Your neighbor syncs his iPhone every morning. He programs his Garmin when he gets in the car. He updates his LinkedIn profile as soon as he gets to work. Over lunch, he manages his e-calendar and uploads pictures from his brother’s bachelor party. Sirius Satellite Radio on his Bluetooth headset energizes his evening workouts. Late at night, he checks his e-mail, downloads a new podcast and scans his RSS news feeds before climbing into bed with his Kindle.
He’s got nothin’ on Hardin.
A solid business model and a finger on the pulse of the newest technology have landed Hardin Design & Development in with the who’s who in Hollywood and big business. Never satisfied with the technology of today, the company is one step ahead of the mainstream tech world.
Since the company’s birth almost two years ago, Hardin Design & Development has made iPhone applications for Madonna and Mercedes-Benz, Flash Widgets for MSN and Facebook pages for Disney. With names like Coleman, The New Yorker and Mazda requesting their services, company President Jon Hardin and Vice President Scott Resnick credit their success to their unique strategy.
“We figured out a core client base that we appeal to, we figured out a business model that works, and then we molded our company to be what the needs are of that client,” Hardin says.
You’d never guess by their client list that Hardin Design & Development began in the basement of Hardin’s parents’ home. In less than six months, the company moved above ground and into a fourth-floor office space on the Capitol Square.
Hardin may look young, at 22 years old, but what he lacks in age he makes up in confidence. He handles phone calls with high-profile companies as if he’s talking to his dad. He rattles off the company’s to-do list and convenes meetings like he’s been at it for decades. He makes it clear he will not discuss financial matters with the press, and he chooses his words carefully on topics he agrees to discuss.
Resnick, barely 23, is Hardin’s foil. With a loud voice and a wrinkled shirt, Resnick appears slightly disheveled, but attentive nonetheless, even at 4:30 p.m. on a Tuesday.
Planting the seeds
Hardin says he has always liked the idea of starting his own business. In his sophomore year at UW-Madison, Hardin and his friends started Inzüm, which Hardin calls an “overly ambitious” online video company. When that didn’t come to fruition the way they hoped, Hardin developed Intelli-Computing Consulting, which he credits with planting the seed for Hardin Design & Development.
“It was then I figured out that a lot of the stuff I was doing could be turned into a bigger operation,” Hardin says.
Hardin Design & Development’s first big project was to create a widget for MSN Money, which Hardin says generated 11 million hits in the first quarter. Hardin and his two-man staff quickly realized they had found a unique market.
“That was where we found our niche, building technology different from just doing websites for companies,” Hardin says. “We started developing our business model at that point, and surfing these different bubble technologies. … Whatever’s the hot, trendy thing, we do, and we’re able to shift gears very, very quickly between those different things.”
Hardin hired Resnick the following fall, and now the two run the show. Equally complimentary of one another, both say their relationship contributes to the company’s success.
“I definitely am more of a big-picture guy, and Scott is more of a details guy,” Hardin says. “It’s good, because there are things that I can do as a result of that that Scott can’t do and vice versa.”
Entrepreneurship in flux
From left: Matt Togstad, Scott Resnick and Jon Hardin are three of the four full-time employees at Hardin Design & Development.
Hardin and Resnick’s experience highlights a growing trend among college graduates. More and more young people in Wisconsin are starting their own businesses. So much so, that both UW-Whitewater and UW-Madison offer undergraduate degrees in entrepreneurship, and UW-Madison offers a youth entrepreneur camp for junior high school students.
Professor Joan Gillman, director of special industry programs at UW-Madison, sees a huge drive to make entrepreneurship a part of academics throughout Wisconsin’s four-year, two-year and technical schools.
“We plant the idea for starting businesses in the high schools,” Gillman says. “There is a huge drive to make entrepreneurship a part of all curriculum.”
Small Business Development Center locations throughout Wisconsin help to do just that. According to the consortium’s 2008 annual report, the 12 business centers and four specialty centers are available to any Wisconsin resident looking to start a business. The business centers, located at each of the four-year campuses in the UW system, focus on education, counseling and outreach for small-business owners.
But that’s only the beginning. UW-Whitewater’s Innovation Service Center helps entrepreneurs make smart decisions about new products or services. The center analyzes all aspects of a new businesses’ development, from profitability, to supply and demand, to market size and existing patents.
According to their website, the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs’ Network⎯a joint venture of the UW-Extension and the Wisconsin Department of Commerce⎯aims to “provide seamless access to a statewide network of entrepreneurial resources and expertise to create new ventures.” This network connects entrepreneurs to service organizations and economic development groups around the state and also helps Wisconsin entrepreneurs connect to one another.
“The program fosters collaboration among these groups,” says Kim Kindschi, executive director of the UW-Extension Division of Entrepreneurship & Economic Development. “We are very focused on using human resources and intellectual resources wisely.”
The focus on entrepreneurship, particularly among young people, comes at a time when the economy sits in disrepair and job security dwindles. The poor economy, paired with young people’s lack of a nest egg, propels some to start a business.
“This recession is hitting young people harder, I think, than recessions have in the past,” Gillman says. “The recruiting has slowed. So when you’re young and you have little to lose, what’s a little more risk?”
Balancing the risks
While it’s true that many young people may not have much to lose should their businesses fail, there are several risks unique to this group. Gillman cites lack of focus, undercapitalization and an inability to match supply and demand as key challenges for young entrepreneurs. But the biggest risk, she says, is their lack of experience.
“If you’re just going into something, you have no idea how to run a business,” Gillman says.
Other Small Business Development Centers around the state echo this concern, emphasizing a lack of a support network among young startups.
“On the other hand, you don’t have a large network,” says Steve DeWald, director of the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at UW-River Falls. “Most service businesses are sold by word of mouth. You’ve got to get out there and work that network.”
Gillman and DeWald agree that the benefits of entrepreneurship outweigh the risks, while others, like UW-Oshkosh SBDC Director Robert O’Donnell, worry people will get carried away in the startup process.
“Patience is the hard thing,” O’Donnell says. “We have a tendency to look for instant gratification. We think, ‘If I make it, they will come.’ We have to focus on customers’ needs.”
Hardin and Resnick have fallen prey to this impatience in the past, and they recognize this as one of the pitfalls of quick success.
“When companies start making a lot of money, the temptation is to grow really fast,” Hardin says. “We grew to the point where we had a staff of at least 40. Literally, 30 of those people, their jobs are now all done by Scott.”
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.”
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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.