Two 2005 EMBA graduates launch their own company and get national recognition in New York

In Winter quarter 2005, two EMBA - North America 6 students Brian Johnson and Sol Lipman were doing some late night studying and discussing the use of flash drives to transport their school work. They discussed how useful these small devices were, and that their capacity had become large enough to hold a huge amount of data. Intuitively, they also knew that these were another electronic commodity that would only become cheaper and gain more capacity over time. "Bad business to be in" However, something seemed missing. Both agreed that the use of the devices was a boring experience, and that something so valuable in storing data, so small and durable, and so highly distributed could be better. Then it hit them, the potential for these small devices was not in making the device itself, but by making an operating system for flash drives that would make them much more useful.

They quickly went to work using all of their recently learned tools to research the market, understand the technology, and determine if there was underlying merit in the idea that would justify forming a company. They decided that there was.

Two months after graduation, they quietly formed and incorporated Sticky, Inc in California. They used personal money and borrowed money from friends and family, and continued to work day jobs for several months while developing the technology supporting their idea.

In January 2006, Sticky, Inc introduced an Alpha release of their first product Stickydrive at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Stickydrive, an operating software platform for removable memory, that provides a useful interface, organizes digital content, and most important, enables applications to be portable inside flash drives, iPods, even cameras.

In March 2006, Sticky Inc released Stickydrive in a public beta, and received hundreds of downloads within the first few days.

In April 2006, Sticky Inc applied against over 1200 early stage companies across the country to have the opportunity to present their company to an elite group of 70 venture capital firms in New York. Of the 1200 companies, only 20 companies were selected to attend. After 3 grueling days of meetings and presentations, the organizers of this even recognized Sticky, Inc. as the most promising early stage company of this event. This recognition was accompanied by an investment into the company by the Principals of FundingPost.

Brian and Sol say they still have a long way to go, but are excited to receive this recognition as validation of their idea. The also both agreed that they never would have pursued this idea if they had not attended the MBA program at the UW.

Sticky, Inc is actively looking for further funding and resources to execute their business plan. If you are interested in talking to them and helping fellow alumni, their contact information is below.

Brian Johnson
Seattle Office: 253.880.3299

Sol Lipman
Santa Cruz Office: 831.621.3827