Erik Dodier '92 located his e-commerce business at Pease International Tradeport to be close to Portsmouth, N.H. Photo by Mark Corliss

Homegrown and Thriving

When Erik Dodier '92 and Thomas J. Obrey started a multimedia and Internet company in 1994, they housed it in Dodier's Dover apartment.

Since then, the company has moved twice, most recently to a new 7,500-square-foot facility at Pease International Tradeport, where there's room for equipment and employees as well as a large open space for the design and development team, a loft with couches and a ping-pong table for stress relief.

The original idea behind PixelMedia was to help companies combine different media. But Dodier says it wasn't long before they realized that the Internet is the real key to their clients' success. Now PixelMedia concentrates on developing or redesigning Web sites and helping companies to use the Internet's worldwide marketing potential.

"We're still trying to sell products, market products or train employees, but now we're doing it across the Web," Dodier says. Their clients include Cigna Corporation, Cabletron Systems and Rockwell Automation. He predicts sales, which were $300,000 in 1994, will reach $3 million to $3.5 million this year.

Dodier, who is the firm's president and chief executive officer, majored in business administration at UNH with a psychology minor--a combination that has served him well, he says. "The psychology minor pays off very well, being in sales," he says. "The people part of the job is the challenging part." And it's going to get more challenging. Dodier expects to see the PixelMedia staff grow from 25 employees to 40 by the end of this year.

--Rachel M. Collins '81

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