One of the benefits of working in BrightMix’s office is meeting the clients that stop by for meetings, parties, or the sporadic Friday grill session. It was at the latter of these that I met Timothy Kephart and his team at Graffiti Tracker. At the time, they were new to Omaha as Tim had recently relocated the company from Los Angeles.
A native of the East Coast, Tim is proud to tell you that he’s always been a Nebraska football fan. The day we met for the interview was the day after the Husker’s win over Mizzou – needless to say he was in a good mood. It wasn’t the proximity to Memorial Stadium that brought Tim here, however, he’s very fond of the friendly community, specifically that of the emerging tech community.
Tim’s startup, Graffiti Tracker, was born out of a his part time job and research project in 2000. It soon evolved into a research topic for his master’s thesis, “I looked at gang graffiti and saw that there was all kinds of intelligence value that law enforcement could use if they actually were able to track the graffiti,” he explained.
“The problem that was occurring was that law enforcement was responsible for investigating the graffiti and public works was responsible for removing the graffiti, rarely did those two entities ever communicate with one another.”
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In 2006, the first edition of Graffiti Tracker was released to fill that gap. Today, it’s on its third edition and, according to Tim, there isn’t another product that matches its functionality. A major component to it is the team of analysts that back it up — unlike other graffiti tracking products that require law enforcement to analyze it themselves.
With his team’s performance vital to the success of his company, one of Tim’s top priorities is sustaining GT’s work culture to yield satisfied and passionate employees. In fact, he has a model not to follow: Office Space. On employees’ first day, they’re served a screening of Office Space to emphasize that the “case of the Mondays” questioning and cubicle boredome will not be tolerated at GT.
Check out my interview with Tim to learn more about his thoughts on company culture, his company’s new initiative, GT Labs, an incubator for Government 2.0 applications, and his advice for aspiring entrepreneurs who have an idea but lack the programming skills to execute it.
If you’d like to learn more about GT and their product’s effect on reducing crime in cities, check out their Press / Media page, and if you’d like to visit their offices and meet Tim and the GT team, stop by October 30th for their Halloween Happy Hour, an open house party.
