Mike Randrup's Early Career
Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes
Mike Randrup was a 14-year-old computer "whiz-kid" who designed his own video game in hopes of working for Nintendo. This endeavor made him the subject of an article in the Beacon in 1994. Recently Randrup re-visited and filled us in on his life since the article.
Though seven years later he hasn't achieved his dream of working for the well-known game manufacturer, he has achieved more at the age of 22 than most men do in a lifetime.
Randrup left Grants when he was 14 to live with his grandparents in Fresno, Calif. That's when his future in the computers hit warp speed. While finishing high school he enrolled in California State University Fresno, where he pursued a computer science degree. As if that wasn't enough, he also opened his own business.
Armed with his trusty Amiga 4000/040 computer, Randrup opened M.I.R. Graphics in the den of his grandparent's home. He began producing computer animation for local businesses. His first client was Happy Steak restaurant for which he produced a commercial. M.I.R. started did so well Randrup had to hire an employee to keep up with his projects.
About this time the Internet began to gain popularity. Recognizing potential on the horizon and branched into the area of web development. This proved to be a wise maneuver for the young entrepreneur, who had left behind his aspirations of game making for the more lucrative realm of advertising.
M.I.R. began to grow and metamorphosed into what would become DreamSpeed Studios. DreamSpeed grew at such a rate that Randrup left college after two years in order to devote all his time to the company.
In 1996 Randrup signed a lease on his first office and became a major name in the California advertising community. Some of his better-known animation projects included Taco Bell's Monster Eyes campaign and a commercial for Valley Children's Hospital. Along with commercial animation, DreamSpeed Studios began developing websites for major companies throughout the Fresno area. What started in his grandparent's den had grown into a business that now grossed between $80,000 and $250,000 a year.
Randrup and DreamSpeed won their share of recognition in the advertising world including several Addy Awards from the Fresno Advertising Federation for a variety of projects they created. Randrup received many prestigious honors including the Nancy Thielen Award for "Recognizing excellence in young professionals." DreamSpeed grew so successful it was ranked the second-largest web development firm in Fresno.
All good things come to an end, and so did DreamSpeed Studios. The company eventually closed its doors for good in 2000. Randrup said he had put most of his profits into expanding the company and making it bigger and better until it grew just too big for its own management structure.
Randrup had personal reasons for calling it quits as well. At 20 years old he was working 16 to 20 hours a day, seven days a week. He even had an apartment built within his office building so he could be closer to work. "It got to the point," Randrup said, "where I was more concerned with the company's health and well-being than my own." At that point, he decided to take a couple of years off to regroup.
Randrup is back and better than ever. He has moved his base of operations to Dallas, where he is developing his new web design company Carrollton Web Design. Though only two months old, Carrollton is off to a great start. "I'm still in the process of paying my dues," Randrup said.
A little older and a lot wiser in the business area, Randrup is setting his sights on the future. He wants to build Carrollton into a company similar to DreamSpeed for the Dallas market, taking full advantage of new technologies. He also hopes to rebuild his portfolio as well. "In a given moment, when you're on the Internet," Randrup said. "You have something of a legacy. When you fall off of it you stop having that legacy. I can't wait to rebuild that legacy."
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Credits: Cibola County Beacon (small town newspaper where Mike lived at the start of his career, and they did a follow up piece after the public rise and fall of the 7 year California business).