Today we’d like to introduce you to Josh Kahle.
Josh, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I started Various Things Live with a partner in 2008 after leaving a corporate sales job. I had a passion for music as well as good design (one of the partners was a web designer) and so we decided to try to combine them into a content creation business. We struggled for years trying to carve out our niche and then ultimately realized the passions belonged in different businesses.
Various Things Live is now a leading interactive design, development, and technology consulting firm that assists organizations with user centered design and website/mobile application development solutions.
IV Lab Studios is a staple amongst the Chicago recording studios. A premier multi-room facility located in Lincoln Park offers professional recording, mixing, and mastering services to the music community and beyond.
IV Think Lab is Chicago’s premier music production and software education school. We offer a variety of classes for students looking to advance their knowledge and understanding of critical music production and recording software.
Has it been a smooth road?
It’s been a very long and windy road, to say the least. We’ve encountered many struggles along the way, none that are out of the ordinary I’d assume.
Our biggest challenge has always been finding the time to do all the work we want with the limited resources of a bootstrapped business. Our ambition often overshadows reality.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Various Things Live, IV Lab Studios and IV Think Lab story. Tell us more about the business.
I’ll speak specifically about Various Things Live for now, as it’s what I spend my most time on these days.
VTL is now entering its 9th year in business and has grown from a two man operation to a full agency team with design and development staff, project management, sales/marketing and finance. When we started in 2008 we offered a very niche service, specifically doing flash banner ad production. We found that most agencies outsourced (within the US) that work at the time and we were able to secure ongoing work from smaller shops to the bigger national agencies. We were able to refine our work and process on some of the biggest brands in the world. In 2010, we leveraged that experience and started working with Careerbuilder.com, located in Chicago.
Through that partnership, VTL has worked with many of the Fortune 1000 companies over the past seven years, including: CarMax, Cintas, Cisco, Citi, Coca-Cola, Cracker Barrel, Drexel, Dr Pepper/Snapple, Dunkin’ Donuts, FedEx, Grainger, Grant Thompson, Gulfstream, Honda, H&R Block, JanSport, JPMorgan Chase, Kroger, Liberty Tax Service, McDonald’s, Mesirow Financial, MetLife, Mission, Morgan Stanley, Careerbuilder.com and MUCH more.
VTL has been privileged to be web design and development partners with Careerbuilder.com for over 8 years now and completed over 4000 projects. We’ve enabled Careerbuilder.com to expand their service offerings and supported their media team’s growth year over year.
VTL also works closely with a couple of large publishers of content on the web, assisting with Drupal web development consulting and services.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
The industry will absolutely change in the next 5 – 10 years. Even since we’ve been in business, the original technology we worked with, FLASH, has become virtually obsolete. The tools of the trade will change, but the success factors for being a good service business will never.
AI, automation, data mining are all big things on the horizon that will certainly change our business in the near future. We are trying to look forward to those things because all of them still require a human touch to customize to client specs. I think we are well aligned to tap into these exciting technology shifts coming probably sooner than most people expect!
Contact Info:
- Address: 2443 North Clybourn Avenue, Chicago Il 60614
- Website: www.variousthingslive.com/www.ivlabstudios.com |www.ivthinklab.com
- Phone: (773) 598-8600
- Email: info@variousthingslive.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VariousThingsLive
Getting in touch: VoyageChicago is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
