Today the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal published a story announcing the partnership between Rockfish Interactive and SVI in forming a new company, Geno.  I’m very excited about Geno and wanted to briefly share my perspective on this partnership.  The next posting is a more formal Q&A that Mike and I prepared together.

I ventured into the world of interactive development in 1995 through developing computer-based learning software for a large health care company in Texas.  Throughout the 90’s I had the opportunity to work on a number of computer-based learning projects for Fortune 500 companies and experienced first-hand the tremendous value and excitement that interactive learning brings to an organization and their employees.  At Rockfish we’ve recently had the privilege to partner with JB Hunt in successfully launching online learning for all of their drivers.
 
Mike and I met and immediately connected.  We share similar values and a vision for the tremendous opportunities that emerging technologies bring to online learning.  Prior to meeting, our companies were independently having the same conversation from the opposite perspective.  If Rockfish was going to seriously leverage our technology expertise in developing online learning for other companies, we were going to need to build our business development team and People Development expertise.  If SVI was going to continue to grow and meet the demands for online learning, they were going to need to build their technology team.  When we met it became quickly obvious to both of us that creating a joint venture between our two companies was the most efficient way for us to meet our objectives.

Both SVI and Rockfish will continue to operate independently.  We will staff Geno with people from both of our organizations that will be focused on this new opportunity.  Mike and I will lead the company in its early stages as an extension of our two organizations.  We’ve already got some great clients and anticipate a rapidly growing Geno team.

We’re already kicking off the rapid development of generation 2 of the genonow.com platform.  Stay tuned for a number of exciting updates and announcements that are coming from Geno very soon!