Talking Tech by Dave Lundy
Chicago Sun-Times

Robert Jacobi has always been a self-described geek. Even as a kid, the Matthew Broderick movie "WarGames" inspired Jacobi to build his own online bulletin board for video gamers when he was only 12.

In the 1983 movie, a teenage computer whiz almost starts a nuclear war when his game goes out of control. But Jacobi says video games taught him a very relevant lesson for today's challenging economy: "conserve your ammunition, maintain your supplies" and "don't overspend."

Jacobi took to the new programming language of Java in 1996 and quickly became vice president of technology at computer-based training company ReCor. Now president of his own Java-development consulting firm in Evanston, Aesiq, Jacobi stresses the value of good networking and urges struggling entrepreneurs to be "cheap" if they want to survive.

Q: What was your first experience with technology?

A: My dad was a big gadget freak and always encouraged us to play with all the gadgets we saw. I loved video games. I grew up with an old Atari 2600, a TRS80 III color computer and an old Apple.

I started programming in the early 1980s when I was about 10. By the age of 12, I started a few [online] bulletin boards for video game users. Before the Web, people would call up other people's homes to exchange messages, files, any kind of information on message boards. There were small communities of computer geeks all over the world who set up these sites from their own homes.

Q: When did you first get into Java?

A: I began working for an Evanston start-up called ReCor while earning my master's in computer science at IIT. I was their first programmer when Java came out. That language is extremely powerful and usable in many different environments. We decided to program everything in Java to prepare it for the Web.

This was 1996 and Java had just come out, so we were real Java pioneers. I eventually dropped out of the IIT program because I decided real-world experience was much more interesting.

Q: What prompted you to leave ReCor?

A: My partner and I were on a training tour through Germany and realized we were bored doing maintenance work instead of developing our own projects. We figured, "Hey, it's the Internet boom. We can start up and get some great gigs right away." And we did. We started working for HALO immediately, and we were on our way.

We wanted to do straight consulting, but also develop our own products. We always thought, "If we came across something really interesting, maybe we would take it in-house and develop it ourselves." That is what we are doing now with content management.

Q: What exactly is content management?

A: Content management incorporates administrative and management tools to make Web sites easier to run by lay people with as little coding as possible. A client called GamesParlor inspired our current content management system. They needed the tools to allow people to play federation-sanctioned chess online, and we helped them build that system.We decided we wanted to have our own Java-based content management system that we knew inside-out and could easily customize. We spent the past six months building this system and companies are evaluating it right now.

Q: Where do you want to take Aesiq?

A: I want to build original software. Consulting is fun and it pays the bills, but I like starting my own projects and going as far as I can with them. That's the benefit of owning a company. We decide what the next project will be. We really enjoy doing the work. Eventually, I would like to see Aesiq grow into a medium-sized product firm, upwards of a hundred people.

Q: Why did you decide to move Aesiq into an incubator?

A: It was a no-brainer. The atmosphere in the incubator is intoxicating.

Everyone is in the same boat as us, and the free exchange of ideas is just great. People here run across the hall asking, "Do you know how to solve this problem? Do you know how to do this? Do you know a good lawyer?" The infrastructure help here is unbeatable.

The only downside is that you work in a really ugly building. No, there is no down side. The connections are great. The people are great. If you can get into an incubator, you absolutely should.

Dave Lundy is president of DL Strategies, a Chicago-based marketing, PR and brand development firm. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

Name: Robert Jacobi

Title: Founder and president

Company: Aesiq, an Evanston-based software developer that specializes in Java

Passion: Creating software to call his own