Inside the Insider

• Posted by Wasim
• In What's New

What I also didn't expect was having them post my personal MySpace address but no harm done, its private now! Thanks to The Insider and to Troy Smith who covered the story and Matt Wittmeyer for photography.

Thought I would post a few things here that discussed a few of my other companies and how I got here.

EVATECH INC.

The first two companies I was involved in were in college when I was 19. The first was Evatech Inc. which I started in 1999 with my college room mate Johnny Lam, currently located in Hong Kong. This company's clients were sold off in 2000 and the name was kept for what is currently a hardware security company which Johnny and I still manage.

FUSION

Another company that I was a part of at the same time was Fusion Elite Electronic Music. Fusion was an event and promotional company with seven other partners during which time we brought world famous artists such as DJ QBERT, LTJ Bukem, ATB and The Executioners to Rochester.

BINARIAN STUDIOS

After finishing up school I took a short-lived detour into the rat race and found out quickly that I hated it for too many reasons to state. So I started Binarian Studios where I and a group of close trusted friends could work the way we knew it should be done. In 2006 we branched into some more diverse fields such as Digital Rights Management for video, High End Movie Quality 3D Animation and Windows and Blackberry Application Development. You can read more about Binarian in the Insider Edition article which can be found here.

CRYSTAL ICING

In 2005, I randomly ran into Gina Smith, currently President of Crystal Icing. Gina has the spirit of a true entrepreneur and a brilliant designer. She's also got a better sense of humor than anyone I have met in recent memory. I would have to compare our fated meeting to Larry & Sergei or Bill & Paul except not as geeky.. well not quite as geeky.

So at the time we were both employed at our respective companies of enslavement and both happened to be attending a IT networking meet & greet.*yawn*...she in sales.. me as a techie. I had almost worked from home that day... A few weeks later I got an email from Gina about a business she recently started. Gina had been making and selling Swarovski crystal kits where people could apply Crystals to whatever they wanted. She wanted to sell more products online and expand her line of products. After discussing for about a week, we decided to join forces.

Now I get 5 or 6 of these join forces offers from uncles, cousins, clients and associates every month no joke... I made this one exception ever based on gut feeling alone.

Update: Since I got my inbox clogged with sweat equity offers since i posted this please refrain!

So, Binarian Studios provided web development, business consultation, a large internet marketing and pay per click campaign and a collection of other services. It took countless late night brainstorming sessions for the two of us and a healthy dose of dedication, but once we reached the tipping point, the rest was history and so were our competitors…

Since then, Crystal Icing has expanded their lines and services of high fashion accessory embellishment and done work for such celebrities as Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie, Lindsay Lohan, Courtney Love, Hilary Duff, Kiera Knightley, Reese Witherspoon, Charlize Theron, Kellie Ripa, Jamie Presley, Jason Leigh, Eva Longoria, Dwayne Wade, Kimberly Stewart, Rod Stewart, Brooke Hogan and many more.

We also specialize in Corporate and Promotional products and events and have completed projects for:

• Sharpie (230 Sharpies for 2007 Superbowl)
• Nintendo (Custom Handheld and Console Line for Nintendo World @ Rockefeller Center)
• Sony Playstation (Playstation 2 for MTV’s Laguna Beach)
• Acuvue (Promotional Compact Mirror)
• T-Mobile (Sidekick 3 Launch Party/Celebrities)
• Oscars 2005 (Compacts for Celebrity Gift Baskets)
• Oscars 2006 Lip Plumpers for Celebrity Gift Baskets)
• Stolichyna (100 Bottles of Stoli for Promotional)
• Yahoo! (Patron Bottles)
• Boost Mobile (Mobile Devices/Promotional)
• Keds (Sneakers/Promotional)
• CSI Miami (Bluetooth for Character on Show)
• MTV / Laguna Beach (Fashion Show)
• Pepperface (Crystal Pepper Sprays)
• Beach Bums (Tanning Salon/Promotional)
• H. Couture Beauty

Crystal Icing will be going places in 2007 no doubt about it! To find out more about Crystal Icing please contact Gina Smith, President of Crystal Icing at gina@crystalicing.com

UNSEEN ENTERTAINMENT

Finally, since I can only live so long without being involved in the music scene, I recently rejoined some of the old Fusion partners including DJ Dorian Leander and we brought Jonathan Peters, voted America's Best DJ of 2006 to Karma. Unseen Entertainment will be branching out into a number of areas this year including artist management, music and music video production as well as live streaming radio stations.

2007 is shaping up to be a good year!
Stay tuned for more news!