10 Questions with the Chief Geek at MetaGeek

Ryan Woodings has volunteered to be our first 10 Questions participant. Ryan is the self titled “Chief Geek” for MetaGeek. (I’m pretty sure that’s CEO in entrepreneur tech speak.) Ryan left Cypress to start his company a few years ago and is doing incredibly well.

One of the things that strikes me about Ryan is that he is a perpetual student, he’s always reading business and tech books and he’s a great listener (not something I can say about every CEO).

Off the MetaGeek website:

MetaGeek makes and sells the tools that independent consultants and smaller firms need to visualize, troubleshoot, and optimize wireless networks. We make the invisible visible… and we do it for thousands less than our competitors.

MetaGeek makes it possible for professionals and hobbyists alike to deploy and service all sorts of wireless networks, without the fuss or the outrageously expensive equipment. Wireless networks are now commonplace… shouldn’t they also be reliable?

We think so.

We also think that the best products are ones that encourage innovation, so we do what we can to keep our platforms open and to keep our offerings focused on what we do best.

MetaGeek is currently based out at the TECenter in Nampa.

What is the best business lesson you’ve learned?
Be open and honest with your customers; treat them right and they’ll treat you right.

Where do you see the future of tech in Boise in 5 years?
As the cost of living continues to increase in Silicon Valley and the ease of “telecommuting” increases I think Boise will be the home of an increasing number of startups. As Thomas Friedman says “The world is flat”… people are outsourcing to India, Indiana (and Idaho). When I read Friedman’s list of 10 flatteners I was either already using the flattener or quickly found a way to use it in MetaGeek. Our HR is outsourced to A+ Benefits; our shipping is handled by a local UPS Store, manufacturing is handled by Austin Mfg (3 miles down the road from our office). Hardware is developed jointly with another small Boise company, and sales is also outsourced to a local company. This allows us to stay small and focused on what we do best, while providing a path for growth. It has also allowed MetaGeek to go from an idea to a real company without an outside capital. The ideas Friedman expresses are alive and well in Boise and will continue to benefit tech in Boise as long as we effectively take advantage of the benefits that we have here in the Treasure Valley.

What new technology has you most excited about the future of tech?
Well, there isn’t a single technology that I would say I am most excited about, but I have been following the environmental movement for a while and am excited at the potential there is to develop better, cheaper, environmentally friendlier technologies like fuel cells, solar power, etc. The RoHS (lead-free) standard has improved the electronics industry (MetaGeek switched to RoHS compliant manufacturing when our European reseller required it in July 2006… the United States has not required RoHS yet). Apple’s announcement of LED backlighting for their laptop screens is exciting and I think we’ll continue to hear about exciting developments in this area.
Oh, and online collaboration tools are very exciting! I admit I am a Google junkie… Google Docs and Spreadsheets, Google For Your Domain, Google Calendar, Google Reader… and then there’s HighRise for contact management and Unfuddle for software development (source control, milestones and issue tracking).

What is Boise missing in the tech landscape?
Lack of young geeks coming up through the ranks. Boise has good schools and smart youth, but are we encouraging those youth to explore their geeky side?

What should Boise do to encourage/foster growth in the tech sector?
Boise has a great start with Kickstand, the BSU TECenter, Idaho TechConnect, etc. I’d say just keep on doing these things and work on other ways for local entrepreneurs (and potential entrepreneurs) to link up and share their ideas and experience.

What’s your biggest failure/mistake as an entrepreneur/business leader?
Hmmm, that’s a tough one; it’s hard to admit your mistakes, even to yourself sometime. My biggest mistake is probably not continually seeking advice from the “experts” around me. I’ve discovered a lot of people in Boise that have vastly more experience at running a business, developing products, marketing, etc. than I do, yet time and time again I find myself muddling my way through the potholes and pitfalls of startup-dom without seeking their advice. Doing it on my own doesn’t show my courage, it shows my stupidity

What RSS feeds/blogs are you subscribed to?
Engadget.com
Slashdot.org
Lifehacker.com
Skeptic.com
OSNews.com
Google Operating System (googlesystem.blogspot.com)
New Comm Biz
MetaGeek.net
Podcasts:
Skepticality
Engadget
NPR: Science Friday
NPR: World Story of the Day
Ohio State University Astronomy 161
Great Speeches in History
National Geographic Wild Chronicles

Who is your mentor?
Roland Smith - Personal friend and founder of 4HR (http://www.4hr.com)
Paul Beard - Previous boss and fellow entrepreneur (http://www.spektrumrc.com)

What book(s) are your reading?
Age of Reason by Thomas Paine
The Golden Era by Gore Vidal
Power of a Positive No by William Ury
Don’t Believe Everything You Think by Thomas Kida

What’s your passion?
Can I have more than one?
One passion I have is running marathons. I got into marathon running five years ago when my sister invited me to run a marathon with her in celebration of her 30th birthday (neither one of us had ever run anything like that before). Since then I’ve done at least a couple marathons every year, with a high of five marathons in 2005. Running is a great way to relieve stress and it pits me against me, which is a competition I always hate to lose! I didn’t consider myself a “hard core runner” until one day we went on our usual early morning run when it was 15 degrees and snowing!

Another passion I have is finding elegant solutions to complex problems. I remember in high school Physics class we had a contest to create a machine that would run the longest (perpetual motion). I had this crazy idea of levitating a device using magnets inside a vacuum. Needless to say I didn’t even get my device to work, while my best friend simply put a massive weight on the end of a string and created a pendulum that ran for hours. That day my teacher taught me the K.I.S.S. (keep it simple stupid) principle, which has guided me ever since

One thing I love about working on Wi-Spy is the complexity of the problem; there is so much wireless interference from so many different types of devices, and yet it is hard to understand and comprehend it because wireless signals are invisible. I knew there must be a simpler method than the bulky, expensive spectrum analyzers produced by Agilent and Tektronix, so I used the K.I.S.S. principle to develop a simpler, more elegant solution to the problem, which is how Wi-Spy was born.

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