EquaTEK Interactive...with age comes Experience

Equatek was started in 2003 by its co-founders and owners, David (Dave) Madison and Edward (Ed) Hanchett. Our first date of formal business operations was March 17th – St. Patrick’s Day! While the date was coincidental, we like to say that the world stops for a day to celebrate our anniversary.

Our Business Model – things change over time

How many times does a kid get asked the question “what do you want to be when you grow up?” Well, we asked that question of ourselves more than a couple of times!

Our original vision was to merge the professional capabilities of our founders, technical software development and financial business management. Thus, the name – “equa” representing the numbers side of the business, and “tek”, the technical side. “Interactive” was added to demonstrate that whatever we did, it was going to be in motion. When we launched with a number of clients in each of the silos, we thought we had hit the right combination right out of the gate. And then things changed.

Within a few months, we realized that the technical area of the business was growing at a much faster pace and within a few years, we realized we were stretching resources too thin by trying to do both. So the decision was made to stop providing direct financial business services and reorient that knowledge and expertise within the projects of our technical development projects. For us, and we believe our clients, it was the right decision.

Our Physical Moves – we get around

Like many entrepreneurial beginnings, our first office filled about a quarter of Ed’s basement. We managed to fit four desks and a metal rack for servers into that space! Looking back, I’m sure we had outgrown it before we even started….but it was our home for about 18 months….and we thought it was perfect – for a while.

Once we had enough revenue, we moved into nearly a thousand square feet of space in an office building in Bushnells Basin. That allowed us to designate an area for engineers (development) and a separate area for administration. It was great for everyone except the person sitting next to that rack holding our servers. As we added more members to our team, it became obvious, even mandatory, that we move once again.

Our next move brought us into 3200 square feet of space in the “lower level” of our building – also known as the basement. It didn’t matter – we had room – and lots of it! We were comfortable there for 8 years until we had the opportunity to purchase our own building which brought us to where we’re at now in East Rochester.

The Ups….and downs of business

On day one, you think there is only one direction to go (up!)! As the years go by, you learn that business grows and retracts and you need to plan on both. It’s economics 101 and simply, a fact of life. We’ve weathered some tough times, days we fought simply to survive and we’ve celebrated some really great accomplishments when we look around and say “God did that”. 

We continue to be grateful for the incredible relationships we’ve formed and the opportunities we’ve had over these many years!