Derek Mebus and Dave Ward give a friendly nod to Charles P. Steinmetz
every morning when they enter their new office building on lower Erie
Boulevard.
A large portrait of Steinmetz adorns the lobby of the renovated
1896 building where “the Wizard of General Electric” carried out his work alongside
another industrial luminary, Thomas Edison.
Mebus and Ward recently moved their Web development and
hosting firm, Tree Top Solutions, out of U-START, the College's Nott Terrace business
incubator, and into the roomier painted red-brick building known as Erie
Crossings. As if they could forget the historical significance of their new
digs, their landlord has a collection of items, some of which were saved during
the renovation: an Edison light bulb, an Edison
record player and phonographs, and photographs of General Electric's early
days.
They share an office suite with a financial planner and an advertising
firm, both of which have become project partners. Another office neighbor, computer
hardware firm Artela Systems, is the only other U-STAR business to graduate
from the incubator.
Treetop had its start when Mebus and Ward were sophomore
dorm mates who discovered a shared passion for writing Web sites for friends.
Their hobby became a business that features design, hosting and a lot of boosterism
for the rebirth of a city and a region that they say is becoming increasingly
attractive to young grads like themselves.
“We are using the revitalization of Schenectady
to say, 'Let's look at the opportunities for technology,'” said Ward. “If we're
successful, Schenectady will be
too.”
Tree Top Solutions (http://www.treetopdesign.com)
last spring launched Schenectadyi.com (http://www.schenectadyi.com),
a site that promotes the region with news, business listings, online shopping,
entertainment calendars and chat rooms. Their 15 clients include the College's
MBA program (http://www.mba.union.edu/)
and the bioethics distance education program http://www.bioethics.union.edu/.
Tree Top is developing pages for Schenectady
City Hall and for the Schenectady
County Chamber of Commerce. They hope to use the Chamber page to attract
business from some of the nation's other 3,000 Chambers.
When Schenectady Chamber President Charles Steiner approached
Ward and Mebus with an idea to drive people to the chamber's site, they started
work on a system through which site visitors could accumulate points toward
goods or services provided by Chamber members. Steiner's idea was borne from a
placemat he saw at a Burger King restaurant. “We don't ever say what you cannot
do,” said Ward. “Everything you can think of … we can do it on the Web.”
Tree Top generates revenue through selling ads on their
pages and by charging clients fees for development and hosting. As for a
business plan, the pair says they have a focus on developing a product, but
that flexibility is key to their success. “In our business, you have to play it
by ear,” said Mebus. “(The technology) is changing every three months. We can't
be restricted by projections.”
Ward, a native of Greenbay, Wis.,
graduated last June with a degree in economics. He is pursuing an MBA with the
College. Mebus, of Pleasantville, Westchester County, is completing courses at
Union for a bachelor's in computer science. Ward is the administrator and
salesman; Mebus is the programmer. They hope to add a sales position shortly.
The pair confess to having mixed feelings about moving out
of the nurturing environment of U-START, but in the end it came down to needing
more room to grow. “When we thought about it, moving out of the incubator was
really a no-brainer,” said Ward. “That's what we're supposed to do.”