Interview with Evan Tishuk of OrangeCoat
July 24, 2008
I recently talked with Evan Tishuk of OrangeCoat, a “gourment” web-design shop in Greenville. We discussed his background, how OrangeCoat got started, and his views on Greenville as a technology town. If you know of anyone that would like to share their story with SCStartups, shoot us an email!
SCStartups: So you went to undergraduate at Clemson – what did you do after graduation?
Evan: I graduated in 2002, with a degree in Computer Information Systems.
I was working for Sclumburger when I graduated, which had a plant near Walhalla. For Comp Sci students, it was a great co-oping opportunity. I stayed there for a while, and then I looked at the situation and saw that I didn’t want to be a career person at a large corporation.
My next move was to Greenville, where I worked for a local website design shop, and I started doing design and programming for them. The company began doing really well and had a couple of good projects coming down pipe. We then brought Adam (Evan’s co-founder at OrangeCoat) on to work in a limited capacity doing public relations and copy writing.
As we were going to bid on a pretty big project, Adam and I made a move to get a little more buy-in within the company. We asked if we could have an ownership stake, and we were basically told to “get out.”
So, we said: “we can do this better on our own.” That was the start of Orange Coat. That was in late 2003.
How did you go about getting first clients? Did you have to moonlight?
It was a really bad time for doing anything on the web. The tech bubble had burst and there were ashes everywhere. We were not in a good position to float forever, but we did have low-overhead going for us.
We were living in Clemson and trying to scrounge up anything we could find. Our strategy was to just do the best possible work, even if we were making less than minimum wage. We figured if could build up a reputation and portfolio, then we could continue to raise our rates until we gained traction and word of mouth from our network helped us generate more business.
Our first year was pretty lean. We got audited by State Treasurer because they didn’t believe we made so little money.
Our first sizable project came from a Google ad – a $10,000 project. That kept the lights on and gave us confidence that we could succeed.
Did things ramp up from there?
Yeah, pretty slowly. We knocked out that project and learned the ropes of how to deal with clients. One of our biggest learning processes in our first few years was how to do project management. We had tons of energy but weren’t great at reading people and understanding the political implications of walking into a committee and making ten different people happy, justifying decision and instilling confidence in what we were selling. That is probably the biggest barrier to entry for people getting into business now, and it’s something we had to learn the hard way.
We took a slow approach to ramping up. We’re both fairly conservative. We just wanted to take a slow approach to growth. We just kept our heads down and kept working.
Did OrangeCoat ever try to raise any money?
Nope. Because OrangeCoat is a service, most investors were hesitant to fund us. Investors are almost always looking for “product-based” companies.
We did try to do a side project in 2006 that involved a marketplace for widgets. The idea was to create a marketplace to give designers an outlet to sell components that weren’t just themes. Buttons or forms would be an example. Then, buyers could purchase snippets of code to assemble their own theme a la carte. However, the standardization just wasn’t in place at the time, and we ran into some issues. We had a business plan and presentation built, but we ended up tabling the idea to concentrate full-time on OrangeCoat.
What really makes OrangeCoat different from other web design firms?
I think our approach is a little bit different. We compete against a lot of different sets of companies – marketing firms with big ideas that farm out execution, strict technology firms that stick to RFPs, and consultants that do a lot of the business strategy and a bit of implementation.
We feel like our niche is focused on the web, equal parts, design, strategy and technology.
Will you help customers launch and put a revenue plan together?
Yes, we have three basic groups of clients. Entrepreneurs that will come to us. We’ll help them flesh out a plan and give them some ideas they may not have considered. Basically, leverage our knowledge. Whether or not they can do anything is another thing, but we will often give them a very reduced rate if we like them and what they are doing.
Another client is a business that is already established – mid to large companies that can’t afford an internal web department. They outsource work to us and we fill that gap.
The final group is large businesses that want really high-end and top-notch web design for a one-off project. Some examples might be doing flash cd-roms or presentations for a company like Fluor.
At heart we are really generalists by choice, and that keeps our tools sharp. The web is changing too rapidly to get too crystallized in one way of doing things.
Part of our mission is to have a flywheel spinning as fast as we can get it and have it spinning on its own. We do this so we can create projects on our own that will generate interest and gain traction.
We’re working on a couple side-projects. Keep your eyes on our blog for news. (http://www.orangecoat.com/blog)
What has Greenville been like as a place to start a business and how is it growing as a technology town?
We started in Clemson, but 85 percent of our clients were in Greenville, so it made sense to move here. We weren’t looking to go anywhere too radical like New York City. Being Clemson alums, there’s a certain desire to stick around, because this is such a great part of the country.
The business climate here has been great. In the past couple of years, we’ve seen an accelerated interest in technology. There’s still a lot of work to do but we can definitely see progress.
One of the challenges in attracting bright people is that Greenville can be perceived as a place that is just “family friendly,” as opposed to other areas in the country that have more progressive reputations. Greenville isn’t there yet, but things are moving in the right directions. I’m excited to be here.
(Editor’s note: read more on Evan’s thoughts on Greenville on their blog - http://www.orangecoat.com/whats-greenvilles-message.)
If OrangeCoat could be anywhere in five years, where would that be?
I see OrangeCoat’s brand being synonymous with quality web design, and I’d like to see the idea of “gourmet” web-design grow. With OrangeCoat, it’s going to be tough to create something else under that name. I’d like to see OrangeCoat remain strong but move to the back seat as a blossoming side projects gains traction.
For myself, I hope to take a step back and enable a new group of people to take up the cause. Adam and I would like to have OrangeCoat at a place where, if we were to die in a plane crash coming back from Clemson National Championship, OrangeCoat would still exist.
Tech After 5
July 11, 2008
One of the better networking events for startups in the upstate is Tech After 5 - hosted by Phil Yanov and the GSA Technology Council. It’s a great opportunity to meet other entrepreneurs in the upstate and grab a beer. (Sometimes, they even have prizes!)
The next TA5 event is happening next Wednesday, July 16. Here are the details:
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Barley’s Taproom
25 W Washington St, Greenville, SC
Want more details? Check ‘em at the GSATC website.
See you there!
Revving the engine
July 7, 2008
Thanks for visiting the new South Carolina Startup blog. Per our name, we’ll be covering all of the latest happenings in the startup scene around South Carolina and also hopefully providing a central network for entrepreneurs in the state to gather and share information.
We’re looking for entrepreneurs and investors of all shapes and sizes to tell their stories as we get the blog off the ground. If you’d like to do an interview, publish a company announcement, or are interested in writing a guest article ping me at asteinb at gmail dot com.
Posts will start in the next week or so. If you want to follow the blog via twitter, follow AdamS472. Once Twitter decides to start working again we’ll setup a SCStartups account.
Thanks,
- Adam
Welcome to the South Carolina Startup Blog
July 3, 2008
SpringStage is a new startup founded by David Cohen, Alexander Muse and Micah Baldwin. Our objective is to build a network of online, offline and media properties in an effort to promote entrepreneurship. Our focus is on local community development and in an effort to generate local content we are looking for a writer who is connected to the regional startup scene to blog about startups, entrepreneurs, venture capital and interesting people in your area. If this sounds interesting apply online below: http://www.texasstartupblog.com/startups/startup-blog-network/
