Working for a technology consulting firm in high school, Ethan Wingfield '07 realized he could offer the same services to smaller businesses and nonprofits at lower prices.
Wingfield started élan Web Development, his fifth business, the summer before his first year at Brown. "Entrepreneurship is definitely in my blood," Wingfield said.
Ben Creo '07 joined him in spring 2004, along with a friend of Creo's studying at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. This fall, the three began working with Herald Copy Editor Zac Townsend '08, who had flirted with entrepreneurship since he started a small mutual fund in middle school.
In the seemingly ubiquitous world of Web design, Wingfield said élan has distinguished itself by combining high design quality with a "robust content management" system that allows customers to update their sites on their own, at any time and with minimal training.
"We're the only firm I know in the area that takes both of these together and provides them to their clients," Wingfield said.
Although élan has yet to become incorporated or develop a definitive business plan, it is already making a profit - much of which is reinvested. "The beauty of our business model, being pure consulting, is that we didn't have to prove ourselves," Wingfield said. "We could dive right in and do what we know ourselves capable of doing."
The Brown students recruit clients, assess their needs and do "mini-branding" work developing logos, but delegate the technical design component to others whom they pay on a contract basis.
"The great thing about that for clients (is) that when they come in with a unique set of needs, we don't have a staff group of people, we go out and find people who meet their exact needs," Wingfield said. But he added that élan does not simply serve as a middleman. "We work with (clients) through the entire process," Wingfield said.
Although Creo's father's law firm was one of its first clients, élan has moved beyond its initial business of "several thousand dollar" engagements with lawyers, architectural firms and accounting groups. They are currently working on the Brown Hillel Web site.
"When you're just starting off, it's important who you know," Creo said. After that, he said success depends on providing a good service and "referrals, referrals, referrals."
All three members agreed that being half the age of many clients has not hurt them. "People have an automatic assumption that young people are good with technology and that they bring youthful tech savvy to this sort of work," Wingfield said.
"There is an instant legitimacy lent to us by coming from Brown - we're not just like any three college students," Townsend said. "Some people occasionally have apprehensions, but once they talk to us ... they realize we're really well organized."
Each of the three members has a multitude of extra-curricular commitments - Wingfield recently resigned from UCS, but Creo serves as Campus Life Chair and Townsend as Communications Chair. Given their varied interests, élan's future trajectory generates much internal discussion. Regardless, all three of them plan to stick with the business in the near future.
"I wouldn't define any of our challenges as unique to us. They are challenges any small business deals with," Townsend said. "We want to grow, so how do we grow?"
Wingfield agreed that their future could take several different directions. For now, he hopes they will continue to build on their success. "Who our clients are now may not be who our clients are in a year. Adapting the model to that is a process that requires a lot of thinking and discussion and healthy argument," Townsend said.
But for now, the three entrepreneurs remain college students. "Anyone involved with business at this level as an undergrad already think to themselves 'Am I starting work too soon? Have I stopped being a student too soon and evolved at too fast a rate?' " Creo said. "Every person who does this will answer in the same way: 'This business is a learning experience. I love what I do.' "
"We don't sleep, we work really, really hard, and you can't do this unless you really care about the people you're helping," Wingfield said. "Between those three things we manage a really good business and keep clients happy."
