Who/What is Extra Quarter?
The “Who” is Ben Province, at least for now. Extra Quarter is intended to be a collaboration between myself and anyone else agrees with what I’m trying to do and wants to contribute. I’m just the guy who has the time to get this ball rolling.
The “What” is a business think-tank for the discussion, planning, and founding of small sustainable niche product businesses. Extra Quarter is not a company or business entity in and of itself, and probably never needs to be. Technically speaking, Extra Quarter is just a website. It’s a showcase for thoughts about small business philosophy (Philosophy Stubs) and for more concrete conceptual business plans (Plan Stubs) that make the case for a hypothetical businesses that could be founded and operated in accordance with our sustainable small business philosophy.
The ultimate goal is that one or more (hopefully a few) of the plan stubs will be developed into a profitable business that is synergistic with its community and niche by one or more Extra Quarter collaborators. While I’m the first member of the team, I hope not to be the only one. Most of the ideas presented here are of a scope better suited to a small team rather than a sole proprietor. It is my hope that by throwing ideas at this website and inviting friends to collaborate, a founding team will coalesce around whichever idea best energizes the team and seems the most likely to succeed.
What’s with the name and logo anyway?
“We never half ass things around here. We always give at least three-quarters ass. ”
Extra Quarter Skunkworks gets its name from a saying that was going around the office at one of my (Province’s) previous jobs. It was a running joke that doing a “three quarters ass” job was the bare minimum level of effort. Like any good joke, there was a kernel of truth. In a fast-paced development environment where deadlines were impossible and “lazy like a fox” and “80/20 thinking” were encouraged, a three-quarters-ass solution was often seen the most practical.
In homage to that joke, I (Province) created the “Three Quarters Ass DIY Endeavors” logo as my personal brand for use on non-work-related projects that required my professional skills. The Three Quarters Ass logo has mostly been used to fill the company logo space in technical drawing title blocks for building permits applications, wiring schematics, and similar for my own personal projects.
So, when it came time to put a name and a logo to this somewhat nebulous planning entity, it only seemed fitting to bring the extra quarter to some ideas that had previously been personal projects.
The original Three Quarters Ass personal brand
The Extra Quarter logo
Collaborator Bios
Look at me, I’m the sole collaborator! Maybe the word “collaborator” doesn’t apply yet.
Eventually, we should have a page with bios for anyone who gets serious about this project. For now, here’s a pitch about why Ben is qualified to opine on product development.
Ben Province
Ben Province is a Mechanical Design Engineer with a diverse background and experience in almost all engineering fields related to the design, prototyping, and manufacture of small production run products. This includes traditional mechanical disciplines as well as electronics, software, and networks. He’s worked with everything from Mars rovers to mining trucks, and has learned from his experience in two fast-paced engineering environments: the NASA/Caltech Jet Prolusion Laboratory and TORC Robotics, a self-driving vehicle company.
Ben is an expert in mechanical design for rapid manufacture including sheet metal, 3D printed, and machined components. He is a pseudo-expert in many other design areas such as fluid power, fatigue analysis, and transition to production. Additionally, Ben has some experience with and is highly conversant in virtually all other technical fields related to product development such as electronics, software development, computer networking, CANbus/J1939, PLCs and industrial automation, and custom manufacture. Ben has experience interfacing with suppliers, technical customers, and other engineers in a product development context. This includes experience with outsourcing portions of active projects to other engineering firms and collaborating with suppliers and custom manufacturers for design for manufacture.
In his free time, Ben likes to learn about business and economics as well as emerging concepts in science, technology, and engineering. He is fascinated with the concept of serial entrepreneurship, and is ready to change the world one small product-focused business at a time.