Entrepreneur profile: Yan Ness of Ann Arbor’s Online Tech

Wednesday, April 8, 2009 | Source: Concentrate
Yan Ness, 46, is the man behind the magic that keeps Online Tech hiring. The Ann Arbor-based downtown firm has 15 employees and 12 independent contractors. It recently hired two people and plans to hire another 2-4 this year.

Ness, a 1985 University of Michigan alumni with a BS in Computer Science, is a serial entrepreneur living just outside of Ann Arbor. He helped co-found Company Crafters and has built and sold two other companies - WorkWell and Systems and Software Group.

Describe your business in two sentences or less?
We provide a secure, reliable, scalable network of data centers to house our clients' servers, some of which we manage. Clients use us for high availability large scale hosting, or disaster recovery for their production data center.

Why did you decide to set up shop in Ann Arbor?
Grew up here, family, great talent, midwest values with a global perspective. Recently supportive (thanks SPARK!) of commercial ventures.

What are some of the advantages to doing business here?
It's cold in Michigan (good for data centers). Lower costs. More win-win attitude.

What do you see in Ann Arbor that other people who live outside the area don't?
Brains, global perspective, lots of entrepreneurial experience.

What advice would you give to someone who was thinking about opening a business in Ann Arbor?
Raise twice the money you think you'll need, take advantage of the many local efforts to support new start-ups, including SPARK and the University. Get to know the local-owned community banks, they are very high quality.

If you could change one thing about Ann Arbor, what would it be?
Lower the taxes. Better fiscal prudence from the political leaders and support for commercial activity.

Source: Yan Ness, CEO of Online Tech
Writer: Jon Zemke


Are you a Washtenaw County business owner and want to stand in Concentrate's entrepreneur spotlight or know of someone who should? If so, send an email to Jon Zemke at jmzemke@gmail.com
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Related Tags

Data Management, Entrepreneurship, University Of Michigan 

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  • Online Tech
    305 E. Eisenhower, Suite 300
    Ann Arbor, Michigan 48108 Website
    One man's loss is another man's gain. Ann Arbor's Online Tech sees the current economic meltdown as an opportunity to pick up clients. A booming data storage bank, the local firm has seen revenue growth of 30-40% each year for the past five years.
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