About Us
INTERNET INSPIRATION
When I, Eric, was a kid I always wanted a computer, but they were expensive and they didn’t really do anything useful. In 1981, when I was 16 years old, I got a job and earned the money to buy one. I have bought a new computer every year since then.
In the early 90’s I was a big Prodigy user and tried to get a job there because I thought that Prodigy was the future. That didn’t pan out, but it didn’t dissuade me.
In 1994 the modern Internet was invented with the World Wide Web. I was living with my brother at that time, and we decided to get the Internet as soon as we heard about it.
In November of 1995 Bill Gates published a book entitled The Road Ahead. Bill Gates and Microsoft dominated tech, so I read the book right away. The book promised to explain a lot, and it delivered.
In The Road Ahead Bill Gates laid out his vision for the future and answered some important questions:
What is the information highway?
How will the new technology change our lives?
Do I have to learn to use a computer?
Will my job become obsolete?
Bill Gates said that we were on the brink of a new revolution, and crossing a technology threshold that would forever change the way we buy, work, learn, and communicate with each other.
The book made perfect sense and I knew right then what I wanted to do with my life. Five months after reading the book, in April of 1996, I formed The Technological Edge, Inc. with my future wife, Cara, who got certified in Web Design.
The name was chosen to remind us that for the rest of our lives the pace of change in technology will only quicken. Our focus from day one was to keep up with the current changes, because to give somebody the technological edge you have to stay on the technological edge.
The pace of Technological Change will only accelerate for the rest of our lives!
The company name has served us well because it reminds us that it is worthwhile to go through the pain of learning new things. We spend a lot of time, energy and money keeping up with the new possibilities in Tech.
When we started the business, we didn’t know exactly what we were going to do, but we immediately took out a yellow page ad and started trying to figure that out. A few years later we decided to focus on the outdoor recreation tourism industry because it was a way to merge two of our passions – technology and the outdoors. Serving this niche market was a good decision – it has been fun and rewarding.
Paradoxically, while the Internet and other things are constantly changing for our business, basically nothing has changed in 25 years. We still don’t know exactly what we will be doing in the future, but we are spending time and energy to try to figure it out, and we are enjoying the journey.
