Tech Support

A company collection of Hacky Sacks gets frequent use at Ednetics. The duct-tape patches are proof.

Shawn Swanby, Ednetics’ 26-year-old CEO, is usually up for a spur of the moment game in the parking lot. So is his technical services manager, his systems engineer and his office manager.

“The whole company plays,” Swanby said. “When we interview, it’s a question we ask (job candidates).”

Swanby consider Hacky Sack good stress relief for his employees, who spend hours on the phone with clients unsnarling computer problems. The games are also one of the informal ways that ideas flow between start-up companies at the University of Idaho Research Park.

The park, founded two years ago in Post Falls, has become a nurturing ground for budding high-tech companies.

Hacky Sack is part of the park culture. So are afternoon cookie breaks, computer games, intense stretches of work and late nights.

“We’re all a bunch of 20-somethings and 30-somethings,” said Jenny George, marketing assistant at LAM Technologies, another park tenant. “There are days of working through lunch, working late and taking work home.”

But it’s exciting to be part of a rapidly growing company, she said.

A half-dozen companies share space in the research park, which currently operates out of 7,500 square feet in the Riverbend Commerce Park. Most of the companies will expand their square footage when the park moves into its new building this fall.

The research park started with a gift of 28 acres from the Jacklin Land Trust. The Jacklin family, longtime UI supporters, wanted to boost the area’s economy and create high-paying jobs in North Idaho.

The long-term vision for the park is a 100-acre campus/office park along Interstate 90, where commercial ventures intersect with university research.

At the moment, however, “we’re more like an incubator,” said Doug McQueen, the park’s director. McQueen is slowly increasing the university’s presence in Post Falls. He’s also creating an environment to grow local tech companies.

Ednetics was the park’s first tenant. “I think it’s been a good portion of our success,” Swanby said.

Swanby launched Ednetics four years ago from his apartment. The company, which sells computer software and services to school districts, now employs nine people. Sales were about $500,000 last year. Swanby hopes to double revenues this year, and he’s mulling time lines for opening a Boise office.

“If we were in our own little store, even in Post Falls, we wouldn’t have the ability to bounce ideas off of other people,” Swanby said. “It builds confidence.”

Before Ednetics finalized its new logo, for instance, he asked other park tenants for feedback. McQueen has become a mentor as well.

Swanby said he’s picked up valuable management and communication skills from the 54-year-old park director, who occasionally joins in the Hacky Sack games.

“He’s a friend, and we do business together, too,” said Swanby, who provides computer services to the research park.

David Minerath echoes Swanby’s remarks.

“(McQueen) has been a big help for a young buck trying to start a company,” said Minerath, a 36-year-old engineer and president of Quest Integration. “He’s a big proponent of making sure my company is productive and growing.”

Quest Integration sells manufacturing and engineering software. Being in the park has increased the company’s exposure and credibility, Minerath said.

At the park’s grand opening, Minerath gave a speech to a crowd that included U.S. Sens. Larry Craig and Mike Crapo. It’s also a boost for him to work in a building where the director of the UI Engineering School regularly drops by. “The networking here is incredible,” Minerath said.

Mike Kennedy ended up in the park when he opened a sales and marketing office for LAM Technologies, a Virginia company that puts college applications online.

Kennedy needed high-speed Internet access and use of laser and color printers. But he didn’t want to invest a lot of money in equipment during the start-up stage.

The park provided both. “Now we’re on our feet,” Kennedy said of LAM Technologies, which projects $3 million in sales this year.

The park’s atmosphere reminds Kennedy a little bit of college.

“I spend a lot of time plopping down in other offices, talking about everything from how to get my e-mail routed to what’s the best approach to hiring a sales manager,” Kennedy said. “It’s nice to have that camaraderie.”

He also benefits from the networking. Through McQueen, Kennedy met officials from UI’s International Studies program. The meeting eventually led to the contract for LAM Technologies.

“I think in his heart of hearts, he’s an entrepreneur,” Kennedy said of McQueen. “Entrepreneurs flat have the ability to get it done.”

The most tangible evidence of McQueen’s work at the research park is the new, $2.3 million building, paid for with federal grants.

The building will be completed this fall. McQueen has tenants lined up for the entire 30,000 square feet. He’s starting to plan for a second building.

Most of the tenants are “small, local, home-grown companies,” McQueen said. “If they know you have space, they want to move in tomorrow.”

As the park matures, its character will change. McQueen expects to attract larger companies in the future who will build their own buildings. He’s also working with companies in the adjacent Riverbend Commerce Park to develop cooperative relationships with the university.

UI’s engineering school, for instance, has contacted Tapmatic Corp. about using students to help design new products. The Post Falls company produces tapping attachments, which are used in metals fabrication. While Tapmatic President Mark Johnson said he didn’t have any immediate needs, he’s open to the idea.

However the park grows, nurturing start-up companies will probably always be a priority, McQueen said. “We’re building a model that works for our area and works for our stage of development,” he said.

That’s good news for local entrepreneurs.

“I really didn’t want to be in a strip mall next to a cigar shop,” Minerath said.

This sidebar appeared with the story: PARK HISTORY

Plans for the University of Idaho Research Park began in 1997, with a gift of land from the Jacklin Land Co.

The company gave 28 acres to the university for the park, adjacent to the Riverbend Commerce Park.

As the 300-acre Riverbend Commerce Park fills up, the Jacklin family has agreed to give UI an additional acre of land for every three that sells.

North Idaho College also operates its Workforce Training Center in the area.

“We’re trying to make this one-stop shopping for high-tech companies looking at expanding and relocating,” said Pat Leffel, manager of the Riverbend Commerce Park.

If companies need assistance training workers, the Workforce Training Center is there. If they have research and development needs, the UI research park is there, Leffel said.