Reported by Dave Alley
"Startup tech companies" are popping up all over the central coast. Some say it's a risk--- but others, are focusing on the rewards.
One year ago, Andrew Demille and two partners created Edufii.com and ventured out into the great unknown.
"Making that leap of faith sometimes moms think you're crazy doing it, but for me it's been the best thing ever. We've got a long ways to go, but I couldn't be happier," Demille says.
The locally based sports coaching software website is just one of thousands of tech businesses that are created annually nationwide each year.
"It's part fake it until you make it and I think it's part just believing in what you're doing. We have such a big picture of where this is going to go and that it makes so much sense."
Make no mistake, it can take a lot of dollars and cents to create any business, especially in the tech industry like Eduffi.
"We've probably got a couple hundred thousand sunk into the business and to really take it over the next year, the capital cost will probably be a million dollars over the next twelve months."
Its been less than 12 months since Jose Huitron left his stable job and created "Hub 81," an integrated marketing agency.
But unlike Edufii, which has seven employees and uses innovative software designed by remote developers, creating Huitron's solo start up has been less complicated.
"The barriers to entry are very few. All I need is a computer, internet access and create a domain, a website and I'm good to go."
That's because technology has made getting into the tech business for some less technical and less expensive.
"You don't have to pay for the infrastructure. You don't have to pay for the servers, the technology, the hardware."
Creating business may be the easiest part, actually generating business is anything but.
"You don't just build it and hope they will come, because they don't come if you just build it."
Instead, it takes considerable talent, effort and persistence to attract and maintain consumers.
"You've go to be strategic and you've to find who you can connect with that will lead to some great opportunities for some new business, for some growth."
The central coast has seen tremendous growth in the tech industry recently particularly because of the talent pool.
Margaret Rosas of Techraising says, "With the colleges that are there, all of those towns a lot of them have colleges that are serving as hubs and also feeders."
There are also various local resources available, such as the SLO Hothouse, A Business Incubator in San Luis Obispo, and Techraising, an organization in Santa Cruz.
"We serve as an introduction to people who are looking for guidance."
Created itself two years ago, Techraising has helped at least ten businesses go from dream to reality.
"It helps people bring together a team and get an idea that's solid and kind of play with it for a while before you try and go build a business," says Rosas.
Funding a startup can come in many forms, such as traditional methods like finding an "angel investor" or borrowing or using personal finances. But entrepreneurs are also using new, innovative methods as well, like websites that are now designed to specifically raise money.
"They're doing presales on sites like Kickstarter, so doing "crowdfunding," where you're preselling product."
Edufii has used several methods to finance its creation and is now set to raise even more capital by utilizing one of these popular sites..
"Ee are also going to be doing a crowdfunding campaign through IndieGoGo," says Demille.
Sites such as IndieGoGo, Kickstarter, Investdin and Peerbackers to name a few, allow anyone and everyone the opportunity to help create the next tech sensation.
"Ee're reaching out to everybody in the community to jump on board and invest anything that they can because that's how it's going to take from where we are right now to really being able to launch it into the big time."
For those who do invest, they may be helping not just that business, but also the Central Coast as well.
Michael Manchak, of Economic Vitality Corporation, says, "There is a tremendous benefit to helping companies start here and grow here and once they are here, the principals tend to stay here and thus the jobs stay here."
While leaving a job is a roll of the dice, those that do and make the entrepreneurial jump say it's worth the risk.
"Here I am the master. I can paint my masterpiece and my own masterpiece in how far I want to go, where I want to go and what I see and want to accomplish, so I'm the creator of my own success and there's nothing that can compete with that."
Tech-raising is already planning for this year's event, which will be held in October. They also hold monthly meet-ups. One is set for January 24th in Santa Cruz!
