By Alissa Knop
When Eric Hoopman wak es up and gets ready for another day of work on downtown Algoma Street in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, business is already booming across the world.
“Usually I wake up in the morning, grab a coffee, open up the laptop, and we have an office over in Russia, in Kaliningrad, and we have one in Tashkent [Uzbekistan], so in the morning they’re already up.”
Hoopman’s place of business, DealerFire, now acquired by the California company DealerSocket, has been growing steadily since its founding in 1999. The company is a custom web design and Internet marketing firm which works with car dealerships across the world.
During its 16-year run, DealerFire has racked up a surplus of awards, including a Nucleus Research Award, a Google Engage All-Star, several automotive website awards from Pinnacle Platform, and even a ranking on the Inc. 5000 list in 2014. However, Hoopman says his favorite award was something else.
“[My favorite was] probably the small business of the year [in Oshkosh] because there have been a lot of really neat businesses in the area that have been recognized for it,” Hoopman said. “They only pick one each year and for us to have represented the city, at the city level, was really special.”
As a born and bred Oshkosh citizen, Hoopman attended Emmeline Cook Elementary School and Webster Stanley Middle School, but didn’t find his true calling until college. He said like many young kids, he wanted a career in professional sports, but when he realized there was only a small chance this would happen, he decided to switch his life around one-hundred and eighty degrees and went to college at the University of San Diego.
Hoopman studied accounting in California, and here he found a group of people who would show him a new way of life.
“I met a group of people out west that were very interested in wine and food and culture and stuff like that, and they started talking about Europe and encouraged me to go,” Hoopman said. “I went and studied abroad and I loved it so much, I spent a semester [in France] and then I stayed on for the summer.”
Following that summer, he returned to France a second time and realized all he wanted to do was stay in Europe. He had so many credits that he ended up with a degree in French as well as one in finance.
After graduation, Hoopman applied for a Y2K programming job, a place that thought the world was going to end in 2000 and all the computers would need updating. However, the job didn’t start for three months, so he decided to go back to Europe one more time. When he returned, he knew this job wouldn’t be for him.
“By the time I came back for my first day on the job it was such an opposite feel from my travels to this corporate feel that I left after orientation the first day,” Hoopman said. “[I] went back to San Diego, said there’s really something here with computers, read up, got some certifications and got picked up by a start-up company.”
This start-up company would eventually be sold to an IBM subsidiary and had job openings in Europe, which he jumped all over. Companies during this time were hiring and spending more money than ever, according to Hoopman, and “a bubble busted” during this first wave of the internet.
During the next five years, Hoopman would build his own websites, sell them and collect the money so he could go travel.
“I was down in Latin America, did a number of road trips from here to Costa Rica through Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, up and down the coasts and then back to Europe and North Africa and Asia,” Hoopman said. “Once the money ran out, then I’d do it again.”
Other places Hoopman has traveled to include Croatia, his favorite destination, Bucharest, Romania, and Tegucigalpa, Honduras. He was even in France and Germany when each team won the FIFA World Cup.
“It was crazy,” Hoopman said. “Maybe I was a good luck charm, because it certainly wasn’t on purpose. I didn’t go to any of the games, but I wasn’t the finals on big TVs in the cities. It was insane. It was like a big city’s New Year’s times 10.”
Eventually, Hoopman said he had to return to his Oshkosh roots.
“Oshkosh has always been home,” Hoopman said. “I consider it a home base, so I never really feel constrained by it—as long as I feel like I can come and go, I never feel like this is my only option.”
DealerFire’s headquarters stayed in Oshkosh too, at least for the first part of its life. Hoopman credits the company’s success to its ambiguous nature.
“I think the organic culture [DealerFire has] created, where there’s space and activities and ways for people to connect, not only with each other, but technology, has good jobs,” Hoopman said. “I think internally it’s a fun place to work, but on the outside, it’s never one thing—so the service is really good, the technology has remained cutting edge and innovative, the designs are simple and elegant, so there’s a variety of things that factor into it.”
There has also been an enormous growth of web-based computer jobs in the state over the past decade, further fueling the growth of DealerFire and businesses like it. From 2004 to 2014, jobs in internet publishing, web search and data processing services were number four in the list of the thirty fastest growing industries in the state of Wisconsin, according to the state Department of Workforce Development.
When DealerFire won a place on the Inc. 5000 list in 2014, the company had increased its revenue by nearly triple between 2010 and 2013, according to Inc.’s website. During this same period of time, the number of employees grew by nearly 73 percent.
With all the growth in the industry and the purchase by DealerSocket, more employees have been joining the team, and Hoopman said they absolutely look for graduates of UW Oshkosh.
“We just went through the formulized 2015 budget process and the key initiatives,” Hoopman said. “I would anticipate significant growth in hiring in the area this year.”
Heather Meyer, a UW Oshkosh graduate student, said she recently started working at DealerSocket this month, and likes how she can use her strengths in her position.
“I'm still feeling incredibly lucky to be in a writing position and getting decent pay and benefits to use what I consider some of my most valuable skills in creativity, writing and editing,” Meyer said. “I was instantly impressed with the professionalism and the friendliness of DealerSocket. I couldn't believe a place like this existed in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.”
