Helping Startups Get on Their Feet: ASU Alumni
"If you want to build a ship, don't herd people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea."
-Antione de Saint-Exupery
This is one of Chris Chandler’s favorite quotes. And for good reason. Chandler and his business partner, Curtis Miller, operate Flatterline, a software engineering firm that specializes in the business and development needs of startups in Phoenix.
“I really like working with startups,” Chandler says, “they have such a high energy work environment and the people are so passionate. They really value the freedom to pursue their dreams.” In addition to professional software development, Flatterline also sponsors a number of events in the valley including Open Coffee and Startup Drinks.
Chandler’s career began with a team of five who received funding and office space from Arizona State University’s Edson Student Entrepreneur Initiative, a program that seeks to encourage entrepreneurially-oriented students to develop and grow new ventures based on their own concepts. His team’s project, Can I See Your Menu, brought restaurants online with their menus to promote patronage. During that time, Chandler made a number of valuable connections with local businessmen and mentors who were invaluable in the early stages of his career. In addition to the business work done on Edson Projects, Chandler also received support through the Fulton Undergraduate Research Initiative for work in wireless ad hoc networks while majoring in computer science.
Chandler feels strongly that the skills of business and research go hand-in-hand in today's competitive and aggressive market. “An engineer without an understanding of his entrepreneurial value is really just a tool in someone else's toolbox. It's about creating value for yourself and your endeavors.” Unfortunately, it isn't that easy, a technical understanding is no longer sufficient to survive in the technical startup arena- it takes a strong sense of business acumen as well. Thus, the question becomes: How do we bring this skill set into education?
Support from the Edson Student Entrepreneur Initiative and the Fulton Undergraduate Research Initiative gave Chandler a great start, but he believes what’s most important is integrating the philosophy of what it means to be enterprising throughout the student experience.
“If you’re a student, ask yourself: how am I going to use my education and experiences to better live my life? Try to see the college experience as a springboard of connections, education, and opportunities. No matter what your major is, you have the ability to go into business for yourself and do whatever it is that makes you happy.”
Submitted by Chris Chandler, ASU alumni and co-founder of Flatterline