Nick Cash’s work on Book Hatchery has helped him net a Prometheus Award (for which he received the torch trophy pictured), among other honors. Photo by Dan Beenken.
I remember from “The Republic” that Plato once said “Necessity is the Mother of invention.” Sure, I didn’t really read it, but my 10th grade English teacher still thinks so.
Those words are a perfect description of how the Book Hatchery was started. Its founder, Nick Cash, was looking for a way to publish his ebook on computer programming. Cash, currently a junior in computer science and economics at the University of Northern Iowa, had worked as a tutor in the computer science program at UNI for several years. From that experience, he saw the frustration students had with the current textbook offerings in programming. Seeing an opportunity, he wrote his own ebook to help them out. That process led him to the idea of publishing it on a larger scale than just for the students at UNI.
BECOME A SPONSOR
Join us in championing the narrative of success, resilience, and ingenuity that defines Nebraska’s startup community. Learn more »
In order to make that happen, he discovered the frustrations of ebook publishing, specifically across the various vendor platforms. It was through this experience that Book Hatchery was created. Book Hatchery’s service essentially allows an ebook writer to publish her or her product across multiple platforms – including Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Apple – without having to do the heavy lifting.
Adaptation has been key for Book Hatchery. Said Cash: “My first idea with all of this was nothing close to the vision of what Book Hatchery has become. I think that is important for any entrepreneur to keep in mind. You have to continue to be open to adaptation in order to be successful.”
Book Hatchery was originally started as an idea to get one book, Cash’s computer programming text, published. While Cash sat in financial fundamentals at UNI, it became apparent that the problem he experienced of publishing on the various complicated ebook platforms was probably also a headache for many others.
“That day in class was the big game-changer for Book Hatchery,” Cash said. “I went from an idea on how to publish my own work to a service-offering model that any author could use for epublishing.”
His success thus far hasn’t gone unnoticed. He won the JPEC Student Business Plan Competition in 2010 and was a finalist for Entrepreneur Magazine’s College Entrepreneur of 2010. So far in 2011, Book Hatchery has been named one of Inc.com’s Coolest College Startups of the year. Most recently, Cash took home the award for Student Innovation of the Year at this year’s Technology Association of Iowa Prometheus Awards.
“The Prometheus experience was the perfect opportunity for me to see what others are doing,” Cash said, “and realize that there are lots of successful start ups here in our own backyard.”
Cash has his sights set on ramping up the business development end of Book Hatchery now that the technology framework is in place. To do that, he is looking to ramp up his operations, raise some venture capital and hire a few more bodies for the road ahead.
For Cash, Book Hatchery was never the original end goal he had in mind. But it has worked out awfully well.
“You can’t wait for that perfect idea to come along,” he said. “You’ll never have it all figured out, and waiting to launch until you do typically means you have waited too long.”