Job descriptions online for content specialists at DealerFire seem to boast a mix of professionalism and fun: “Are you a regular Bill Shakespeare? Is writing in your blood? Can you make a Ford Pinto sound like a Cadillac with nothing more than your poetic skills?”
Meyer said the work at DealerSocket is motivating because it thrives on creativity.
“I think what was most inspiring to me about DealerSocket's vision was their prizing of human creativity,” Meyer said. “They truly see the value of investing in the good ideas that recent, successful, personable college grads bring to their automotive clients' websites.”
The last line of each job description mentions that candidates must always be ready for an occasional Nerf gun war, something Hoopman said is one of many fun things they try to do around the office.
“We do one significant event and then we try to add something each year, but try to maintain the things we had previously,” Hoopman said. “We started with a holiday party, so it was maybe 50 of us, and we grew it to almost four or five hundred people for this [year’s] holiday party.”
He also said they do events like camping trips, a March Madness bracket, softball and basketball teams, and of course, everyone’s favorite, the Nerf war.
“Last summer was the pinnacle of our Nerf war,” Hoopman said. “We set up in Opera Square and one of our guys is a football coach, so he brought down all the tackling dummies and stuff and set up all the obstacles and we had like a huge, 80-person Nerf war in the park.”
When he’s not creating websites and shooting Nerf guns, Hoopman said he enjoys skiing and playing sports like he did when he was younger. He also recently got married and said his top priority is starting a family soon.
Hoopman also owns parts of Peabody’s and Bar 430 in Oshkosh, but despite being so busy, he said he enjoys the work he does.
“I was fortunate enough to feel like work was not really work,” Hoopman said. “It was kind of like something I really enjoy doing every day, even though I’m maybe researching profit aids for rental acquisitions or trying to build new products tech-wise to sell, it’s fun for me.”
And although he is still planted in Oshkosh full-time, he still makes time to travel the world, just not as often as he used to.
“We used to go to Panama each year for about a month,” Hoopman said. “Then that became three weeks a year, and then it became every 18 months and then there was a two-year gap until last month we were there again. But yes, I still get to travel.”
Hoopman said he hopes to visit Columbia and Cuba as the next destinations in his travels.
With the successful DealerSocket and two area bars to take care of, Hoopman is an active part of helping the growth of the Oshkosh community, and he said he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“In my heart, I’m an entrepreneur,” Hoopman said. “I’ll be involved in this community whether it’s real estate or growing a technology company. I think I’ll be an entrepreneur for the rest of my life.”
When Eric Hoopman wak es up and gets ready for another day of work on downtown Algoma Street in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, business is already booming across the world.
“Usually I wake up in the morning, grab a coffee, open up the laptop, and we have an office over in Russia, in Kaliningrad, and we have one in Tashkent [Uzbekistan], so in the morning they’re already up.”
Hoopman’s place of business, DealerFire, now acquired by the California company DealerSocket, has been growing steadily since its founding in 1999. The company is a custom web design and Internet marketing firm which works with car dealerships across the world.
During its 16-year run, DealerFire has racked up a surplus of awards, including a Nucleus Research Award, a Google Engage All-Star, several automotive website awards from Pinnacle Platform, and even a ranking on the Inc. 5000 list in 2014. However, Hoopman says his favorite award was something else.
“[My favorite was] probably the small business of the year [in Oshkosh] because there have been a lot of really neat businesses in the area that have been recognized for it,” Hoopman said. “They only pick one each year and for us to have represented the city, at the city level, was really special.”
As a born and bred Oshkosh citizen, Hoopman attended Emmeline Cook Elementary School and Webster Stanley Middle School, but didn’t find his true calling until college. He said like many young kids, he wanted a career in professional sports, but when he realized there was only a small chance this would happen, he decided to switch his life around one-hundred and eighty degrees and went to college at the University of San Diego.
Hoopman studied accounting in California, and here he found a group of people who would show him a new way of life.
“I met a group of people out west that were very interested in wine and food and culture and stuff like that, and they started talking about Europe and encouraged me to go,” Hoopman said. “I went and studied abroad and I loved it so much, I spent a semester [in France] and then I stayed on for the summer.”
Following that summer, he returned to France a second time and realized all he wanted to do was stay in Europe. He had so many credits that he ended up with a degree in French as well as one in finance.
After graduation, Hoopman applied for a Y2K programming job, a place that thought the world was going to end in 2000 and all the computers would need updating. However, the job didn’t start for three months, so he decided to go back to Europe one more time. When he returned, he knew this job wouldn’t be for him.
“By the time I came back for my first day on the job it was such an opposite feel from my travels to this corporate feel that I left after orientation the first day,” Hoopman said. “[I] went back to San Diego, said there’s really something here with computers, read up, got some certifications and got picked up by a start-up company.”
This start-up company would eventually be sold to an IBM subsidiary and had job openings in Europe, which he jumped all over. Companies during this time were hiring and spending more money than ever, according to Hoopman, and “a bubble busted” during this first wave of the internet.
