Bill Gates isn’t the only high-tech magnate in the great state of Washington. Deep in his parents’ basement in Richland, 18-year-old high school senior Joel Cline runs a profitable technology business of his own: Cline Communications (www.cline communications.net). CIO recently spoke with him about his life and work. CIO: What does Cline Communications do? Cline: We’re into Web development, hosting and marketing for small businesses and individuals. I started the company in 1999 with the idea of helping small-business owners jump on the Internet. A lot of companies charge nothing less than $399 for a business to get on the Web. That is ridiculous. What do you charge? We design websites for $200 at the most. I do trade and barter with people quite a bit, though. For example, I received my senior portraits for free when I designed the photography studio’s website. There’s a company I do a website for that rents out those big toys that blow up and you bounce around inside of them. In exchange for their website design, I had them bring one to my house one day to give my two younger brothers something to play on. How do you get prospective clients to take you seriously? Many think that it’s some lawn-mowing business. Sometimes, I tell [prospective clients] it’s more of a family-owned business so that they think I’m not the owner, and then they seem to want to work with me. Which is harder: going to high school or running a business? Going to high school, because it keeps me away from running the business. I go to school in the afternoons so that I have time to work in the morning. But in high school, I also run on our cross-country and track and field teams. What’s your best mile time? I’ve run a 5:09 mile. It’s not all that great, but we’ll see what I can pull off this year. Related content brandpost Sponsored by Catchpoint Systems, Inc. Gain full visibility across the Internet Stack with IPM (Internet Performance Monitoring) Today’s IT systems have more points of failure than ever before. Internet Performance Monitoring provides visibility over external networks and services to mitigate outages. By Neal Weinberg Dec 01, 2023 3 mins IT Operations brandpost Sponsored by Zscaler How customers can save money during periods of economic uncertainty Now is the time to overcome the challenges of perimeter-based architectures and reduce costs with zero trust. By Zscaler Dec 01, 2023 4 mins Security feature LexisNexis rises to the generative AI challenge With generative AI, the legal information services giant faces its most formidable disruptor yet. That’s why CTO Jeff Reihl is embracing and enhancing the technology swiftly to keep in front of the competition. By Paula Rooney Dec 01, 2023 6 mins Generative AI Digital Transformation Cloud Computing feature 10 business intelligence certifications and certificates to advance your BI career From BI analysts and BI developers to BI architects and BI directors, business intelligence pros are in high demand. Here are the certifications and certificates that can give your career an edge. By Thor Olavsrud Dec 01, 2023 8 mins Certifications Business Intelligence IT Skills Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe