Arkayne and Arizona State University: Entrepreneurial Alum Pursues Success With Tech Startup

Adam Ayers 3 Nov 2009

Full Circle Magazine is an annual publication put out by the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering at Arizona State University for the Alumnus. They were gracious enough to write the following story which outlines Adam’s success as a Student Entrepreneur during his time at ASU and how he has translated what he learned from his Engineering curiculum to principles that guide him everyday in our fast-paced and highly technical start up environment. Paul is also an alumni of the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering. Adam has been highly focused on pushing forward entrepreneurship in the local community since the start of his college career, the results speak for themself.

See the original article below:

Alumni Adam Ayers (right) and Paul Kenjora, the company’s founder.

Earning a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering gave Adam Ayers a wellspring of confidence that he’s found valuable for more than tackling technological challenges.

“Engineering courses were difficult, and they forced me to really think and learn to focus,’’ he says. “It taught me problem-solving skills. It’s something that helps me every day in business.”

When he graduated in the spring of 2009, Ayers joined a tech startup called Arkayne, a venture based on a novel idea for an Internet “content recommendation engine” that helps users extend the reach and relevance of the information on their web sites.

Ayers is involved in marketing, sales and communications for the company, whose founder is Paul Kenjora, a 2002 Arizona State University graduate with a degree in computer systems engineering.

While at ASU, Ayers founded Entrepreneurs@ASU, a networking resource for students, faculty and community members interested in business startup endeavors. “It started as my way of trying to find an excuse to connect with business leaders and investors,” Ayers says.

He also volunteered to work with the Arizona Technology Investor Forum, a project of the engineering schools’ Office of Entrepreneurial Programs, and joined the Economic Club of Phoenix through ASU’s W. P. Carey School of Business. He was a student representative on the engineering schools’ alumni board. “All of [these outside activities] kept me more interested in school, motivated me to apply what I learned and made me unafraid to try new things,” he says.

Arkayne is the biggest new thing for Ayers. He and his partners are developing and marketing a “content-clustering, cross-linking, super-cloud-computing” web site. It’s designed to link and distribute content from web sites all over the world to serve needs of business, organizations, bloggers and others.

Arkayne essentially offers clients a way of coping with the information overload on the Internet, helping find and link to the information most meaningful to them and their customers. Clients get access to myriad web site posts, online articles and other information relevant to the interests of users of their web sites.

The Arkayne concept impressed Arizona Technology Investor Forum members, who helped the company refine its business model and invested $250,000 in the venture.

Ayers confidently express his hopes for the venture. “Some people have told us we need to be in Silicon Valley,” he says, “but we want to be a startup that helps put the Phoenix area on the map” in the high-tech industry.

Says Arkayne president and CEO Nicholas Aretakis, “When I met Adam through ATIF, I saw more than a young man ready to graduate and enter the work force. I saw someone ready to be an integral component of our enterprise.”

Ayers is “equipped with the technical prowess of an engineering graduate from a leading university, and he grew up with the Internet and social networking,” Aretakis says. “He’s exactly what Arkayne needs in marketing, sales and business development to complement a few of the ‘grey hairs’ raising money and building
the business.”

To learn more about Arkayne, visit arkayne.com.

The original article can be found here: http://fullcircle.asu.edu/tech.php.