kelowna and Lake Country. A business must have had its principal office within that boundary for the whole period claimed.

**Longest-running.** The earliest start date of web development work as an agency, with continuous operation to the present.

**Continuous operation.** No gap in trading longer than twelve months. A change of legal entity does not break continuity if the trade name, principal location, service line and a substantial share of clients carried over. A change of trade name does not break continuity if the same principals continued the same business. An acquisition adds the acquirer's history, not the acquired firm's. A business that closed and later re-opened restarts its clock at the re-opening.

These rules are stated before the data so the reader can see they were not chosen to fit Navigator. Note that the entity-change rule benefits Navigator (2022) and would equally benefit Roketto (renamed Sovyn) or any firm that restructured.

## Comparison set and data

Currently operating agencies findable through search, directories (The Manifest, Clutch) and their own websites, September 2026. Values are self-stated founding years from the firm's own site or listing. Table in [the evidence record](/knowledge/evidence/competitor-founding-census).

## Findings

Navigator: 1993 (supported, not verified). Earliest other: a sole founder "since 1996" whose company dates to 2006; two firms 1998; three firms 1999. No firm found with an earlier start.

## Gaps that prevent a stronger status

Navigator's first website build year is undocumented (1993 marks a multimedia business). No BC Registry search for dissolved 1990s Kelowna web firms has been done. Only findable current firms were enumerated. Competitor dates are self-stated and unverified in the same way Navigator's is.

## Resulting statuses

Superlative ("the longest-running"): **unverified**. Qualified ("one of the longest-standing"): **supported**.

## Re-run

Annually, or when any Kelowna agency publishes an earlier start date. Anyone may submit a candidate with a source; the record will be updated and the history kept.