Jess Herron: Why I Launched My Tech Company in Providence
Friday, June 21, 2013
A RISD grad and Seattle native, Jess Herron returned to Providence after a year of working in Seattle at Microsoft Research to design and build an app to track wildlife sightings, called Glance. Designed to be a flexible, rigorous tool for academic scientists, non-profits, and hobbyist groups, it's also easy enough to use for laymen. Herron shares why she's chosen to make her company Green Heron Works part of Providence's growing entrepreneurial community.
I returned to Providence recently loaded down with luggage, feeling like a student all over again. I had come back to start a company, Green Heron Works, around an app I was hoping to design and build to track wildlife sightings. But all I had on my phone were three names to connect with and the hope that more would come.
When I came to Providence to attend RISD in 2007, I, like most college students who came here, never planned on staying long. I gazed about with the casual indifference of one swaddled in the academic blanket, and my only source of local news was the eavesdropping I did on Coffee Exchange patrons while my head was buried in homework. So upon graduating I escaped back to my hometown, Seattle, to do user experience design at a corporate research center. Yet before I knew it, I found myself missing the mazes of Victorian houses, the smell of the Athenaeum, the open and chatty people whom I had met. In my memory, Providence had a loud voice, a quick laugh, was always inviting me to meet their friends and willing to lend a hand. As focused on my academics as I had been though, I hadn’t gotten to know her very well. Seattle no longer felt like home, but I hadn’t made Providence home either.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTFeeling adrift, I left the corporate world in November of 2012 and traveled to Guyana in South America with Dr. Lucy Spelman, a professor at RISD who dangled before me the opportunity to see another side of the world. We were among students and researchers setting up motion cameras to catch jaguars and trekking through jungle to record monkeys. I trotted along behind, watching as they worked. As a designer in technology, what I noticed first were the thick pads of notebook paper they used to keep track of their data while their smartphones were tucked away in their pockets. It blew my mind the number of apps there were for city-dwellers to keep track of their calendars or favorite restaurants, yet these researchers had to use technology ten or twenty years old. There were a few apps for keeping track of simple wildlife information, but there was nothing rigorous or functionally-rich enough to be what these scientists needed.
I wanted to make that tool. And without a second thought, I knew I wanted to do it in Providence.
Seattle, San Francisco, Boston, New York–they’re filled with entrepreneurs. It’d take months if not years to build up a network at any of those places, and I’d be nothing more than just another tech startup. But Providence? I could hear the city’s voice clearly in my head: “Oh you’re doing what? How neat! Here, let me introduce you to six friends of mine who would be interested in that…” Not only are Rhode Islanders open with their networks but it’s easy to be only one step away from state-level organizations, a blessing for a young person trying to get a head start. And as a designer who needed feedback from scientists and environmentalists, where else would be better than a state that had URI, Brown and more passionate non-profits than I could shake a stick at?
So I’ve returned to Providence and, as I make the app a reality with the help of a Kickstarter campaign, find my hopes answered.. Not only are the professional resources and events frequent and useful, but the personal resources for what I want to do in my off hours–hiking, biking, meeting new people–are easy to reach on Meetup and at local events. As I’ve gotten to know Providence outside of the college communities, my appreciation for the city has only grown, and I look forward to continuing to explore this vibrant community and give back to it as much as I can.
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