By Lauren Cooper
3 December 2007

Sitting in his business mathematics class at Miami University of Ohio, Matt Dopkiss noticed he was getting an incoming call from a number he didn’t recognize. He ducked out of class to take the call only to learn it was opportunity calling.

During their freshman year in 2004, Dopkiss, 23, and his high school pal and Xavier University graduate Bobby Whitman, 22, started dynamIt Technologies, a Web engineering, design, and development firm. It’s been booming ever since. In fact, that unknown caller in Dopkiss’ math class turned out to be the BBC, which wanted dynamIt to design a YouTube-like application and build a database program for the network’s website.

dynamIt’s clients range from local churches and lawyers to national corporations such as textbook giant McGraw-Hill, which is also based out of Columbus, Ohio. The young company has already done a project for Save the Children in London, a Flash piece for the Associated Press, and online banners for Pizza Hut, as well. The founders had wanted to make their online content "dynamic," so the play on words is how the company got its unique name.

Coming of age

The duo manages a staff of around 12 people at any given time, mostly full-time employees. While nearly all of the production takes place at office space in Columbus, the company has a sales rep in Pennsylvania covering the east coast and a developer contracting out of Austin. With the exception of that sales rep in his 30s, the rest of the team is in its late teens and early 20s; in fact, some haven’t even graduated college.

"We’re growing out of this, but our age is a deterrent sometimes," said Nick Seguin, director of operations at dynamIt. "People have given us the are-you-serious look when we walked into meetings."

But age is just a number, and the company’s numbers speak for themselves. dynamIt posted profits of over $100,000 in 2006, but projects $700,000 for 2007. The team has seven-digit figures in its sights for 2008.

Whitman said they recently heard back from a company to whom they had sent a project proposal a year ago; only this time the company got back in touch with them.

"It was evident how far we’d come in a year," Whitman said.

Earning a reputation

Yet just because they’re young doesn’t mean everything tech-related comes naturally to the Web generation. The team challenges itself to stay on top of new tech trends and Internet innovations.

"Everything’s always changing," Dopkiss said. "If you stop learning, you stop getting paid. You always need to be on the cutting edge or you date yourself."

To avoid being left on the bench, dynamIt works hard to play with the heavy hitters. Its hallmark product is a content management system that allows clients to easily update information on their own websites. Rather than billing by the hour to make changes, dynamIt charges users a monthly subscription fee to use the program. This system not only gives clients freedom of expression and easy accessibility, it also frees up the staff’s time to explore more forward thinking.

Unlike more established firms that are set in their ways, dynamIt can approach a problem from any angle.

"In big companies, the methods are standard operating procedures," Seguin said. "We’re evolving methods."

While Dopkiss and Whitman are technically the CEO and President, respectively, these modern business owners follow a Silicon Valley-esque office model that discourages hierarchy to enforce a sense of teamwork. Everyone has roles, but they don’t even put official titles on their business cards.

"Someone once told me to never let your ego get in the way of your business," Dopkiss said. "If you get caught up in those thoughts, you’ll never succeed because you’re focused on yourself."

Balancing act

Their success was hard earned, especially when the guys had to juggle both classes and clients. Being a college student can be stressful enough, and physics finals weren’t the only thing these entrepreneurs worried about.

During his sophomore year of college, Dopkiss, a physics major, recalls getting a call from a venture capitalist firm while he was studying for an exam later that night. The potential business associate wanted to know if he could make a 9:00 a.m. meeting the next morning. Not wanting to hurt his credibility, Dopkiss promised to be there. After the test, he hopped in his car and drove nine hours to upper Michigan, a business suit in the backseat and a cup of coffee in hand.

"That was the type of commitment we had having a business while still being in school," Dopkiss said.

Dan Sauter knows that dedication well. A freshman at Miami University, he’s one of the youngest players on the already-young team. But he maintains that making phone calls and typing proposals for clients is the higher payoff, even when his friends are off playing basketball.

"It’s a little surreal what we’ve done in the last couple years," Sauter said.

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