Weber State College Comment, July 1989, Page 8 rent Jacox and Brian Noble sat in a spacious office headquarters of their software company, computers humming softly in the background. The two Weber State students and a third partner, William Reid, formed Softwareldeas in April of 1986, and though Jacox and Noble have yet to graduate they have developed a company with an impressive list of clientele and a healthy bottom line. “Our very first meeting was in Brian’s base. A few people could handle thousands of sites,” Jacox added. The three presented and implemented the program at the Vail, Colo. company in June, and the company was very pleased, Noble said. “This is a completely new program— no one has done anything like this before—and we were fortunate enough to be picked,” he said. Besides the program for radio stations Softwareldeas is working on a 911 emergency health information data bank, and has already developed a full-color satellite weather information system marketed by a Salt Lake City-based meteorological firm, a scanning program designed to convert pictures into digitalized data, and many other programs. “Our focus has changed a lot since we first started,” Noble said. “Our ideas were not near as big then as they are now. Most of our ideas now are much more sophisticated.” : Noble estimated that their company could grow from its current 1988 gross income of $100,000 to 10 times that size in the next few years, he said, and judging by their to-date record the $1 million mark is not unrealistic. In 1986, their first year, gross income was $10,000. In 1987 that figure jumped to $36,000, and last year their total income was $100,000. Brent Jacox (left) and Brian Noble (right), both still students at WSC, work on a software program involving satellites and radio stations. basement,” Jacox recalled. “We each contributed $120 and talked about focus and direction. Then we began with the huge $360 base.” “Now we have a coffee table (in the office) that costs that much,” Noble added. SoftwareIdeas develops custom computer software for a wide variety of purposes, Nobel said. Currently the company is focusing on computer up-links with satellites, working specifically on a computer system that will collect data from associated radio stations to allow a centralized station the ability to monitor a number of locations from afar. “FCC regulations require that someone be in the radio station 24 hours a day. During the night hours someone puts in a tape of the evening program and basically twiddles his thumbs the rest of the night,” Jacox said. “This project makes it possible not to have a human there. The computers in the studio monitor security, the power and other things, and if there’s a problem it sends an alarm up to the satellite and then down to the control computer at the main ‘“‘We’re along ways from where we want to be right now, but our growth will be just a matter of time,” Noble said. When the three first started they worked out of a converted storage room (“We called it the hole—very meager beginnings,” Jacox said.) and used a hodgepodge of mismatched, donated furniture. “Some months it would be sad to say what our take-home pay was,” Jacox said. “But we worked hard.” “When you think about it, though, we’re doing what we want to do, and to be able to be involved in these kinds of projects is pretty exciting,” he added. During the past year as the economic fortunes of the company improved Softwareldeas moved into a spacious office complex in Bountiful, oak desks and all. “We’ve come a long ways from our beginnings,” Noble said. “We’ve learned a lot, but sometimes we had to learn things the hard way.” The newness of both the company and its owners (none of the three is over 25) has scared away some potential customers, and made initial contracts difficult to come by, Jacox said. “There’s a mentality against youth. People want to see that you have several successive degrees or that you have worked for other big companies. The companies are going to spend some money and they’re rightfully concerned,” Jacox said. But Noble, Jacox and Reid are confident that, in the end, their work will speak for itself. To date the software company has had some major clients that were very satisfied, and that has helped other companies to look at end results instead of age, Noble said. “We’ve never really had to do marketing. People know about us by word of mouth,” he said. Eventually, Noble would like to see the company develop and market their own projects, instead of doing programs for others. That allows for maximum control, excitement and financial gain, he said. “We’ve learned a lot about how to do those things, and soon we’ll be ready to step onto higher ground,” he said. “We can see better what our future is and what we want to do,” Noble added. Jacox and Noble are both seniors at Weber State, but they admit that owning a successful business has made it difficult to continue their schooling. “School is now a completely different focus. Education has become more of what do I want to learn instead of what do I have to take to graduate. We need the degree as proof of our education, but we want to learn. That makes it difficult to take some of the classes we need just to graduate,” Jacox said. “But I don’t want to knock college education. I personally am grateful to the college. I received my entrepreneurial spirit from Weber State,” he said. The fathers of the three have had a hand in helping the fledgling company—Dr. Gordon Jacox is the director of the small business center at Weber State, Reid’s father is an accountant, and Noble's father works for the government and has contract experience—but it was the “full-time, plus” effort of the owners that brought about success. “It hasn’t been easy, but regardless of how things turn out we’ re glad we’ve done it. Things keep looking brighter and brighter,” Noble said. Softwarelde