Midweek
6/19/2002
P.31

Cowabunga!
Bart Simpson said it, so did the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It was once the rallying cry of California surfers. And now it's attached to computers.

"It's like an attitude - go get 'em" says Yasuo Ogawa, the founder of Cowabunga! Computers, who has traced the expression back to the freckled ventriloquist's dummy Howdy Doody.

"Go get 'em" apply describes Ogawa's approach to the market. Cowabunga! Offers everything from providing Internet service to customizing computers, with unusual flat-rate pricing. A visit that lasts 30 minutes or less costs $55. Different services carry a single fee, no matter how long the service tasks. The staff will even make house calls.

"Our promise is we'll be anywhere in two hours," Ogawa says. They arrive in one of the company's "cowmobiles" - white Volkswagen Beetles decorated with black bovine-like patches. The company's motto is "no bull," and the employee's e-mail monikers carry the theme even further. Ogawa's is "holycow," and he is joined in the Cowabunga! barn by "madcow," and "cattleprod," among others. Ogawa says the playful attitude "breaks the ice" with customers, but the staff's expertise wins them over. Eight employees, plus Ogawa, handle the workload, setting their own hours in true high-tech style.

Ogawa himself graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in biomedical engineering. His first career was with United Airlines, where he was a regional director on the East Coast. A passion for video games led Ogawa and a partner to start a "dot-com" that they sold for enough money to allow Ogawa to start Cowabunga! last May.

Initially, the company was an Internet Service Provider, but Ogawa soon began offering to rebuild computers zapped by viruses, install hardware and software, or even construct Web sites.

"It's the American concept that people want everything in one place," Ogawa explains. He has zeroed in on small- to medium sized enterprises and schools, and his clients include Academy of the Pacific and St. Anthony's School, along with offices.

"The bottom line to what we do and why it's so successful is people are so afraid of technology," says Ogawa, who happily steps in to handle their nightmares.

He believes there is plenty of room for the company to grow and hopes his employees will eventually own the company, perhaps leaving Ogawa time to hang out with the surfers. He's already nailed their rallying cry.