None of Hardin’s employees have a business background. Hardin graduated with computer science and math degrees, while Resnick majored in political science and legal studies at UW-Madison. While some may think this lack of experience would be a challenge, Resnick sees it as an asset.

“It doesn’t take a business degree to start a business,” Resnick says. “It’s this certain precedent that says, ‘Ok, you need to have a company car, you need to have an expense account, you need to have X, Y and Z to make your business work.’ No. Working makes your business work. Being diligent makes your business work.”

In addition to this work hard, play hard attitude Resnick and Hardin celebrate, Matt Togstad, Hardin Design & Development web programmer, sees the company’s youthful work environment as an advantage.

“It’s a small company of basically kids,” Togstad says. “I mean, we’re all between 24 and 21. So we’re all young and around the same age so we all make the rules and it’s really casual. … As long as you get your work done, you’re appreciated.”

Togstad is a senior majoring in civil engineering at UW-Madison. The 22-year-old realized after Hardin hired him that he wanted to minor in computer science. Because UW-Madison does not offer a minor program, Togstad will graduate with a certificate in computer science this May.

As the only student on Hardin’s full-time staff, Togstad struggles to balance work and academia, but he feels a unique obligation to his fellow employees.

“The fact that we’re all friends – we feel responsible to each other to get stuff done,” Togstad says. “It kind of avoids the Office Space syndrome where it’s like ‘Oh, do as little as possible so I don’t get fired.’”

And while the entire Hardin Design & Development team is dedicated to staying ahead of the curve, they’re not afraid to have fun with their work.

“I remember coming in one time, and one of our employees was on a conference call with Mercedes or something like that and he was riding his bicycle around the office, just literally between the desks,” Hardin recalls. “I asked him, ‘Do they know you’re on a bike?’ and he said, ‘Yeah, I totally ran into one of the desks earlier and told them I fell off my bike.’”

The tech advantage

Hardin’s founders have tapped into a key advantage of young entrepreneurship: being tech-savvy. With each new generation, the technical acumen improves.

A 2004 study by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 86 percent of kids ages 8 to 18 have a computer in their homes, compared to 73 percent in 1999. Furthermore, the study found that 35 percent of 8 to 18-year-olds have a computer in their bedrooms, compared to 21 percent in 1999.

“Young people have the ability to surf the net, to stay plugged in and engaged,” says Ronald Gayhart, director of the Center for Innovation & Business Development at UW-Whitewater. “Technology is their friend, and they adopt the technology as soon as it’s out there.”

If there’s anything Hardin understands, it’s computer programming. Resnick says if you need a “rock star programmer,” someone to stay up 40 hours straight inputting code, Hardin’s your man. Hardin Design & Development works with four different platforms, from iPhone applications to Flash Widgets, and six different computer programming languages, including C++ and Perl.

Technological agility is Hardin’s competitive edge. Rather than specializing in just one technology, Hardin Design & Development continuously adopts new platforms and content. As the world embraces a new web-based technology, Hardin and his crew are two steps ahead, learning the ins and outs of technology just on the horizon.

“We saw people fail because of the Widget bubble, the Facebook bubble, and other minor bubbles,” Hardin says. “The reason was because none of them were agile enough to switch gears when they saw that the current bubble they were riding was going to burst and they weren’t quick enough to be able to jump on the next one. We built a company that was predicated around always being able to work with the most cutting-edge technology and never be obsolete.”

And just how does Hardin stay ahead of the techno-curve? Simple, says Togstad: Just live and breathe technology.

“We’re all young so we’re all basically connected with what’s happening right now in the technology world,” Togstad says. “We all read lots of blogs and websites about what’s current and up-and-coming, and then we just talk about it all the time because it interests us.”

Togstad seems almost dismissive when discussing the challenge of being the first to adopt the next big thing. As he speaks, you forget that he’s between classes, or that he has a midterm exam to study for tonight.

“There’s a lot of stuff out there on the Internet,” Togstad says. “Basically, whenever anything is new lots of people are writing about it. … So you just have to be the first person to get the documentation to learn about it fast.”

As Hardin continues to take on new clients and new technology, they are not looking to move out of Wisconsin any time soon. Despite outside pressure, they are perfectly happy to stay in the city that nurtured them.

“I do have a certain sense of pride about the business that we’ve been able to build and that we’ve been able to keep it in Madison,” Hardin says. “I think there are a lot of people who thought poorly of us for doing it in Madison, thinking ‘Oh, why don’t you go to a bigger market? Why would you ever do it in a place like Madison?’ I think Madison’s just a fine market for it.”

Judging by their jam-packed schedules and buzzing Blackberries, Hardin is right. His company can succeed without moving to a major metropolis like New York or Chicago. And while Hardin and Resnick have not ruled out expanding in the future, they both take pride in Hardin Design & Development’s Wisconsin roots.

“I think, for the first time in history, businesses in a place like Madison can be perceived with the same amount of legitimacy as ones in the A-list markets,” Hardin says.

Take that Los Angeles.