10 Questions with TechLaunch Startups

In response to the upcoming TechLaunch event I have re-purposed our CEO questions (yeah I’m that lazy) for the TechLaunch participants.

Our first volunteer is Jason Christensen with U2ML. In his own words:

U2ML is a concept company that started in November of 2006. We noticed that a number of people were trying to take on new technologies but failing to “eat the elephant.” In most cases it came down to being able to divide and conquer the tasks in a logical fashion. We introduced Enterprise Meta-Architecture, which is an advanced enterprise concept that uses ontology analysis to create manageable subdivisions of the technology space of an enterprise. Those subdivisions are then augmented with a taxonomy, topology, and strategy and they then can be used to create future enterprise architectures more quickly and efficiently than how enterprise architecture is done currently.

When looking at what we could do with Enterprise Meta-Architecture to show value and create a product, we had to look for things that would be beneficial to enterprises wishing to utilize it. We came across a concept we call SoxBoxes(tm). SoxBoxes(tm) is comprised of a hardware/software offering that uses our Enterprise Meta-Architecture concept for analysis, and then provides companies an off the shelf solution to meet their Sarbanes Oxley requirements for controls enforcement , reporting, and data lineage without having to rewrite or reimplement hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars of existing enterprise applications.

What is the best business lesson you’ve learned?

I’ve learned to be patient and keep pushing ahead, perseverance is the cornerstone of being successful. It’s a takes a lot longer to get a business moving that one thinks it will initially. You hear the word “no” a lot, but staying focused and positive is key to being successful.

Where do you see the future of tech in Boise in 5 years?

I think Boise is at a crossroads, we have sort of a chicken and egg problem regarding how we grow the number tech resources and the number of companies employing technologists. Moving forward, they will both have to increase their numbers simultaneously. There is a symbiotic growth that has to take place over the next 5 years in the valley to create more technology positions which are diversified and balanced over a larger number of companies than what exists here right now.

I know that before moving here, I had some reluctance based on the fact that there were limited options for employment if my job at the time did not work out. I think that keeps a lot of people from making the jump to Boise.

Growing the number of small and medium sized companies is a paramount to attracting talent to the valley, but at the same time those companies cannot exist without the developers/engineers/support personnel that they require for their day to day operations. Growing both without straining either is going to be a challenge that determines the future of tech in Boise five years from now.

If we can be smart about that growth, there are a lot of other positives that would foster a cutting edge technology environment in Boise. If we continue to see the lack of available developers we might plateau here for a while until we resolve that deadlock. One suggestion would be tax-breaks or other incentives for entrepreneurial companies that are able to attract talent from outside of Boise.

What new technology has you most excited about the future of tech?

I have to say here that there are two things I think will mold the future of technology. The first is more immediate, the second is a larger market that is largely untouched at this point.

The first is Context-aware-computing for small form-factor internet enabled devices. I feel this will drive the consumer market for the next 5-10 years. The days of the clunky laptop are becoming a thing of the past. The next big step is making it so that a device can be aware of it’s location and present its user with essential inputs and applications that integrate to the users environment unlike ever before.

The other thing I think is going to have the ability to create and foster new markets is the convergence of nanosensor and nanotech systems into medicine. With an aging populous, a large number of war-wounded veterans, and the shrinking of computing technology into smaller more powerful forms, bioconvergence of sensors and nanotech have the potential to become a multi-billion dollar international market.

What is Boise missing in the tech landscape?

Employer diversity. We need to be able to offer a rich environment of possible employers to ease the concerns of those people moving out of the larger metropolitan areas around us and settling in Boise. This can be done if we can make it an exciting technology environment.

I was in NY when the Mayor Giuliani was trying to foster the growth of tech companies around from wall-street. It really buzzed with excitement. I think the given the outdoors environment that is here, it is really possible to create a work-hard/play-hard environment and make tech in Boise really fun and exciting.

I also feel that given the number of valuable research threads that are prime for commercialization, we are poised to experience another tech boom over the course of the next 8-12 years. We just need to find a way to grow and diversify the number of employers.

What should Boise do to encourage/foster growth in the tech sector?

I think we could take a three step approach, and all three steps are very high-level, the devil is in the details of how to realize them:

1. Make the benefits of Boise known to tech savvy commuters in Phoenix, Boston, Denver, Chicago, and Dallas. With drive time advertisements talking about the 2.5 minute commutes that arepossible, fly-fishing the Boise at lunch, and picking up the kids and heading to Bogus after work, Boise would sound really good to a captive group of frustrated commuters in those cities. That opportunity is ripe for the picking, and we can target both entrepreneurs and developers

Boise is the only place I’ve been where I can do 60 hours of work and 40 hours of outdoor activities in the same week and that’s because of accessibility of activities that would take hours to get to in other areas. I think we should advertise that.

2. Encourage tech startups in Boise, interconnect them, and start to create a self sustaining tech ecosystem here. To do this, we need to look to the local governments and chambers of commerce for support. We need to attract “idea” people, and we need to find some way to create a buzz in the tech community here that we are part of something significant and different. If we can do that, we then need a way to remove economic barriers and let the rest just happen.

3. We need to ensure good transportation across the country to the major hubs in Boston, NY, DC, in addition to the incredible access we already have to Seattle, SF, Denver, Phoenix, and Minneapolis. This is a major concern for people in my company from the east coast. For instance, the CEO for our company is in DC and a direct flight is $1000 r/t, but at the same time, the people he has access to in DC make his being there invaluable.

What’s your biggest failure/mistake as an entrepreneur/business leader?

I personally have too much of a tech background and not enough of a business background. I should have looked at that before I made the leap.

I have had to learn the business side as I go, and that has slowed me down and lead to a number of additional costs in starting the company that wouldn’t have been necessary had I done more research on the true business aspect of starting up.

What RSS feeds/blogs are you subscribed to?

MIT Technology Review, Google News Alerts, ACM Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, ACM Sensor Mesh Networking, Slashdot Developers articles, ACM Software Methodology and Process threads.

Who is your mentor?

My biggest mentor was actually my younger brother. When we were 9 and 8 respectively we were told to clean up the yard. I was complaining about it, and he told me that to “put your head down and get to work, time flies, and before you know it you get to look back at what you’ve accomplished.” Anytime I have to dig in and push to the next level, I think back to his advice.

Professionally, it was Paul Fridman of Magenic Technologies in Minneapolis. I watched him grow his startup consulting company from a handful of us to a million dollars a month in revenue in just under two years. He really did make me realize how much is possible if you put your mind to it.

What book(s) are your reading?

Enterprise Ontology, Springer Verlag, Jan Deitz
Enterprise Patterns and MDA, Addison Wesley, Arlow and Neustad
ARM System on a chip architecture, Addison Wesley, Furber
Linux Device Drivers, O’Reilly Publishers
Understanding the Linux Kernel, O’Reilly Publishers
Caddisflies, Gary LaFontaine

What’s your passion?

I really get a thrill out of working on hard problems, things that don’t currently have a good solution. I think if I look at times where I really excelled in my career, it had to do with some challenge that others didn’t want to take on.

Outside of work, it’s fly fishing. I love to spend my day in a stream with nothing but my thoughts, a rising fish, and a couple off flies he might want to take a shot at.

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