CyberJocks: Expanding (2005-2006)
When we first read the Email from Gunnar, we joked that he was going to be some Texas goofball who liked shootin’ people in video games. We couldn’t have been any further off. Gunnar was a German immigrant, who had worked in the financial industry and had always wanted to open up a LAN center. He was interested in CyberJocks, and our proprietary FMS systems.
We received emails many people who were interested in opening up a franchise or that wanted to license our software. We had many serious bites, including a Hollywood producer who wanted to open up a center in San Jose. However, when it came down to it all, Gunnar proved to be the most serious.
After months of planning, meetings, and paperwork, Gunnar opened up his facility in August of 2005. Aaron and I each spent about three weeks each down there assisting him in setting up the facility. We provided all of the infrastructure, including the servers, proprietary FMS software, network infrastructure, facility design, and even the initial food menu. Needless to say, it was a pretty awesome experience taking what we had learned in Buffalo, and replicating it down in Texas.
The facility that Aaron designed for Austin was world class. It had the same look, feel, and trade-dress, but the build out was spectacular and was tweaked to the max. Unfortunately, this came with a large price tag, and much of the operations money went into unnecessary things which were required by Austin zoning laws.
Needless to say, after about a year of operations, it came time to put more money into the facility. It was profitable, but the cash flow and the debt load from the build-out proved to be too much for Gunnar. With a young child and a professional wife, he had to make the hard decision of spinning the business down.
While this didn’t directly effect us financially, it did do something to our mental states. We had all put a lot of work into getting Austin up and running and it was sad to see our dream facility go under - even if it wasn’t on our dime.