During the next five years, Hoopman would build his own websites, sell them and collect the money so he could go travel.
“I was down in Latin America, did a number of road trips from here to Costa Rica through Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, up and down the coasts and then back to Europe and North Africa and Asia,” Hoopman said. “Once the money ran out, then I’d do it again.”
Other places Hoopman has traveled to include Croatia, his favorite destination, Bucharest, Romania, and Tegucigalpa, Honduras. He was even in France and Germany when each team won the FIFA World Cup.
“It was crazy,” Hoopman said. “Maybe I was a good luck charm, because it certainly wasn’t on purpose. I didn’t go to any of the games, but I wasn’t the finals on big TVs in the cities. It was insane. It was like a big city’s New Year’s times 10.”
Eventually, Hoopman said he had to return to his Oshkosh roots.
“Oshkosh has always been home,” Hoopman said. “I consider it a home base, so I never really feel constrained by it—as long as I feel like I can come and go, I never feel like this is my only option.”
DealerFire’s headquarters stayed in Oshkosh too, at least for the first part of its life. Hoopman credits the company’s success to its ambiguous nature.
“I think the organic culture [DealerFire has] created, where there’s space and activities and ways for people to connect, not only with each other, but technology, has good jobs,” Hoopman said. “I think internally it’s a fun place to work, but on the outside, it’s never one thing—so the service is really good, the technology has remained cutting edge and innovative, the designs are simple and elegant, so there’s a variety of things that factor into it.”
There has also been an enormous growth of web-based computer jobs in the state over the past decade, further fueling the growth of DealerFire and businesses like it. From 2004 to 2014, jobs in internet publishing, web search and data processing services were number four in the list of the thirty fastest growing industries in the state of Wisconsin, according to the state Department of Workforce Development.
When DealerFire won a place on the Inc. 5000 list in 2014, the company had increased its revenue by nearly triple between 2010 and 2013, according to Inc.’s website. During this same period of time, the number of employees grew by nearly 73 percent.
With all the growth in the industry and the purchase by DealerSocket, more employees have been joining the team, and Hoopman said they absolutely look for graduates of UW Oshkosh.
“We just went through the formulized 2015 budget process and the key initiatives,” Hoopman said. “I would anticipate significant growth in hiring in the area this year.”
Heather Meyer, a UW Oshkosh graduate student, said she recently started working at DealerSocket this month, and likes how she can use her strengths in her position.
“I'm still feeling incredibly lucky to be in a writing position and getting decent pay and benefits to use what I consider some of my most valuable skills in creativity, writing and editing,” Meyer said. “I was instantly impressed with the professionalism and the friendliness of DealerSocket. I couldn't believe a place like this existed in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.”
Job descriptions online for content specialists at DealerFire seem to boast a mix of professionalism and fun: “Are you a regular Bill Shakespeare? Is writing in your blood? Can you make a Ford Pinto sound like a Cadillac with nothing more than your poetic skills?”
Meyer said the work at DealerSocket is motivating because it thrives on creativity.
“I think what was most inspiring to me about DealerSocket's vision was their prizing of human creativity,” Meyer said. “They truly see the value of investing in the good ideas that recent, successful, personable college grads bring to their automotive clients' websites.”
The last line of each job description mentions that candidates must always be ready for an occasional Nerf gun war, something Hoopman said is one of many fun things they try to do around the office.
“We do one significant event and then we try to add something each year, but try to maintain the things we had previously,” Hoopman said. “We started with a holiday party, so it was maybe 50 of us, and we grew it to almost four or five hundred people for this [year’s] holiday party.”
He also said they do events like camping trips, a March Madness bracket, softball and basketball teams, and of course, everyone’s favorite, the Nerf war.
“Last summer was the pinnacle of our Nerf war,” Hoopman said. “We set up in Opera Square and one of our guys is a football coach, so he brought down all the tackling dummies and stuff and set up all the obstacles and we had like a huge, 80-person Nerf war in the park.”
When he’s not creating websites and shooting Nerf guns, Hoopman said he enjoys skiing and playing sports like he did when he was younger. He also recently got married and said his top priority is starting a family soon.
Hoopman also owns parts of Peabody’s and Bar 430 in Oshkosh, but despite being so busy, he said he enjoys the work he does.
“I was fortunate enough to feel like work was not really work,” Hoopman said. “It was kind of like something I really enjoy doing every day, even though I’m maybe researching profit aids for rental acquisitions or trying to build new products tech-wise to sell, it’s fun for me.”
And although he is still planted in Oshkosh full-time, he still makes time to travel the world, just not as often as he used to.
“We used to go to Panama each year for about a month,” Hoopman said. “Then that became three weeks a year, and then it became every 18 months and then there was a two-year gap until last month we were there again. But yes, I still get to travel.”
Hoopman said he hopes to visit Columbia and Cuba as the next destinations in his travels.
With the successful DealerSocket and two area bars to take care of, Hoopman is an active part of helping the growth of the Oshkosh community, and he said he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“In my heart, I’m an entrepreneur,” Hoopman said. “I’ll be involved in this community whether it’s real estate or growing a technology company. I think I’ll be an entrepreneur for the rest of my life.”