30-YEAR REWIND < < Microbrews, floppy discs & a business plan

June 12, 2025

After scribbling our business idea on a bar napkin, we knew we were onto something. And every big idea needs a plan, so for us that meant one thing: JIAN BizPlanBuilder — a set of 3.5” floppy discs we bought at Office Depot for about $79. It came in a clunky plastic box with a printed user guide the size of a phone book, but it promised to walk us through writing a full business plan. We were sold.

The only catch? Neither Greg nor I owned a computer. Fortunately, our friend and future business partner William lived just a few blocks away, and he had one — an actual desktop computer with a monitor so deep it probably required its own zip code.

HISTORICAL NOTE

In late 1994 into early 1995, the internet was still a mystery to most households — AOL hadn’t yet flooded mailboxes with CD-ROMs and most people were still using 3.5” floppy discs. Installing a program meant using command lines and hoping you didn’t overwrite your file directory. Meanwhile, Colorado was having a different kind of revolution — leading the nation in microbreweries per capita, new local beers were popping up faster than you could say “dot com.”

So over the course of a few months, we made a ritual of it. After dinner, we’d walk over to William’s place with a pack of some new Colorado microbrew, pop in the floppies, and “work” on the plan. If we’re being honest, it was probably 60% microbrews, 40% business strategy — but hey, it was winter in Boulder and we were fired up about this dream of selling supplies for digital printers across the world.

The software would prompt us with sections to fill in — market analysis, competitive advantage, distribution plan — and we’d hunt-and-peck our way through it.

And then it happened. One night, the software asked something like: “How will you distribute your product?”

Simple question, but we had no idea. So Greg asked the UPS driver who regularly stopped by Mike’s Camera: “Hey, how would someone go about setting up an account with UPS?”

Totally harmless question, right? Wrong.

That UPS driver — friendly as he seemed — went straight back to our bosses and shared Greg’s question. And in what felt like no time at all, Greg, William, and I were each pulled into our managers’ offices.

We hadn’t even launched our business yet. We were just noodling on ideas, dreaming after hours, running floppy discs, and brainstorming over microbrews. But it was clear our days at Mike’s Camera were now numbered.

WHY IT MATTERED

That UPS question — and the fallout that followed — was the first real-world signal that our business dream might actually disrupt something. We weren’t just dreaming, we were building. And it was starting to shake the ground beneath us.