WE MET AT LITTLE BEAR, where Charles Ashley has his coffee every morning. I was there to find out how he went from being turned down for entry level marketing jobs to landing contracts with Netflix for Bernalillo County’s Economic Development Department, and, in his spare time, founding Cultivating Coders, which provides technical training in web and mobile application development to rural and underprivileged students. Oh, and also about how he had dinner with the Obamas to explain how this startup was working with Google and Apple to educate young people in computer science.
The guy is half ridiculously successful businessman and half passionate community advocate. He’s won fistfuls of awards (Albuquerque Economic Development’s Rising Star, Business Journal’s Rising Star Award, Albuquerque Business First’s 40 Under 40, New Mexico Ethics in Business, etc.) and most recently has started a bank to help people escape predatory loans. Yeah, a bank.
How did you start a computer science company in New Mexico?
You won’t believe this story. I’ll start at the beginning.
My wife and I were living in Las Vegas, Nevada. My family is all there, but it didn’t feel like community. My wife is from Albuquerque, but she wasn’t sure about moving back.
We had friends in Dallas and Denver, so I applied for marketing positions in those places and here. I got two offers in Dallas, three in Denver, and zero here.
At the same time, we were here for Thanksgiving visiting my wife’s family and I went to buy a blazer at this little family run place, where apparently all of the politicians go for their suits. I didn’t know that; my father in law had suggested the place. There’s another customer in there who starts chatting me up. We talk for a while, and he says, If you ever think about moving here, give me a call, and gives me his card. Young, arrogant me throws the card away.
So no job offers in Albuquerque but we decide to move here and look for jobs once we’re here. We’re here six months, and the only jobs I could find were $14 an hour entry level positions.
Then, out of nowhere, Bernalillo County posts a job for a marketing specialist, the first marketing job I’d seen. I interviewed. Turns out it’s a new position in the Economic Development Department. I had no clue what economic development was.
But the interview goes well. They call me back and say they like me, but I’m not from there and, oh, I’m black. So then I have to interview with the boss, the big boss.
I walk into the big boss interview and the guy sitting behind this big desk looks up and says, You’re a stubborn son of a bitch. It’s the guy from the suit shop.
I got the job and we crushed. It was great. I got to know everyone in the community, I got to know mayors and governors. I helped create the film office and bring Netflix in. We generated $60 million in film permits and I brought in other companies like Tempur-Pedic, Eclipse Solar, and others.
So I knew the marketing side of business, but now I understood the actual business side, how the money flowed. When I left, we had brought $400 million into the economy.
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