“Twelve hours and one 40 page paper later…” the first business plan for LiveAir Networks was born.

Mark Gwin, current editor/publisher of the Smithville Times said it best in his feature story on the start of LiveAir Networks (then LiveAir Wireless) in September, 2004. (Read article, PDF format).

DECA is an international association of high school and college students with an interest in marketing, management, and entrepreneurship. In Texas, DECA members work their way through at multiple levels of competition from the district level all the way to the acclaimed annual International Career Development Conference.

LiveAir’s CEO and Founder, James W. Breeden, wrote the first business plan for LiveAir Wireless while a senior at Smithville High School in 2003-2004, on encouragement from SHS DECA advisor Stewart Burns. Over the spring semester, and through district, state, and international competition, Breeden refined what became a blueprint for changing rural America, one community at a time.

Little did he know when he started that in the end, many judges and individuals would believe in his plan. By the time he received a 2nd place award at the International conference, it was pretty obvious that there was a problem in Rural America, and that LiveAir had the business plan and ability to start a change.

So, over the summer of 2004, it was fairly obvious that there was a new company to start… and a network to build.

“I’ve never seen a business document that looked like that. It was truly stunning.” 2005 Resource Management Proposal Review Board Member, Smithville Community Network.

When LiveAir Networks entered the incorporation and forming phase of business in September, 2004, the local Community Network was also looking for a partner. The Smithville Community Network, originally founded and grant funded in 2000 as a project of the TIF infrastructure board, has a goal of providing free, public access to the Internet within the community of Smithville. The organization provides technology classes and training, a public access computer lab at the Smithville Recreation Center, and a filtered hotspot & “cool spot” service for private restaurants and retail establishments around Smithville.

However, the Network’s source of funding had dried up as the grant had been completely expensed, and the City of Smithville was the sole funding source for keeping the SCN up and running. Without a true plan, the Network’s board of directors and the City of Smithville solicited the private carrier industry in Smithville for a sustainability plan for the Network.

Multiple responses were received, most from established companies in the networking and rural access industries, but one document stood out. “Rising Above”, as the proposal was entitled, was LiveAir Networks’ response to the Community Network’s 2005 Resource Management Request for Proposal. (Read public document, 2MB PDF file).

On March 19?, 2005, LiveAir Networks was publically announced as the contract winner of the proposal process. This key contract win for LiveAir enabled our startup cost to be lowered by quite a lot, as one of the benefits of LiveAir entering into this public-private resource management partnership was that LiveAir obtained exclusive use of the City’s 3 water towers for mounting microwave equipment and providing access to the general public as an ISP.

LiveAir constructed network services for both main city water towers in the summer of 2005, and began marketing our initial public Internet Access services in August of 2005, at the same time we finalized and began responsibility for the management of the data resources of the Smithville Community Network.

Since 2005, we have upgraded and expanded the network each year. 2006 saw us double our network backbone capacity and add a new type of business class services. In 2007 we expanded to include microwave services to the Greasy Bend area, and introduced our first subdivision-wide hotspot services in the RVICS village area of Smithville. In 2008, we completed a 6 tower network expansion which made services available from Alum Creek and Upton, all the way back to Pin Oak, and off into Fayette and Lee Counties, along FM 448 all the way to downtown Giddings. (link to coverage area)

“He learned his ABCs on the computer keyboard.” – Dinah Breeden, LiveAir CFO and the CEO’s mom.

It’s no secret that LiveAir’s CEO has been a geek since birth. The first family computer was an Apple IIc (yes, with a monochrome screen and a 5 ¼” floppy disk drive) and a dot matrix printer (Apple Imagewriter, anyone?)

Without saying too much about our CEO’s childhood (for that, see his Biography), we can say that beginning at age 7, he began working on computer support and training for community individuals. As a child, he “started” several unofficial computer companies.

The true start for Mr. Breeden’s computer empire came in his 8th grade year (yes, while enrolled at Smithville Junior High School) when longtime family physician Dr. Ravi Parchuri called him up to manage the new computer network which they were putting in at the Smithville Medical Clinic. Dr. Parchuri and Dr. Sanchez provided him with the opportunity to get started in the information technology field, and since that date he has supported many iterations of network and computer systems at Smithville Medical Clinic. (see case study).

When the clinic became a client, the family business was officially “started” as a sole proprietorship, “James W. Breeden Information Systems”, or as commonly known simply “Breeden Information Systems”. BIS began supporting residential and small business customers in Bastrop and Smithville and continued to do so at an unparalleled service level for many years.

When the Breeden Family embarked on their new project, LiveAir Networks, in 2004, and set up their new holding corporation, “Greasy Bend Ventures, Inc.” they decided that BIS was getting too large to be a sole proprietorship anymore. In 2006, Breeden Information Systems became “LiveAir Networks Inside Services,” and began formulating a line of managed, proactive support services (when managed services were new).

Since 2006, we developed the Business Support Platform and now, LiveAir Networks’ Information Technology Services group supports business, governmental, and non-profit clients with enterprise-class networking and services across Central Texas.

