PSU Magazine Spring 1997

Steven Da o ,.., 1 Founder, Claremont Technology Group Inc. 12 PSU MAGAZINE SPRING 1997 DIGERATI (dig'a ra't~) pl.n. People highly skilled in the processing and manipulation of digital information; the power brokers of the S teven Dan-ow started out wanting to be a professor of English and a writer, getting his degree at PSU in arts and letter . In tead, he ended up founding several high-technology companies. Along the way, though, he's experi – enced enough dizzying heights and de ·perate lows to create a videogame. Darrow fir t got interested in computers while working to fin ance his way through school, running early computer systems and writing programs at different job . By the time he gradu– ated, he was already earning more than a profes or, so hi earli er ambition lost its allure. After graduation, Darrow worked 10 year for onsolidated Freightways and Riedel International. "By then I was getting pretty antsy to tart my own bu iness," he says, so he founded Global Busin s ystem Inc. in 1983. The company, which developed soft– ware tools for writing computer program more effi ciently, tripled its rate of growth the second year and shot up from $200,000 in ales to over $1 million the third year. Then, for a variety of reason , "The company went down the tube ." Dan-ow went bankrupt and lo t everything he had, including his house. He separated from his wife and at one point was sleeping in the back of his car. Discouraged but not defeated, Dan-ow understood that fa ilure i often a part of the road to success. "While still at Consolidated Freightways, I went to a goal- etting eminar, and I began setting goa ls and seeing them come true," he ays. "I also read a ton of books and used to write down hundreds of affirmations and read them through every day. So l was deter– mined to be successful no matter what. " Darrow grabbed another computer job, and after a year a fell ow employee loaned him $5,000 to start a new company, C laremont Technology G roup Inc., in 1989. He wasn 't espe– cially worried about how well it would do. "l'd been rehearsing all the things that went wrong before and how to fi x them, and I till knew I had a really good idea of the market." Like his first company, C laremont put together computer sy tems fo r companie and provided technical support. "We worked with large companies and specialized in project that other firms had taken on and fa iled at," Darrow says. Typica lly, when companies hire someone to upgrade outdated computer system , the ratio of success is le than 50 percent, according to Darrow. "The process gets so complex the consulta nts can't figure out how to get it done." By "doing it right and doing it on time," succeeding where others had fa iled, C laremont grew rapidly, at more than 70 percent annually for several years in a row. By 1996 Darrow dec ided to take the company public, hiring omeone else to run the firm and selling most of his shares for a nifty profit . D arrow got out, not only because he'd always wanted to retire by the age of 50, but because he wanted to make sure he'd never return to the low point he'd reached before. But he di covered, "Golfing is not so much fun if that's all you have to do," and recently he has started yet another company. The new firm , Emerald Solution Inc., will tackle "the year 2,000 prob– lem- the need to change the dates in computer programs from two digits to four," he says. It's no simple matter. Even a medium- ized computer system has ome 40 million lines of logic, and every 50 line or so there's a date. Estimate ' of the cost of rewriting the programs, at $ 1 to $3 a line, range from $600 billion to$ 1.5 trillion , so Darrow has teamed up with a couple of other compani e to olve the problem through artificial intelligence. As big as the problem undoubtedly is, Darrow remain undaun ted. In the midst of trouble, he know , lies opportuni ty.