Why we started Mobelux

Jeff Rock in the basement of Saunders Station during the renovation process.

When I think back to why we started Mobelux, it really still is the same reason why I still do it today. To help creative, talented and smart people build things of value. Let me explain…

Jeff and I both worked for close to a decade at four different government contract companies developing digital training and visualization software for the Navy, Army, Air Force, Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and other similar government agencies. While I am grateful for the opportunities that were given, there is still a part of me that was always frustrated working for those companies. Frustrations that stemmed from not getting to work with preferred tools, with the people I wanted to work with, and then not being able to have something you were proud of and could share with loved ones.

Every one of those companies we struggled to get basic tools. Tools of the trade being primarily computers and software. I believe that Jeff and I were the first employees to get Macs (even low-entry ones) at three of those four companies. (The other I never could quite convince.) It may seem like a small thing, but when you spend 8-10 hours a day at a desk, you want to feel good. A nice chair, a great monitor, and yes, an operating system that you feel comfortable on are really important asks. Don’t make me feel bad for asking.

Software was a whole other beast. I get that the government has to approve software for adoption and has to keep things affordable and safe. But production tools are different. And if the speed of development is 3-5X slower because you can’t take advantage of the latest improvement, it is frustrating. And the answer often times would be we don’t get paid to be efficient. Just do the best you can.

I was about a year into my first design job when I realized the value of working close with a developer. By simply asking a few questions and changing my approach, I was able to completely change our product in a drastic and positive way. I was hooked and immediately began thinking of ways to work with my new counterpart when I was told to stop. He was a contractor and couldn’t be billed against the other projects I was on. It was frustrating not knowing what problems we could have solved more efficiently.

While I would talk some about the work I was doing with my wife and family it was never really something that felt real. You couldn’t pull it up on a web browser. You couldn’t see it in a store. You couldn’t even really interact with the people that it benefitted. It honestly feel like nobody really cared.

So it was not an accident with our first big pay day at Mobelux that we bought ourselves new computers and hired our first full time employee, a contractor who was a software engineer. It was also a really cool thing to talk to people who used what we had made, including family members. Those first few years of working for Mobelux was great. It was all about solving problems with smart people on tools that we believed in.

I am proud of the people that continue to want to work at Mobelux. I learn so much from them and I’m continually amazed how this place has come to be. I am grateful that we started Mobelux and I hope that in the future it will continue to hold true to those core values of getting great tools into the hands of smart and talented people to build things that matter.