High-Tech Sector Needs Marketing
Maybe what Spokane’s under-appreciated high-tech sector needs is some more “cowboy logic.” And better marketing.
Thursday’s upbeat software sector business rally at SIRTI drew about 125 people from more than 60 companies.
It was the Economic Development Council’s Summer Rally. A good crowd on a hot summer morning, lively discussion and a focus on the area’s pluses, not minuses, combined to provide a midsummer shot of self-esteem for a sector saddled with negative perceptions.
The homespun cowboy wisdom came from Fred Brown, chairman and chief executive of LineSoft.
Brown, at 40 still a top rodeo calf roper, told the crowd, “I’m a professional cowboy. That’s my true love.”
His love for Spokane is evident, too. His family roots are deep and he did his undergraduate engineering work at Gonzaga University before getting his master’s at Texas A&M.
His 11-year-old company, now in the Spokane Valley, consults and produces software to help utilities plot power lines and decide transmission loads. He has a staff of 135, which grows by 15 or 20 a month. LineSoft has seven products on the market and 18 more in development.
But Brown said he still puts employees and customers ahead of technology in his business.
His corporate culture demands that “everyone plays a part” and includes a major dose of “cowboy logic,” which Brown said is “simple-minded common sense, such as, your word needs to be good.”
He also tries to eliminate “can’t” from his company’s vocabulary.
The straightforward approach has been successful. LineSoft recently secured $26 million in venture capital to fund expansion of its operations.
The rally’s other key speaker was Chris Kelly, a 1977 Gonzaga Prep grad who went to Stanford and consulted and worked for 20 years for high-profile Silicon Valley companies such as Apple and Cisco. Kelly, 41, has moved back home to help start Wobbly World, a “travel media concept” company.
Kelly said Spokane needs to think of itself as more than just the center of the Inland Northwest. “Our major trading area really extends west of the Tri-Cities, with Yakima and Wenatchee on the cusp, south to Baker, Ore., and east all the way to the Dakotas.” One bit of evidence, he said, was that theatergoers from that extended area came to Spokane for Phantom of the Opera last winter.
Kelly’s point was that the larger trade area has more than 2 million people and is growing at a faster rate than many larger metro trade areas.
Not lacking in grand vision, Kelly even compared the development of his alma mater, Stanford, from horse-farm country by railroad magnate Leland Stanford and the evolution of the Silicon Valley, to what might be possible in this region - with money.
“If we can make the same thing happen with Washington State University, the corridor between Spokane and WSU and the University of Idaho could become another Silicon Valley,” Kelly said, drawing some doubtful laughter.
He cited other once-dubious plans, such as Walt Disney’s wild idea to build a theme park in a California orange grove - critics said “it had to be near the ocean, with a pier” - and the development of the remote Irvine Ranch, now home to half a million people.
“They built the community from scratch. The point is, everything starts from scratch. And we don’t have to start from scratch,” Kelly said. “We already have a strong downtown and a financial center and good schools.”
There are 37,000 students in the area’s four-year institutions, he said. “If we can keep 10,000 of them here for growing our firms and for startups, then we can grow the industry.”
Kelly added: “We need to build on the things we have. For one thing, there is no traffic in Spokane. Just because you stop for a light doesn’t mean there’s a traffic jam,” he said to more laughter.
Kelly praised efforts to build “a sense of excitement” in downtown Spokane. “Now only some of the sidewalks roll up at 5 p.m.,” he joked. “But this is the beginning of what I saw in Palo Alto 15 years ago. In five or 10 years, we can have a really lively downtown here.”
Kelly praised the redevelopment work of Ron Welles, Tom Power and Rob Brewster, “all working on exciting re-use of old space.” He also suggested using some of Spokane’s “empty old buildings” as “equipment hotels for Web businesses that need a geologically stable location to house (computer network) servers and other back-office stuff.”
After the rally, he said the area doesn’t necessarily need a huge high-tech company to locate here to build the industry. “You don’t need to look for a savior, although with the right elements, one might come,” he said.
Noting that in Chinese the same symbol is used for both crisis and opportunity, Kelly said, “Instead of focusing on the crisis side, we should focus on the opportunity here.”
EDC President Mark Turner told the crowd that 10 “projects” have made commitments to locate in Spokane, which could eventually produce a total of 1,800 new jobs. He also said the EDC is re-examining its recruitment-heavy mission and wants to help local companies create more jobs.
Turner said later that defining jobs as strictly high-tech positions is difficult, but more than half of those potential new jobs would be “technical in their orientation.”
Turner added that he was surprised to see the interest level Thursday. “It might indicate the beginning of a critical mass for the high-tech industry,” he said.
EDC Chair Jan Ekstrom agreed with Kelly that a regional high-tech presence can grow from Moscow through Pullman and Spokane to Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene. But, she added, more people should know about what we already have.
“We need a marketing plan,” she said.
And maybe Fred Brown’s combined talents to help rope and tie down a few more high-tech stock prospects or spin-offs.