“This is way cool. Thank you for allowing me to see hometown celebrations again.” – Viewer Comment (pull quote from news clipping, and use it as an image)

If you haven’t read about the capabilities of LiveAir’s network infrastructure, we invite you to sometime (see “Our Network”). Of course, we knew what it was capable of from day one, and the challenge began up front as to how we could differentiate ourselves from other local and national ISPs. What could we do that would show folks that our network really was scalable and different?

We found our answer only days before Smithville’s Festival of Lights in 2005. We embarked on an ambitious proof of concept plan, in conjunction with Austin-based SheTechs, to do the first live outdoor webcast of the Festival of Lights parade. We set up a camping tent on 1st street, hooked up a bunch of video cabling and 2 cameras, grabbed a laptop and a video capture device, recruited some friends, and as buggy and primitive as it was, we did it. The 2005 Smithville Festival of Lights parade was broadcast Live on the Internet for a whole 13 viewers, and we had our answer. We can do Internet Video, live, from Smithville! (What a concept!)

With the concept proven, we contacted and got video rights to the 2006 Jamboree Coronation Pageant and again the “Big Parade”. Our setups were still primitive and clunky, and took hours to set up a venue, but we were successfully broadcasting Internet Video from different Smithville venues, over our network, and to the world.

Like all successful businesses, we learn from our mistakes and move forward, and LiveAir’s multimedia unit was no exception. After having several productions under our belt, we looked at where our flaws and problems were, and we came up with our own solution.

In 2007, we built what we’ve dubbed “the Greenhouse”. LiveAir’s 3-ton multipurpose digital media trailer is designed to enable any venue with Internet connectivity to be transformed into a live production studio! The trailer has integrated onboard multichannel sound mixing, digital recording capabilities, chroma-key and on-screen graphics capabilities, a full outdoor-capable festival grade sound system, high definition video cameras, and all associated equipment. It has enough power distribution to power the entire production, is climate controlled for crew comfort, and even carries a portable kitchenette for crew catering purposes. The built in stage on the back side (also known as the patio), is used for announcing and performance purposes when we’re at an outside event. And we carry Internet Access equipment from both Sprint and our own services, so that if we happen to encounter a venue that does not have Internet Access, we can make our own! (For more information on the Greenhouse and its capabilities, see its own page in the Media section).

LiveAir’s multimedia group is now the primary production company for the Smithville Chamber of Commerce’s portfolio of events including Festival of Lights and their annual awards banquet. We produce DVDs, webcasts, and/or simple sound reinforcement for several local events including Smithville High School’s Graduation Ceremonies, Smithville Jamboree Coronation, and Smooth Moves Dance’s annual recital.

It doesn’t seem to be slowing down. Our multimedia operations are definitely here to stay.

In 2007, we were fairly busy. Network construction, IT services, and multimedia production was our services portfolio. When asked if we built websites, we told folks “nope.”

LiveAir Networks did not do websites, or so we thought. Our thoughts were that there were other people with those talents around. We didn’t have time, and it didn’t seem like we needed to, until our clients came knocking down our door wanting us to build their websites. We even turned down sites that would have been simply handed to us (no-bid contracts) because we said we just weren’t a website company.

Big mistake. We succumbed to the pressure.

Fast forward to about April of 2008, and we see the official birth of LiveAir’s Web 2.0 division. We tapped the knowledge and talents of prominent local artist and graphic designer Les Warren and hired him as our Director of Web Services, and we started churning out websites. Quickly, we picked up several high profile clients, including M. D. Anderson Cancer Center’s Community Outreach and Education Program, Rustic Cedar Cabins of Texas, Bastrop County BEST, and more. Due to the complexity of many of our projects, we brought on two programmers in the fall/winter of 2008, and LiveAir’s Web 2.0 team now builds large, dynamic web portals for many clients, local and national.

The team is a Kentico CMS Solution Partner, and we utilize the Kentico platform as a base for most of our large site designs (like this site). Our programmers are able to customize Kentico and write custom code to accomplish basically anything the site and application requires.

Even though there were some efficiency problems in the beginning, our team is full-steam ahead on many projects and there are plenty in the pipeline. Check out more about our web services team, their capabilities, projects, and their young but stunning portfolio in our Web 2.0 section.

And those with the no-bid web contracts we mentioned above? Look out. Your renewals are coming up quickly.

LiveAir is growing. We don’t plan on adding any additional business units, but that’s not to say we won’t if the opportunity arises. We’re a bunch of movers and shakers in the industry and local business. We’re technology evangelists.

Our network is constantly expanding and upgrading. Our IT services unit is adding capacity quarterly. The media team is looking for new and exciting creative projects. And the web team is growing rapidly, by portfolio size and staff. And it’s all under the umbrella of a deeply rooted local company with endless possibilities and a smart business sense. Call us a local conglomerate if you want.

Our mission is to bring inner-city technology and capabilities to rural areas, and to support small businesses with the same type of technologies available to their larger Fortune-listed counterparts. We think that we’re doing a heck of a job.

And we hope that you’ll agree.