12 Entrepreneurs to Watch in 1998
by Joelle Klein and Jeffrey L. Newman
Silicon Alley Reporter May98 Issue 14

Decorated with a Darth Vader doll, a Kiss pillow, and various superhero toys, The Chopping Block's office looks more like a playroom than a graphic design studio. And in some ways for founders Mike Essl, 24, Tom Romer, 28, and Matthew Richmond, 23, it is. They sometimes play Nintendo during their downtime and often amuse themselves by redesigning their Web site with different themes, like NASCAR racers, horror films, circus performers and NASA astronauts.

The three designers met at The Cooper Union, which Richmond still attends. ("I got a call offering me an internship the other day," Richmond grins) Essl and Romer were working at The Cooper Union's Design Center by day and as freelancers at night. They found freelance work more lucrative and enjoyable than a full-time office gig, so they left to do the startup thing. Richmond joined them after taking a two-year detour to study architecture.

We watched io360 become successful and we thought, "Hey we can do that." Romer says. At first they just shared portfolios and work. Eventually they were forced to become incorporated in 1996 because Barnes and Noble wouldn't let them pitch against other design shops without doing so. They didn't get that particular account, but have since done some work for the bookstore chain.

The boys went from working in Essl's apartment in the East Village to a studio on Wall Street to a real office in SoHo in the course of a year. After taking on clients like i-traffic, The Hub, and Microsoft, they have had to hire two more guys with goatees (four out of five have them; the fifth recently shaved). "At first we couldn't afford to have an apartment and a studio separately," Essl says. "But then we could so we moved. Wall Street was really boring, and we wanted to eat good food."

They consider themselves graphic designers who happen to specialize in the Web. "We went to art school; we want to be designers," Richmond says. "We are the closest thing you're going to find to a good old-fashioned design shop."

They like the idea of being small and in control. Essl, who resembles a punk Jon Goodman with silver earrings in each ear as well as his tongue, says the company will probably hire new designers sometime soon. "Maybe we'll go up to ten, I like that number ten," Essl says.

The seed money for the Chopping Block came from Romer and Essl's meager savings account, which they easily earned back in the first few months of work. When they did work for the 1997 Intel New York Music Festival, they accepted a couple of Macintosh computers in lieu of part of their payment. Otherwise, all capital expenses have been work generated. So far in 1998, the company has already surpassed its total 1997 revenue of $150,000, and expects to earn between $300,000 to $500,000 this year.