Testimonials | Colby Thomson
At age 24, Colby Thomson has an MBA and is the co-owner of his own business. Allied Strategy, a software company created by Thomson and other J.D. Edwards Honors Program students now has nine J.D. Edwards students working in their studio/office in downtown Lincoln.
Businessweek says the fledgling company is the top non-university hirer of MBA graduates in Nebraska.
Allied Strategy creates verification solutions for the insurance industry that compiles reports and assures compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley and other reporting standards. The business idea emerged from Thomson’s J.D. Edwards Honors Program Design Studio project.
“We were working with a major insurance company on their request for a data management system, but when we were working with and talking with the insurance agents themselves, they were saying ‘…but here’s my real problem.’ This product just kind of took off from there.”
Entrepreneurship, and solving business problems with information-technology solutions, aren’t new to Thomson, who while still in high school started an internet company and other businesses around his hometown Lake Lotawana, Mo.
While he always knew he wanted to pursue a future combining business and computer engineering, when he pursued his higher education choices, “schools like Stanford and MIT weren’t able to offer that combination… or the scholarships,” he said. “Looking at other schools, they didn’t have the cohesion that J.D. Edwards has at UNL.”
Special speakers, working with professionals on real projects, and a more “practical education” appealed to Thomson. And he has thrived in J.D. Edwards.
“I’m not sure I could have survived or excelled at a program that is purely computer science and engineering… applied theory or math… that doesn’t engage me.”
“I’m doing what makes me happy,” he said. “I’m working with my friends, solving my problems creatively with software development. Every day is an amazing learning experience.”
While at UNL and the J.D. Edwards program, Thomson was active in the Young Entepreneurs program, and since graduation helped start a Lincoln Young Professionals group; both have been useful in helping him meet motivated peers and find mentors, investors and others who support his business’s goals.
Thomson has also been grateful for the graduate education experience he obtained at UNL. On the heels of the J.D. Edwards program, he applied to, and was accepted, for the MBA, with a J.D. Edwards Honors Program assistantship. In a year and a half, he obtained that ever-important label that exemplifies high-level training and experience.
“The MBA program was great. I received a stipend and tuition… It gave me and the other founders of our company another reason to stick around Lincoln.”
People often ask Thomson whether his “dream job” is at Google or Microsoft. His answer comes quickly and easily.
“For me, my dream job is the one I have right now,” Thomson said. “I worked briefly in healthcare information technology… that was supposedly my ‘dream job’ and I hated it. So I decided to start the company and got to work right away raising the capital. That’s why I work so hard, I don’t want to lose it. I certainly wouldn’t have my edge if I weren’t working for my own company.
“We want to do amazing things. Be profitable and continue to innovate. But most of all, this business is an outlet for our creativity.”
