to do IT. “Customers just wanted their system to work and not have to worry about the server crashing or the printer running out of ink,” Warzecha said. “It took a little while, but we found our foothold with our first clients – many of whom we still take care of. We did a little bit of everything then, including web design.”
Growth
I
n 2006, Netgain made a big move, purchasing the old Federal Building in downtown St. Cloud and establishing itself as a presence in the St. Cloud business community. Ironically, it was at this time that the company began branching out, attracting more clients outside of Central Minnesota. “We knew someone who gave us a referral that got us our first health care account,” Baynes said. “It took awhile, but eventually our cloud computing model demonstrated that it lent itself particularly well to medical clinics.” As the company began to take on clients in the Twin Cities health care market, the Netgain leadership team gained an appreciation for the “onerous regulatory requirements” in the medical services industry, Riley said. In order to help companies deal with those requirements, however, Netgain
Scott Baynes
Vice President of Technology age: 39 Hometown: Foley Education: BA Physics,
St. John’s University; MS Health Physics, Colorado State University Work History: Netgain
2000-Present. (Field Service Manager, Data Center Manager, CTO, VP of Technology); Marco, St. Cloud. 1999-2000 IT Technician; National Computer Systems, Edina, MN, 1998-1999. Hobbies: Spending time with
family (many soccer, dance, piano, baseball events) and trips to the lake (fishing, skiing). Involvement with our church and school, including serving on the All Saints Academy Board of Directors and Parish Council.
The original Netgain Leadership team from left: Scott Baynes, Scott Warzecha, and Matt Riley.
Family: Wife Meaghan; children:
Antonia (12), Finnian (10), Hadleigh (8), Xavier (6) Best Advice Received:
My grandfather told me: “One’s mind is only as sharp as one’s ax.” A very practical reminder to focus on working smarter and not necessarily harder. As useful today as it was at my first job as a kid working on a dairy farm. Advice to a would-be
Matt Riley
Vice President of Operations age: 39 Hometown: Rochester, Minnesota Education: BA, St. Cloud State Work History: Resource Training
& Solutions, Manager of Information Systems, Program Coordinator (19962000, part-time 1992-96); Netgain Technology, December 2000-present.
entrepreneur:
Hobbies: History, hiking, outdoor
Be passionate about your business. Surround yourself with others that share your passion.
just-about-anything. We live on 10-acre country acreage, and just about anything involving it is “hobby.”
Fun fact: I have performed
Family: Wife Sarah; Daughter
sub-atomic particle accelerator experiments at two different national laboratories (Berkeley National Laboratory and Brookhaven National Laboratory).
Cora (6); Son Liam (4) Best Advice Received:
Harness your Type-A personality and focus it – Pat Kapsch, Resource Training & Solutions (retired)
Advice to a would-be entrepreneur: Explore many,
many ideas; partner with others to operationalize. Find partners, coworkers, and subordinates that have complementary, but not identical, personality and work styles. Fun fact: I thought Scott’s idea
to run small business computing systems in a room across town as a service was silly at first, and that his first Netgain business cards included what looked like the Tide laundry detergent logo. This was when he tried to sell me Netgain’s services at Resource a few months after start-up. A few months later, he and I were talking about the concept and me coming on board.
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