November/December 2000 Issue of BizAZ Magazine

Crusaders of the Local Internet Community

By: Kathy Fecske

Directing Economic Development

1+1= 3 Jan Schaefer and Sheri Wakefield, the City of Tempe's Economic
Development Team, spearhead the movement, synergistically growing the
city's high-tech business sector.

If this were a popularity contest and all the Valley's cities were
competing, Tempe would undoubtedly be this year's homecoming queen.

"The Tech Oasis is the place where software and Internet firms prefer to be
located," asserts Jan Schaefer, 53, Economic Development Director for the
City of Tempe. "It's been branded as the social and networking 'place to
be' for tech firms." The core idea behind the partnership is to create an
environment that, according to Schaefer, "nurtures and promotes
collaboration, idea exchange and learning." And the high-tech,
Internet-focused companies are the part of the business equation who are
taking advantage of the burgeoning growth and redevelopment in the Tempe
Tech Oasis. It is there that the idea took life-an effort that was no
accident.

In 1997, Tempe ramped up efforts in targeting software and Internet firms
for location within the city. Companies on the forefront of change like
LeapSource, NeoPlanet, Incubate.com, E-Street Capital, Integrated
Information Systems and Opnix were some of the first to latch on to the
idea. "The Valley's economic health is contingent on remaining competitive
for the future," explains Schaefer. First approached by the Arizona
Software and Internet Association (AZSOFT.net) and the Arizona Internet
Professionals Association (AZIPA) to form the partnership, Tempe leaders
listened carefully and jumped at a golden opportunity that no other city
seemed to recognize at the time. The goal of the partnership was to create
a Tech Oasis-a geographic cluster of software/Internet companies in and
around downtown Tempe. Schaefer stresses that, "Ultimately, the vision for
the cluster is to spread it throughout the Phoenix metropolitan region."

In early summits, a certain criteria was set forth for those seeking to
become "ground zero" for the Tech Oasis. Tempe met most of the criteria:
presence of a major research university (ASU); availability of bandwidth;
coffee shops, restaurants and services within walking distance of offices;
places to live, work and play nearby; airport access; and plenty of office
space. "The timing was serendipitous," exclaims Schaefer. "America West was
just moving into their new office building, existing office space was
available, the Tempe Town Lake was about to be completed and new office
space (the Brickyard on Mill Avenue) was starting construction." And so it
seems. Within one year of talks that began in August 1999, almost 300,000
sq. ft. of new and existing office space in downtown Tempe was leased.

While locally the efforts have proven to work in attracting the right
companies to the area, more, of course, needs to be done. "Nationally
branding Tempe as ground zero for the Tech Oasis in Arizona will be the
next challenge," explains Schaefer. "Working with the New Economy Task
Force to facilitate growth of bandwidth; increasing venture capital
opportunities and other initiatives that give Arizona a competitive
advantage; growing the Tech Oasis in concentric circles around Tempe;
working with developers on additional office space for these New Economy
companies-these are some of the issues that lie ahead."

"The compelling part of the Tech Oasis partnership, the impact most felt by
Arizona as a whole, is that it brings extraordinarily talented people,
extremely well-paying jobs and the opportunity to be part of the New
Economy," affirms Schaefer. "It keeps us living in the future and not in
the past." And while some may question the tremendous growth for Tempe's
high-tech business sector, Schaefer offers this rebuttal: "The impact on
the state can be nothing but positive." Because in the Internet Economy,
developing for the future makes much more sense then barely keeping up with
the past.

Ed Nusbaum Talks About Arizona's New Economy

"I really do believe that Arizona is very close to turning the corner on
having a fully-integrated, startup environment and ecosystem for Internet
companies."-Ed Nusbaum

Since landing in Arizona some five years ago, the 34-year old Ohio native
has ever so deeply impacted the local landscape of the Internet Economy. He
has quickly become the voice of Internet startups seeking investment, the
investor coaching the startups and the visionary that finds a home for
each. Nusbaum's original role as one of the visionaries behind his
brainchild, the Tempe Tech Oasis, is, without a doubt, far reaching.

