Ian Lane Davis carefully removes the drop-ceiling panel from his Andover, Mass., apartment that doubles as his office. The founder and CEO of Mad Doc Software is searching for the source of an unsettling drip. It’s a business day, but when maggots are raining down on the hair of your sole employee, whatever is in the daily planner takes a backseat.
He finds the culprit—a dead squirrel. “Thankfully, my employee didn’t quit,” recalls Davis (SCS ’06).
From that tiny apartment evolved a video game business that sold more than 20 million units worldwide. Best sellers of his character-driven, open-world games include Empire Earth II and Star Trek Armada. Along the way, Mad Doc expanded to more than 100 employees before being recently bought by New York-based Rock Star Games.
Because the video game development industry is ultra-competitive, Davis—now studio head of Rock Star New England—is tightlipped about his latest creations. “I can’t really talk about what we’re doing right now,” says Davis, 39, who began tinkering with Apple II computers in sixth grade.
What he can talk about is the recognition he earned from the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, which named him the 2007 Small Business Entrepreneur of the Year.
"To be a successful entrepreneur, you must have an unholy mixture of inspiration, perspiration, and desperation," he says. "There were plenty of times when people advised me to fold my cards and walk away, but I stuck it out. It was never about making profits; it was about getting to a point where I could do what I wanted to do, which was to make great games." —Chris A. Weber
