BrainOrbit secures future

BrainOrbit, LLC was founded in spring 2002, by then 22-year-old MBA accounting student Justin Greis. The company was founded with the idea of helping clients with small-scale enterprise resource planning, creating CD-ROMs, Web sites, training and small business solutions. \nBut last spring, Greis and his four co-owners found themselves in quite a bind. The co-owners of BrainOrbit were about to graduate, which left Greis to manage the business on his own. He realized running a company and succeeding in school was an impossible task and needed to find a new staff in order to keep the company going.\nGreis began speaking to peers in his MBA class, hoping to find new team members that fit the mold of BrainOrbit. \nHe found exactly what he was looking for. \nIn April 2002, Greis selected a team of seven co-workers. Tom Coburn, chief financial officer, James Motter, chief operating officer, Mike Iwanski, chief marketing officer, Chris Hansen, chief web developer and Josh Simerman, chief technology officer joined Greis as co-workers to create new plans for BrainOrbit.\n"We started talking strategy this summer," Greis said. "I thought that BrainOrbit could be extremely beneficial to students a year below us if we formatted a plan to pass the company down each year." \nThe team began working with the plan this fall and they are still in the process of smoothing out wrinkles and finalizing ideas. So far they have made the executive decision to pass BrainOrbit on to younger peers, who they will train extensively in preparation for the co-owners' departure. \n"We started out with two information sessions targeting mostly MBA and Informatics students," Iwanski said. "Last week we had individual interviews with eight candidates in order to figure out whether or not they qualified for BrainOrbit, and if so, what position they would fill." \nThe team was highly impressed with the interviewees and added all eight to the associate group of BrainOrbit. \n"I'd like to start my own business one day, and BrainOrbit is a great place to get my feet wet and learn the reality of trying to be competitive in a market," said new associate Najeeb Ali.\nThe associate training will be very transitional as far as responsibility. The co-owners plan to gradually ease their new members in to the business so that they can run it on their own by the time graduation is upon them.\nThe co-owners also formed an advisory board for BrainOrbit consisting of three IU professors they selected.\n"The purpose of the advisory board is to keep our business going from year to year, to perpetuate business and job referrals and to just give us their experienced advice," Greis said. \nThe current advisers are Ramesh Venkataraman, chair of MSIS program, Anne Massey, chair of the Department of Information Systems and Dennis Groth, assistant professor of Informatics. \nBrainOrbit currently caters to 10 different clients, two that are extremely profitable. They provide service in Web design, custom Web applications, database construction and management, logo and graphic design, network installation and implementation, Intranet solutions and Web-based training.\nThe initial goal of the original BrainOrbit team was to maintain a short-term client relationship and get the job done as quickly as possible. \n"The ideal job no longer incorporates our original objectives," Greis said. "In the past, we couldn't make long-term contracts because we did not have continuity."\nBrainOrbit now upholds never-ending contracts that assure indefinite service to their clients.\n"If we build something for our clients, we'll be there no matter what," Greis said.\nIwanski focuses on obtaining clients and producing new ways to convince them to use BrainOrbit.\n"We target clients based on research that encompasses their particular needs," he said. "In the past, the clients were mostly referrals, but we are trying to move outward and target local, regional and surrounding business areas."\nThe participation of BrainOrbit alumni is still being finalized among the group. The co-workers know they want to be an accessible source to their partners, however, they are not quite sure of the extent of their involvement.\n"Normally in business, individuals are protective of their positions and try to push people down in order to work their way to the top," Motter said. "Here we're hoping they replace us."\nAs far as post-graduation plans, the co-workers gave different answers. Careers in IT consulting, public accounting, assurance services and even taking a year off were all mentioned. \n"I am so thankful to have had this opportunity," Kuebler said. "Being part of BrainOrbit was something I never imagined I would experience in college and I can't believe how much I have learned."\n-- Contact staff writer Lindsay Kaplan at lkaplan@indiana.edu.