Take one look at his laundry list of accomplishments and one thing is for
certain: he's been busy. Nusbaum co-founded AZIPA. He sits on the Board of
Directors for AZSOFT.net. He co-founded and currently sits on the Board of
Directors of the Tempe Tech Oasis. He serves on the Executive Committee of
Arizona Angels Investor Network. He is one of the founders of Opnix, a
VC-backed Internet infrastructure company and also helped to establish the
First Tuesday group in Phoenix. And Nusbaum's most current gig is that of
CEO for Stealthmode.com, a multi-disciplinary business development and
strategy firm specializing in coaching early stage Internet companies.

How did AZIPA develop?

EN: AZIPA was purposely and explicitly designed to be a catalyst to help
bring the community together-to help create the preconditions for a
vibrant, interconnected ecosystem of different groups and events. Up until
recently, you never saw AZIPA in the press-we explicitly avoided it for a
couple reasons. First, we already had enough trouble keeping pace with the
growth we already had-every time we found a new meeting location, we
outgrew it within a few months! Second, we wanted to preserve the community
and the character of the group for as long as possible. Now that we have
such a strong core, and as we are already pretty much too big to hide any
longer, wider exposure of the group in the press can hopefully no longer
possibly hurt the nature and culture of the group, but rather help extend
its value to the community and the industry.

Why AZIPA and why then?

EN: I was working on an Internet project at the time and had trouble
finding other people doing Internet stuff here in Arizona. I knew such
people were here, I just had no easy way of finding them. So I, instead,
ended up working with some people in New Mexico-people whom I easily
located because a friend from my college days at Duke University is the
co-founder and President of New Mexico Internet Professionals Association
(NMIPA). After spending three months in New Mexico working with the people
I had found through NMIPA, I came back to Arizona to round out the rest of
the team. But I still had trouble finding people. Then, while camping on a
mountaintop in Sedona, I met Scott McClaine, an entrepreneur working on an
Internet startup of his own who was facing the same problems. After some
discussion, AZIPA was born. We gathered together people we knew who were
doing Internet-related work and started to bring them together every month.
The first official meeting was held September 1998. AZIPA has since grown
to about 600+ attendees at our monthly events, 1600+ people on our e-mail
discussion list and 6000+ people on our general announcement list. All the
more impressive when you reflect that it has grown almost entirely by word
of mouth.

What is your motivation?

EN: Arizona is where I want to live. Internet and startups are what I love.
By helping build the industry here in Arizona, I help provide more
opportunities for both myself and everyone else.

So AZIPA has spawned other organizations in a sense?

EN: Yes, the existence of AZIPA and the AZIPA Discussion List has either
helped create or help grow many different events and groups including O2
(an entrepreneurs forum), First Tuesday Phoenix (an offshoot of an
international group that was founded in London), Tempe Tech Oasis, Tempe
Techie Tuesdays, WITI Phoenix (Women in Technology International), TiE (The
IndUS Entrepreneurs--an offshoot of a Silicon Valley Group), a Tucson
Internet Industry Happy Hour, The Northwest Internet Professionals
Association, a Scottsdale Internet Gathering, etc. etc. etc. AZIPA has also
helped existing groups such as AZSOFT.net and PLUG become better known and
prosper.

AZIPA clustered people in the industry, in a virtual sense, via the
discussion list and once a month at meetings. The Tempe Tech Oasis is
clustering them in a physical sense. The strength of any network is the
number of interconnections between its nodes. The vitality of an industry
is based upon a rich and varied ecosystem of interconnected events and
groups, companies and people. AZIPA has helped create the preconditions for
a vital and thriving industry in this state and I am very proud to be part
of this great community.

What do you see as one of the biggest obstacles companies face when taking
their business online?

EN: The biggest obstacle is the unwillingness to acknowledge that, with the
rise of the Internet and the Web, the world has fundamentally changed-and
what that means to their business. It is as if the law of gravity was
repealed and people were still trying their best to go about their business
as if nothing had happened. Ignoring it won't make it go away.

What is the speed your Internet connection runs on?

EN: I hate to admit it, but my house is in an area that currently cannot
get cable, DSL or wireless-and yes, I am indeed thinking of moving!

What was your first job?

EN: Cutting grass when I was around 12 or so, which is yet another reason
why I love Arizona with its grass-optional yards!