EnTrends [ahn-trends]

Taking a Look at How Modern Entrepreneurs Work & Live!

Now, boats that have been streaking through the water all day pull in close to the shore. An announcer comes over the loud speaker and diverts your attention to the endless blue horizon in front of you. The crowd around you begins to settle and becomes quiet.

In the distance, you hear the sound of a powerful jet engine ignite and begin to grow louder and louder. This is what you have been waiting for. In a moment, you are about to watch the world's fastest boat beat the U.S. Navy's world speed record. You are about to see the debut of the QuasArk X2!

This is the vision that Devin Standard, President of QuasArk America, Inc., has had in mind since he began his endeavor over two years ago. Standard has assembled one of the most elite teams of designers, entrepreneurs, and naval experts around, in hopes of beating the 91.9 knot per/hour (approx. 110 mph) aquatic speed record set by the U.S. Navy in 1983.

After working overseas for fifteen years, Standard moved back to the states. He combined his past marketing experience with a love of extreme sporting to form San Diego- based QuasArk America, Inc. The company is primarily a design shop, whose goal is to license cutting edge vessel designs to defense contractors, fast ferry manufacturers and pleasure craft builders. The company was incorporated In June of 2000.

After formulating the structure of the company, Standard started putting together a team of people. "I figured out what types of people were needed for the company to succeed, and then I identified some likely candidates."

In addition to Standard's chief designer and partner Quasar Kahnh, members of the QuasArk team include a serial entrepreneur from Canada, a retired Navy Admiral, and one of the Navy's top high-speed boat pilots, whom Standard met at the U.S. Navy SEAL station in San Diego.

Standard says, "We've been really well received. We have been to the Pentagon three times and we just had a meeting with the Navy SEALs in Coronado. We have also been invited to the Scientists Helping America Conference put on by DARPA (Defense Advance Research Projects Agency). General Dynamics has also come to us and we are co- proposing on some grants. We are also negotiating with a couple of other defense contractors."

QuasArk sets itself apart from other companies in the industry by being the only company that has integrated lift, propulsion, and wave dampening technology into one system. Standard says, "This means that, if you have ever ridden in a car with bad shocks on a bumpy road, or in a boat at high speed across the water, and have been jolted around, we are the first to put an impact reducing system into a vessel through unique manipulation of the air."

Without giving away any proprietary information, Standard says that the watercraft his company designs are a form of hovercraft called Surface Effect Ships. Instead of sailing, the ships fly along the water on a cushion of air that is generated by the vessel itself. "If you have seen a pelican zooming over the water, that is what it is doing. They have huge wings that are down just over the surface of the water and take advantage of the cushion of air below."

Standard says that the physics of the watercraft are even more efficient than that of an aircraft wing. "With an airplane wing, as you fly at 30,000 feet, you get lift from the differences in air pressure above and below the wing. There is an energy that is going down from the wing that is not being recaptured. When you are hovering just over the water, a good percentage of the energy that is reflected down is then reflected back up. So, for the same amount of energy from your engines, you get much more travel and you can carry a much greater payload."

Standard and his team will host an international offshore racing event later this fall to debut the QuasArk X2. "We plan on having a racing team from Italy and boating enthusiasts from several other countries. In between the races, we will motor the X2 around for the crowd before running for the speed record. It's going to be wild!"

Standard and his team currently have a 40-foot prototype and they are installing jet engines to test over the next couple of months. Standard says that the Navy and its partner company spent an estimated $500 million to set the existing speed record. When he and his team break the record, they will have spent just under $2 million.

Growing up, Standard says that it was his father who inspired him to take on the challenge of his current company. A Harvard lawyer, Standard's father attempted a couple of businesses before settling back into the security of corporate work with a pharmaceuticals company He eventually ended up as a partner with a law firm. Standard has entrepreneurial siblings that inspire him too. His sister has an advertising agency in Charleston and his brother has an entrepreneurial sales business.

Standard received an undergraduate degree in Political Science and History from Colorado College in Colorado Springs, CO. He specialized in the study of socialist and communist systems. After graduating, he toured the world, financing his travels from personal investments and by utilizing his innate entrepreneurial instincts to sell things such as Chinese vodka in Russia.

Standard says that he knew from a young age that he had an international interest. As a child, he enjoyed reading Rudyard Kippling and Jack London stories. He was also a fan of the movie "The Man Who would be King." Standard has studied French since the time he was 13 and speaks German and Spanish as well.

After returning to the U.S., Standard began his own import/export business for a year and a half. He says, "It was so much fun! I literally made thousands of dollars every weekend. I just couldn't manage the money, however, and I ran the business into the ground. So, I decided to go to business school."

Therefore, Standard attended Boston University in Brussels, Belgium where he received a graduate degree in business. The first job that Standard took after receiving his graduate degree was with Colgate- Palmolive. Starting out as an associate product manager, he soon shot up the ranks to become the director of marketing for the company's Vietnamese subsidiary.

Working in the third world, we had chauffeurs, maids, and all sorts of things like that. Now, I have to struggle with everything. Not having any income is extremely challenging. Financially, it's night and day. My wife and children are very supportive, however.

In his free time overseas, Standard enjoyed water skiing and purchased a boat from the man who would later become his current partner at QuasArk. Analyzing the market for watercraft, Standard and his partner decided that their combined skills made for a very interesting business concept.

When asked what he likes most about being an entrepreneur, Standard says, "When going into meet with people at the Pentagon, or at the Navy SEALs base, it is really very interesting. They have never, or rarely, encountered a team like ours that comes in with a product that they want, and presents it properly. Just to see the looks on their faces as they are digesting the information is great! Working with a lot of these military people has been an interesting experience. Having spent a great deal of time working with them recently, I find that they are courteous, professional, and they follow-up very well."

In terms of negative experiences he has gone through, Standard says that the entire process of setting up his company has been extremely difficult on his personal life. "I came from this corporate environment where I was a big shot in a small pond overseas.

Standard says that requesting funding from outside sources is never easy. "It's not something one likes to do, especially when it's your own company and you are so intimately involved with it, but it is necessary for the growth of your company. If it was for someone else's company, it would be easy "

Standard jokes that, while he may not be bringing in enough income to live a luxurious lifestyle, he does have a jet engine and a 40-foot boat in a secret location in Newport Beach. Not many people can say that.

In the future, Standard hopes to grow QuasArk by bringing in more designers and licensing the designs that they are currently working on. He would like to see the company go public or be spun off, saying, "We have some additional plans for aircraft and other things. Besides, I prefer the early growth phase, rather than managing the developed enterprise down the road."

When giving advice to other entrepreneurs starting out, Standard says, "I'll tell you the same thing that you hear from everyone else, but never believe when it's yourself. It takes two times the money and three times as long! You will have a lot of bad days when you have bills coming in that you don't know how you are going to pay, but just keep going. Every once in awhile, when it gets really grim, something good will happen. In the end, it's all worth while."