Jeff Monroe didn’t see a difference between the creativity of the artist and the creativity of the software engineer, so he co-founded a company that melded the two and provided him an outlet for both of his passions.

“You don’t have to pick between the two,” Monroe, a 1992 alumnus of the Bren School said. “Creativity isn’t in the realm of classic design or artistic skills. Creativity is about how you attack a problem and how you solve it.”

While still an undergraduate at UC Irvine, Monroe and two other partners founded MOB Media, a company that provides media and marketing solutions for local businesses. The company recently celebrated its 20th anniversary and generated $20 million of revenue last year.

“We wanted to do something a little different,” Monroe said. “We didn’t want to be the typical agency that had a very narrow niche that they operated in, we are very generalist.”

At MOB Media, Monroe’s role at the company is one of a generalist too. He does everything from management to programming.

LOOKING FOR A CHALLENGE

Monroe was always a techie kid, pulling things apart and putting them back together.

“But that didn’t mean I didn’t have screws left over,” Monroe recalled with a smile.

When it came time to pursue a career path, Monroe initially attended Devry for a technical degree but found that the classes were too easy for him. He wanted more of challenge, something he found at UC Irvine, although he feels vocational schools have their place for some students.

“The experience of being at a research university as opposed to a vocational school was very beneficial,” Monroe said. “At a research university, like UC Irvine, the bar is set pretty high and the students are pushed to excel. You either sank or swam in the ICS program.”

Monroe credits his UCI education for honing his analytical skills.

“The ability to see a problem, analyze it and find solutions to it quickly without having to go down a development path and find out it was a dead end,” Monroe said.

CHANGING CHORDS

Monroe admits that there are some days where the technology side of the business can get monotonous and he can get discouraged from pressing on. But by switching chords, he finds a way to break the monotony and return later reinvigorated.

“Creatively your going to reach plateaus. There are going to be points in your life where you say, you know what, I just don’t want to go on because it seems like I’ve done everything there is to do,” Monroe said. “But you just have to look outside of your small little world your operating in and you can find other opportunities.”

Monroe does this by pursuing his passion of guitar playing and through the production of a reality TV show called House of Shred which is about building guitars.

“I played the guitar as a kid before putting it down, never really knowing how to read sheet music, then during my 30s I decided that it was going to be something I mastered,” Monroe said. “It gives me the opportunity to flex myself in other ways.”

Monroe stressed that current students should look to something outside of computer science they can turn to that will allow them to free their minds for a little while.

“Try to find a hobby or interest outside of the realm of computer science, something that you can get away from even if it is just reading something you can disconnect from the world for a while and helps you have dreams,” Monroe said. “If you can’t dream it you’re never going to achieve it.”

A current project Monroe and his team are working on is a commuter solution website for the Orange County Transportation Authority.

“What is groundbreaking about this project is utilizing social networking to create communities where people can connect and create these carpools and vanpools,” Monroe said. “Before, you couldn’t use the Internet to really facilitate that.”

The social networking tools Monroe and his team are creating will make carpooling easier by allowing groups of individuals to get answers to questions such as who in my area can I carpool with.

“My education at UC Irvine definitely helped give me the skills to succeed in this field that blends both advertising and technology,” Monroe said.

Despite the fun he has running his own business, he cautions that while running your own company can be fun and exciting, it competes for your time, because even when you go home, you are never really done working.

“If you are married, like I am, owning a business is like having a mistress, at least that is what my wife tells me,” Monroe said.

Article by ekowalik