Skip to main content

Guest Speaker: Brian Forth


Brian Forth is the CEO and Co-Founder of SiteCrafting, a web-based application development company that started right here in Tacoma. Brian talked about how the idea of his startup started around the time when business websites were booming and the fact that he was one of the very few locals that were able to provide web development services, gave him the opportunity to start his company. The most surprising fact about Brian’s company throughout its 20 years so far in business is that he never had a marketing team—besides himself. This goes to prove that business can succeed through ear-to-ear networking based off the quality of the delivered products. As impressive as it is, we were also advised to not take the idea of not having a marketing team as part of our Business Plan. Additionally, one thing that impressed me the most was Brian’s genuine passion to help people through his company and what they do by providing high quality services and supporting local and small businesses with their best effort as much as larger business clients. Another emphasis that Brian brought up was the importance of workplace values and cultures. These do not only come on paper, but also in practice for Brian’s company. For example: his company’s office does not divide people based on their titles or positions, but rather having everyone in the same big room to encourage teamwork, collaborations, and sharing of ideas.  I think for the size of his company (~36 people if I recall correctly), the culture is very creative and makes the workplace more interactive and exciting. There were two things that I mainly took from Brian’s visit: business besides from bringing in profits, is also about putting your best effort and delivering the best possible products that you can make; workplace culture is also important in bringing people that you want to work with and creating an environment in which everyone can contribute, feel being part of the team, and shape the company’s dynamics.

x

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

3 Business Ideas

Coding Review/Mentoring As a CS student who only started learning about coding since freshman year of college and had to mostly learn coding styles, standards, and conventions on my own through classes (which I also feel that majority of CS students go through the same process), I feel that aren’t many resources established around school campuses that are dedicated to helping students learn these useful fundamentals. When it comes to English writing classes, there are writing centers, tutoring, even paper review services that are available to help students improve their writing skills. In the same way for coding, I think a business that aims to help students improving their coding skills, reviewing their codes, and giving feedback can be something that’s extremely helpful at the same time profitable. Obviously, the business idea is limited to the marketplace of only college students and younger adults. On top of that, CS programs around the local area are very strict on academic int...
Post a Comment
Read more

Shadrach White Visit

Shadrach White is the CEO of CloudPWR, who we had the opportunity to hear from as our final guest speaker. Shadrach started his vision around the year of 2010-2011 when he saw cloud computing as the next generation emerging technology that will be used widely. Too much of his back then business partners’ disagreement, who did not see cloud computing the same way as he does, Shadrach  left his old company and started what is now CloudPWR. Not only did he prioritize something that not a lot of people see then, Shadrach also has a different targeted market than majority of tech companies—government sector. He believes that this market is approachable, despite the fact that the government sector did not buy into cloud computing due to security risks at the time, and that if he were able to make connections, then it’ll be easier in the future to continue expanding his business in this market. And it sure did, Shadrach’s company to this date is working with at least 100 clients aroun...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pricing The Product/Service

To decide the prices for our business’s service, I looked at some of the popular nation-wide delivery services and their pricing. For example Amazon charges its members $15/month on top of a $8.25-$10.25/month Prime subscription, which eventually is a $23-$25 for their grocery delivery service. Assuming an average consumer spends 3-4 grocery trips every month, that’d be between $6.25-$8 per trip.   Vons is also another grocery delivery service, whose parent company is Safeway, offers same-day delivery. For purchases of $150 or more, Vons charges $9.95 for their delivery service. For purchases less than $150, the price goes up to $12.95. This company’s service pricing is obviously much higher than Amazon and what our business anticipated. However, it also proves that there are business models out there that can still profit off much higher pricing in exchange for the convenience that they offer. For being a local business with the advantage of time and place convenience ...
Post a Comment
Read more