What Makes A Tech Company, A Tech Company?

Tech is sexy these days; tech companies, even sexier. Nothing gets the MBA rock-star juices pulsing through the cortex and loins faster than handing over a geektastic looking business card and saying "Hi, I'm so and so, the founder of tech start-up [enter techie name here]." Cue Beat.ly mania!

But, lately I've been thinking, what exactly is a tech company? And what makes them so… techie? Afterall, the word tech comes from the word "technology." And last I checked, humans have been using technology to innovate and advance the human condition since man decided to sharpen rocks. 

Great moments in tech company history ... The film: 

WORKING TITLE: "O.G. – Original Geek"

FADE IN

Man A, not the strongest of the clan, but clever, finds sharp rock, ties to long stick using roots, kills now-extinct large animal. 

Woman A swoons:  "Oh, he's so smart … and has great hair!"

Man B, Alpha male type, seething, grunts:  "Geek."

The first Lawyer: "You should patent that."

Artist: "Can I have my rock back now? I need to finish the cave painting before dark." 

The O.G. "Original Geek." (An artist's rendition of a Paleoindian man making a stone tool. Illustration by Colin Campbell.)

What makes tech... tech?

This question of what makes one company a tech company has been on my mind since my company ArtJamz was accepted to be part of tech incubator 1776 in Washington DC. I have to say, we are excited to be part of it. I didn't think we'd get chosen. We faced an uphill battle. We are definitelty the only business with a retail location. Brick and mortar does not exactly scream "tech company" these days. That's reinforced when I go to tech events or tech pitch competitions. I'm continually amazed and impressed by the eco-system of ideas floating in the digital entrepreneurial community these days. But, I also think that "tech" companies, you know, can become victims of the misappropriation of the term technology to describe what they do. It's as if "Tech" has come to simply imply… developer. Although, it's true, at the end of the day, this is what people mean when they throw around the term "tech company" – there is person, somewhere, anywhere, churning out code. Meanwhile, there's an "they are NOT techy" ideas person coming up with a fabulously acceptable geeky techy name, logo, font and app icon -- that unsurprisingly looks somewhat rounded and three dimensional. This tech company is all about the concept -- which mind you, is a good one and fills a market need -- being transposed into the digital. Hopefully with the help of angel investors. 

The slippery slope in all of this is the tres modern belief that "tech companies" do and should soely exist in the digital world. Of course, yes, many do, and that's cool. This isn't a black or white thing. Facebook, twitter, drop box, and lots of other "tech companies" live in the digital world. But some of the most successful quote on quote tech companies live in the digital and physical. Zappos, amazon, Apple and Google for instance. Waz started off building shit in a garage. He tinkered. Steve Jobs always combined art, tech and design. Jobs didn't start off saying, I think I'll revolutionize the retail experience. But Apple stores did. That's not something an algorhytm can do. And developers don't build smartphones or google glasses, they make the software that runs in them. So, wait, if you make a physical product, you are not a tech company anymore? Was IBM a tech company when they started making computers? Or not?

Science becomes Tech 

Somewhere between Bell and Howell, NASA, IBM, Microsoft and Apple, science became tech. Perhaps it was when science jumped from the lab into consumerism. It's all a bit like the need for musical genres. Humans must have order. We categorize everything. Lord help us if there is an undiscovered ant species somewhere in the jungle and it doesn't have a classification yet! Same with that new band that plays that new kind of music, with that strange new combination of instruments, and beats, and that singer, wow, no one has ever done that before. Jesus! We need to find a genre for them fast. Is it Alt Punk Electronica? Yes, Alt Punk Electronic. That's it. Phew. Thank God. They have a genre. Thus with tech. I mean we created an entire stock market NASDQ for all these tech companies. Was general electric a tech company? Edison a geek? When the phonograph came out no one called it a gadget? Did they? And those Native Americans who first used smoke signals. Ahh, weren't they the first vanguard? The early adopters. And the person who first took flint to rock to create a spark -- the original CTO. 

I hate to break it to you app.ly and techarooroo and gadget-a-go-go, you are not a tech company. You are simply … human. One in a long and amazing line of many who put creative thought and visualization into action to create innovation that became the technology humans use to advance our condition. You don't own the term "tech" anymore than Copernicus.

If anything, companies built in the digital realm need a foot in the physical world. And those companies built in the physical world, i.e. ArtJamz need a foot in the digital. This is why I wanted Artjamz to be a part of 1776. Brick and mortar companies are built on the backbone of systems. In fact, all of the worlds most successful businesses are successful because of their processes as well as their product and ability to reach scale. The back-end franchise process of ArtJamz as well as the digital intersection of the brand and the consumers -- in our case, reservations, POS, inventory, apps, staff scheduling -- everything is a constant "tech start-up" by the modern geeky techy definition. We are inventing and developing -- using developers who code and master algorhytms -- to create new digital systems and applications. And we're applying those to how consumers interact with art, and art materials, and artists themselves, in a brick and mortar environment. Just like the intersection of tech gadgets and retail stores -- all tech must eventually connect to the physical world. Digital enhances the physical. And visa versa.

The Lounge Level at the ArtJamz Dupont Studio in Washington DC. Very brick and mortar; not so techie ... at least in outward appearance.

When the physical and digital meet

With all this in mind, I do have to commend the team at 1776 and others in DC tech start-up industry for being open minded about letting our old school get-your-hands-dirty-playing-with-paint-in-a, gasp, retail-location-business, join the ranks of the digital start-up community. Where else better than to test a digital concept or application or Saas than with a physical location and consumer facing brand and experience? Ultimatlely, everything is an experience that trickles down to the physical relm. My belief is that, the biggest impact, and the potential for the most transformative, distpruptive, positive and successful innovations come when tech is considered in both its modern and historic context, ergo, when it blends the physical with the digital. In art in particular, which is where I'm focusing my entrepreneurial pursuits,  the scale has been tipped in favor of the physical for too long. Conversely, those in the digital world of apps and gaming etc, tend to steer clear of the art world because of its deep physical roots. Once we blend the tactile and physical world of art with the power of digital technologies, that is when the next great disruptive art paradigm will emerge. And when it does, it should be considered a tech company, just like all other companies that came before it. For without technology, and the geek in all of us, we would still be playing with dull rocks.