ITA Spotlight: Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts Academy
December 10, 2012 / Submitted by sthomas
With Howard A. Tullman, President & CEO
Company name:
Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts Academy
Company url:
What is your company’s Twitter handle?
@TribecaChicago @tullman
Who are the founders of your company? What are your company roots?
Our founding team, including myself, Paula Froehle, Mario Christopher, Barbara Pollack and others, are a team of veteran educators, artists, and entrepreneurs who are determined to modernize higher education for an evolving workplace and the new global digital economy. We created the college we know today as Tribeca Flashpoint Academy to disrupt, dismantle, and de-stigmatize career-focused education in the arts.
In 25 words or less, what are you all about?
We’re about helping smart, creative people put their passion to work in careers they love. We do this by providing high-end, career-focused digital arts education.
What problem do you solve?
We solve three problems. The first is that the tenured (and tired) faculty at virtually every other college and university in the country hasn’t and isn’t interested in keeping up with and learning to teach the new technologies of today and tomorrow. They’re happy to call their courses “digital”, but they have no idea of the real changes in tools and technologies taking place in the marketplace and across the globe. The second problem is a scarcity of highly skilled digital media arts professionals in Chicago and across the country. Businesses, governments, educators, and everyday individuals need more and better ways to connect with people and information as they migrate their businesses from the analog world to the totally digital tomorrow. It is the job of the digital media artist to find and create these critical connections between consumers and companies. Our team-based and highly collaborative focus also helps solve a third problem, which is that students who excel at art and technology are often treated like second-class citizens in higher education. We provide a high-end, career training environment tailored to this type of student, giving them the tools, training, people skills and the support they need to succeed—even in a challenging economy.
How did you get started?
We got started because we got tired of hearing from hundreds of parents telling us about their kids who couldn’t find a college that could make them successful and also of hearing from hundreds of employers who said that they couldn’t find digitally-aware, next-generation employees with the work ethic, technical training and passion to succeed in the marketplaces of tomorrow. So we decided to do something about it and fix the problem. And we have.
What makes your company special? How is your product differentiated in the eyes of the consumer?
I think anyone who walks into Tribeca Flashpoint Academy will immediately understand that our school is a special place. There’s energy and passion here. There’s close collaboration and constant action as well. Our students, staff and faculty are busy not just learning things, but creating things. It’s really powerful to see people—especially young people—so engaged in their learning and so excited about the opportunities and challenges ahead of them. And this is something I hear over and over again from parents: that we’re the first school their kid has gone to that has really gotten him or her excited to learn. You can’t put a price on that.
How do you make money? Who are your primary customers and why do they choose you?
We are a traditional tuition-based college. We make money the old-fashioned way: we earn it by training and graduating the best employees any business could hope to hire—and that’s exactly what they do. So our customers are our students, their parents, their future employers, and the many businesses and other industry organizations and technology providers that we work with to constantly create and meet the new demands and requirements of the industries we serve.
Work Hard/Play Hard or The Early Bird Gets The Worm or something else?
You Get What You Work for, Not What You Wish for. Hard Work Conquers All.
What’s the #1 thing on your To-Do list?
Sleep less – work more.
What are your dreams for your company?
We want to get as big as we can before we get bad. It’s not easy to do but it’s possible if you really care about what you’re doing and if you really understand who you are doing it for.
It’s our kind of town too… but what are the advantages of being a Chicago-based technology company?
Chicago is a great city for technology because we have such a strong and active community here. Everyone in Chicago wants to see their city thrive just as much as they want to see their own business succeed. Because of this attitude, there’s a strong network of support for people who want to get a project off the ground.
What trends do you see heading into 2013 that are relevant to your industry and company?
Digital begets Mobile begets Social, and we are all over all 3.
Video will be all things to all people and storytelling will be the main way that everyone learns anything and these are our sweetest spots.
What’s your #1 need going forward… other than funding and customers, anyway?
More students.
What are the biggest challenges you are facing in scaling your business up?
Maintaining the quality and intensity of our instruction and the enthusiasm and commitment of our team members.
This one is all you… Anything else you want to tell us?
We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about.
