Episode 17 – Brad Arner

Brad’s Bio:
Brad Arner is a entrepreneur and software developer who focuses on early-stage application development and business model generation. At the time of the interview, he was the VP of Engineer at Capstory, a startup based in Columbus, OH. His eclectic background has landed him in Iraq, Africa, Europe and elsewhere and afforded him many unique opportunities in project management and technology. He is passionate about beautiful products built with code and believes that creativity is what makes us human.
You can find Brad on Twitter as @bradfordarner.
Episode Highlights and Show Notes:
Arsalan: We have Brad Arner with us. Brad, tell us who Brad Arner is?
Brad: If someone asked me that at a meeting I usually say that I am an entrepreneur, software entrepreneur. I build things and I generally do that through software. In terms of job title, I am currently a VP of software engineering at a startup in Columbus Ohio called Capstory. We are recently in transition. We do real-time media collection for events. So, if you are at an event you can text and photos to a live streaming slideshow that would be positioned in the entrance hall of a tradeshow or a convention center. It’s a fun little programming challenge. We started with something a little different, but now we focus on corporate events and trade shows.
Arsalan: Are you one of the founders?
Brad: Sort of and not really. I came in two years ago. The founders had originally started with an idea similar to a private Instagram for college students. That was 3 ½ years ago. Then they decided to make a shift to change the business model to one that is revenue-generating rather than becoming a free app. The difference requires fundamentally different economics. So, I came in to rebuild the product about two years ago. So, in a way, I am kind of the honorary cofounder, if you will, given the fact that I’ve essentially built up everything that we currently have.
Arsalan: So, what kind of companies have you worked for or with?
Brad: I have a pretty eclectic background. I started programming when I was very young. It was mostly web stuff when the web was first coming out. After that, I spent a number of years in the military. In some sense, part of my programming comes from the military, which is a huge organization with a lot of bureaucracy. But, I was also in a particular niche of the military. We operated in very small teams and that was just part of my job. Since getting out of the military, I have been entirely in startups, which suits me a lot better. After I exited the military, I jumped right in and did a mix of consulting half the time and startups half the time.
Arsalan: That’s interesting to note because I’ve interviewed other people and it comes out that everyone seems to have a very unique experience. There’s no standard for a programmer or software developer.
Brad: I think it’s like anything. We all go into something thinking that we’re going to have this perfectly laid out career path, but you get into what you’re doing in so many different ways. For example, I don’t have a computer science degree, but I’ve been doing it in one facet or another for a long time. It is always interesting how life leads you and connects you to people. I think you very rarely meet people who even went to school and have that job they’re working in.
Arsalan: Has it ever been a handicap for you to get a job or get recognized in the industry because you didn’t study computer science or computer engineering?
Brad: Not at the moment, but that’s because I’m in startups. I’ve never had anybody bring it up. I’ve interviewed with large organizations, mostly just to see what it’s like. Both times that I did, I turned down offers and honestly and never even came up in the interview. Maybe if I was applying to Microsoft or something,

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