SEAS Education's Harvey Hughes on Hard Work and the Arkansas Startup Scene
Innovate Arkansas client firm SEAS Education of Mountain Home was the featured Innovate profile in this week's Arkansas Business.
Check out founder Harvey Hughes' 5 tips for startup success.
Hughes launched his startup in 1995 and grew it to become a leading provider of education plan management software.
INOV8 got his takes on the Arkansas startup scene and how it's changed so dramatically since he launched SEAS, and the hard work it took to grow his firm.
Consider this a little "director's cut" material.
Good stuff:
INOV8: Give us your take of the Arkansas startup ecosystem right now and how it's changed over the past decade.
Hughes: I read somewhere "without resources, there is no opportunity." That upset me because all I had was time and hard work.
When we began there was no real access to the Internet, no mass communication – and strangely, that benefited us because we were forced to be in front of our customers everyday. This face time allowed us to understand our customers needs.
Ironically, the lack of resources may have helped us initially. Now, the startup community has the benefit of all these resources and the Innovate Arkansas initiative to maximize time and help connect the dots so we can all enjoy the results produced by sharp minds quicker.
Innovate Arkansas has been very proactive to connect SEAS Education with the right people to bring strategic thinking and collaboration around growth. Ultimately SEAS is proud to be an Arkansas born and raised company and Arkansas if proud to support SEAS to continue serving the world and bringing it home.
I founded SEAS 18 years ago and I am not sure what startup assistance would have been available even in the larger communities then. Now, thanks to Arkansas’ technology and innovation commitment, startup companies have access to really effective programs such as mentoring, business planning, and most important, investment capital.
INOV8: Describe trying to launch a tech-based startup in rural Arkansas in the '90s.
Hughes: On the subject of growth, we were concerned when we began in Mountain Home and how rural Arkansas may not be perceived as a great place to grow a cutting edge, technology company.
Even though SEAS serves several of the top 100 schools in the US, we discovered that most students are attending rural and middle-sized districts, and it turns out educators appreciated that SEAS relates well to the challenges of their demographic. We do business from Alaska to Maine and it’s amazing how often being from Arkansas actually helps our business.
Being a mid-America company and naturally applying our farming and customer service values has helped us become the largest national footprint and voted most innovative education product 3 years running.
INOV8: How were able to grow the company and become successful?
Hughes: 1. I was lucky enough to have a mother who taught me to work smart and a father who taught me to work hard! 2. I heard once, "Opportunity only comes when you are looking for it." I was blessed enough to be at the right place when hard work, commitment and opportunity all came together. 3. Plato said, "Necessity is the mother of invention." I had no other option.