Business Empire Magazine provides how to's and articles for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs

Matthew can still remember the first time he ever sat at a computer, his parents had just bought a new computer which his mother had to use for work but whenever she wasn’t at it, he was. Playing Kidpix a fancy version of paint, was his introduction to computers. Throughout elementary school he could always be found at a computer, reading; or learning to for that matter, typing, trying to beat Oregon Trail, or rescue the Princess in “Mario Teaches Typing”.

At thirteen his parents gave him his first computer. What followed was a crucible in cause and effect as he learned checkbox by checkbox, what every option he could find in Windows ME did. Within a year his parents had to bring it somewhere to get it fixed seven times. After a few stern talking-tos from his father, he came to the conclusion he’d need to learn to fix his own mistakes, and so began his history in IT. It was about this time in his life that he took an elective in middle school called Principles in Technology where for a school project he made his first website. When he went to high school he quickly took every computer programming, web design, and networking course offered and graduated with several technical certifications as well as his high school diploma.

His first summer in college was spent as a Pool Manager for his local pool but his second summer he won the only IT Internship with an up and coming EMR and Digital Transcription company – Mrecord LLC. As an intern he very quickly learned that “Open Source” doesn’t just mean free – it meant the future. Here he was responsible for the day-to-day function and upkeep of all the computer infrastructure that went into keeping a cutting edge dot-com and it’s India headquarters functioning at peak performance. He was also tasked with replacing every aspect of the company’s computing environment with equal or better open source equivalents as well as integrate all of it into a new website…which he was also to develop, implement and manage. Programs such as Wordpress, PBXtra and SugarCRM quickly became second nature as he mated the two to create a seamless customer information tracking system. At the conclusion of the 6 week internship he was offered a position as an IT Analyst and Webmaster. It was at this position where he first learned what the letters “SEO” meant.

Today, Matthew is a 21 year old junior majoring in Computer Science at North Carolina State University. To date he has worked on well over 130 websites, solely developing nearly 70. He has also served as Director of IT for the Microbiology Department at NCSU for two years. There he is responsible for maintaining, troubleshooting, and implementing hundreds of thousands of dollars in research technology ranging from Gel-Doc machines to Electron Microscopes to lab-specific Wi-Fi. His resume includes internships at nearly every position within a web development team, junior and senior IT positions, consulting and an impressive number of certifications.

Throughout his life he has always been known for his vision. Be it on the soccer or lacrosse fields, the classroom, or the professional arena, Matthew has always been able to visualize his goal and stops at nothing to accomplish it. This “Killer Instinct” is what has lead him to where he is today on the Business Empire Team.