Mark Ligeza of Secret Weapon Systems Talks about His Startup
Where are you from originally?
I was born in Austin, but spent my formative years in suburban Houston.
What university did you go to?
University of Texas
What brought you to Austin?
School and family
What is the idea behind your startup?
The general impetus for forming our business was to create new enabling products that would dramatically reduce the cost of PC ownership for organizations. Our first offering - the ImageMagic product line - dramatically simplifies the creation, management, and deployment of Windows Standard Operating Environments (SOE).
What need does it fulfill?
In 2008, Forrester Research published a study that identified the significant cost organizations incur in managing and maintaining SOE images. Our vision is to enable organizations to reduce those costs.
What exactly does your product do?
ImageMagic provides a single interface where a deployment of any Windows operating system is completely designed, created, and maintained. Quite simply, ImageMagic dramatically reduces the time and cost associated with deploying PCs across an organization.
Who is it for?
ImageMagic comes in two varieties. ImageMagic Pro is a tool for Systems Administrators, Systems Integrators and IT consultants. ImageMagic Enterprise is a system for businesses with 1,000 or more PCs.
What was the most challenging aspect of starting up a business?
In addition to the associated technical challenge to develop high quality products, establishing credibility and market differentiation is key.
What is the next step for you and your startup?
Expanding our customer base.
What advice do you have for entrepreneurs?
Take any estimate you have going in and double it.
What Austin-based resource have you found to be the most helpful and why?
We recently engaged PetersGroup Public Relations and they’ve been instrumental in helping us differentiate and develop a go-to-market strategy.
Best regards,
Hall T.
