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“I liked the idea of making life more efficient.”- Mike Vetter

With a knack for business early in life, it’s not surprising that Mike Vetter is the founder and CEO of DataSync in Sioux Falls at only 25 years old. When asked if this was something he’s always wanted to do, he replied, “I didn’t wake up one day and say, ‘I’m going to be an entrepreneur.’ But it ended up that way.”

Over the years Vetter has started multiple businesses. “My first business,” he said, “was fixing rollerblades and ice skates in middle school. I started a home PC service business with a friend in late high school, early college. And then when I was in college, my first real venture was called Vetter Solutions and we did IT consulting and services and security.”

A native of Madison, SD, Vetter spent two years attending a Bible College in Canada before returning to his home town to enroll at Dakota State University. He graduated in 2008 with degrees in e-commerce and computer security.

It was during college when he was working at Vetter Solutions when he first saw a need for consolidated software that was delivered. “I just saw this opportunity that there was a better way to deliver software to these people. Small businesses needed this,” he said.

So what does DataSync offer? Vetter explains: “We consolidate business applications into a single package, and deliver them as a service to any web browser. There’s nothing to install or configure, you just sign up for the service and access the software on any internet-connected computer with a web browser” he said, adding, “Our customers have done some very useful things with our software.” Among the customers DataSync works with are Monster.com and LifeLight.

Though starting his own business was worthwhile, Vetter explained that the road to success was rocky. “Focus is key when you’re running a startup. When you’re getting pulled in a gazillion directions, you’ve got to figure out what it is you want to do.”

Though Vetter’s interests have changed since he was in middle school, one thing remains clear: Vetter knows business. He knows that to do well in business, he needs to work with people who are smart, hardworking and share his passion. “I work with the greatest people ever,” he said. “I have so much respect for them. The people on the team here are smarter than I am in their respective areas. I intuitionally try to be the dumbest guy in the room.”

While the DataSync team is very specialized, Vetter focuses on team building to ensure that his team is both cohesive and heading toward the same goal. “We talk about it a lot. These people are really good, and their ages range from their mid-twenties all the way up to their 50s. They’re very diverse, but very cool people. I’m just blessed to have an incredible team.”

So where did he get the idea for DataSync? “I was a nerd in high school,” he explained. “I just played with a ton of technology. I was just one of those guys that liked to tinker with stuff, so I built computers, set up networks and built a backup system just because I thought it was interesting,” he said, adding, “I liked the idea of making life more efficient. I think that’s why we’re talking about simplifying stuff for our customers, because I just thought everything was too complicated. There’s too much gobbleygook that goes along with computers and I wanted to simplify it. So that’s how I came up with the idea for DataSync. It made sense to simplify this stuff.”

With so much technology in the world, it’s easy to get frustrated, and that’s where the DataSync team steps in. “[Technology exists] so people can do people things and computers can do the boring stuff,” said Vetter, asking, “Why else would you have a computer?”

“Make it work for you,” he said. “If you put data in, it should just be available to you. You shouldn’t have to move it from here to there manually. That’s why our software exists. It’s so people spend less time keying in information multiple times and hooking this computer to that computer. It’s just simple.”

South Dakota is seeing growth in technology, and fueling that growth are entrepreneurs like Vetter who believe keeping talented people in South Dakota is key. “If there was a large talent pool here, [South Dakota] would be the silver bullet,” he said. “If we can figure out a way to train people to be rock stars in technology, everyone will start businesses here.” Why? Vetter believes that South Dakota offers many reasons to start a business in the state.

“There are huge, huge benefits,” he said, noting in particular the low cost of living that allows companies to stay competitive. And while working in South Dakota has advantages, he said that there are reasons to consider living in the state as well.

“There are good people here. We’re in the Midwest. People work hard, and they have an ethical, moral underpinning.” he said, adding, “You don’t see that everywhere, and I think that’s awesome. I think our quality of living is higher because of access to great hunting and outdoor recreation, while still providing excellent career opportunities. Because of this, Sioux Falls was rated one of the best places to live in the country. Personally, I think Sioux Falls is just a great place to be.”

Vetter understands that opportunities in other states sometimes carry people away from South Dakota, saying, “Opportunity can’t be pinned down to just one place.” But instead of flocking to another state to find opportunity, why not follow in Vetter’s footsteps and create your own?

“It’s a fast-growth market,” he said, “It grows at 21% a year, so there’s room [for growth.]”

This week I realized that I recently hit my 5 year mark working in the technology world. It’s been an interesting 5 years, and a lot have things have changed. Here’s a quick summary of my journey and were I’m at today.

Where I started…

My journey in technology started in high school repairing home PC’s and doing some basic business computer networking. I quickly figured out that communicating with the people I served was very important. Most of the time us techies fix things that no one has problems with, and create issues where they don’t exist.

I later worked at a bank software company for a few months and learned a lot about how software is built. This taught me how important software design and architecture was for the long-term viability of the company. Small changes in design had a major impact on operations down the road. Sadly, this company should have thought more about design. The company went under a year after my internship ended.

My last ‘job’ working with technology was at the K12 Data Center in Madison as an intern. At this job I learned how inefficient the government is. I also learned to dislike Microsoft servers. We rebooted the entire infrastructure every week. You have gotta be kidding me. It was there that I decided I had to do my own thing. I had to innovate, not just turn the inefficient technology crank.

Vetter Solutions

The early days of Vetter Solutions were pretty wild. I didn’t really know what I was doing, but I did what I knew to the best of my ability. The company fixed home PC’s, offered business networking services, and provided web development. Things went well, and I ended up going to Costa Rica for three weeks on company profits. Good times! However the good times ended when I started hiring employees and incurring overhead. The consulting model just doesn’t scale well, and it just about sucked me underwater financially. However I learned a lot about what businesses used computers for, where they fell short, and how the whole thing could be done better. Vetter Solutions existed for 4 years, and provided a great learning experience and jobs for myself and over a dozen others.

Change: The fall of Vetter Solutions, the rise of DataSync

The biggest change I’ve seen is the rise of the Software as a Service software model. In plain English, this model delivers software as a paid for service that you access through your web browser, instead of software you ‘install’ on your machine. It drastically simplifies using and maintaining software for the average person.

Because of this change, I concluded that Vetter Solutions probably wasn’t going to be viable long term. So I   began building a new company (DataSync) that focused on the emerging Software as a Service model. Once the DataSync model became viable (May 2008), I sold the assets of Vetter Solutions to another company and focused my efforts on solving the next problem: clunky technology delivery.

Clunky technology delivery rampant!

Through all these transitions, I noticed how clunky software is. DataSync is working to simplify software, but it’s a tough challenge that’s going to take some time to solve. Software vendors are notoriously out of touch with the real world – the people that use their software. Microsoft has been making ‘bloated’ software for years filled with features no one uses. You have to be a technology maniac to use Linux – which is built for everyone but the user in mind. Apple is the only major software vendor who seems to understand the people who use their software. We’re working hard to make software simple to obtain and use for the average business user. Our efforts so far have been really paying off.

Where I’m at today…

There is still much to be done to make software simple to obtain and use.  However I think DataSync is on the right track. We recently released a new website that hopefully makes the whole idea of software consolidation much more simple. We’re all still gear heads, so it’ll take some time to make our stuff usable to the average person. However we have made some major progress in consolidating and simplifying business software.

Where I’m going…

I think in a year or so we’ll have a product that just about anyone can figure out. In the mean time we’ll add value and simplicity at every step of the way. It’ll be fascinating to see where the industry goes and how we innovate within it. 2009 still has some steam left in it, and I expect to see some real progress before the new year. Stay tuned!