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Automatic Duck hits firm footing for family

ELLEN M. BANNER / THE SEATTLE TIMES Wes Plate, left, and his dad, Harry, started the family business, the Automatic Duck.

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What: Automatic Duck, a digital-media software company.

Who: Started by family trio of Wes Plate, 31; his wife, Jessie Plate, 31; and his father, Harry Plate, 54.

Initial investment: About $10,000 — for computer, software, fax machine, used office chairs — from the couple's savings account and credit cards.

Employees: Five.

What it does: Makes a $500 piece of software that links video editing and special-effects programs. The technology works like a bridge between programs from different manufacturers, such as Adobe and Apple Computer. It allows the programs to work together, saving processing time.
 

Why the name: From a passage in a history book about an 18th-century invention. "It's one of those things that sounded cool," said Wes Plate.

Customers: About 2,000, including Warner Bros., Showtime, Sony Computer Entertainment and Turner Studios.

In action: Used behind the scenes in such projects as the film "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow," and the documentary on making "The Lord of the Rings."

Growth: Profitable, with sales doubling every year. "We're finally getting to the point where we can afford to pay ourselves the salaries we want to be making," Plate said.

All in the family: "We started it as a family business because my dad was the only programmer I knew," Plate said. "I never really understood what he did when he went off to work at Hewlett-Packard and Agilent. Now I have a better understanding of how amazingly smart he is. It's nice to have a relationship where we're peers." The younger Plate studied television production in college, got his start editing video for TV commercials and created the technology to make his work easier.

Headquarters: In the basement of a house in the parking lot of the Snohomish Inn.

Software in Snohomish? "It's kind of fun being this high-tech company in a town that's famous for antiques," Plate said.

— Kristi Heim