Further opportunities presented themselves. The restaurant group wanted reporting out of their point of sales system, but the POS installer, beyond setting up the system, didn’t seem to understand their own database or how to write reports. Martin read the manual and set it up. That became his role; he set up IT for each new restaurant.
Then came the dot-com bust of 2000, and disposable income for eating out at high-end restaurants dried up. The restaurant group stopped opening new establishments and let Martin go. But he had developed a good working relationship with MICROS, a premier POS company who asked him to use his burgeoning expertise to create database applications for other restaurants. When Micros could not deliver the reports restaurants needed, Martin, you guessed it, read the manual and figured it out.
Martin branched out from servicing database applications to create tools to manage employee records, tips, vacation schedules, and anything else his freelance clients needed. Martin has never been one to say, “This not my problem.” If a client’s network was down, he learned to diagnose and fix it.
He founded MQUAL in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to fill a void in expertise. He was someone who knew how computers work from the ground up and could communicate clearly about technology and help people use it effectively. Martin believes that his work is about more than just fixing a single issue; it is about solving the whole problem. He takes pride in having clients who have been with his company for two decades.
Martin studied industrial engineering at Lehigh University and has certificates in Data Analysis, Statistics, and Data Science from Microsoft and Designing and Building AI Products and Services from MIT.
In 2011 Martin moved his business and family to Florida where his wife’s family is. He met his wife in church and they have been married 21 years. They have four children, 13, 15, 19 and 20.
The family is big on outdoor activities including mountain biking, boating and water sports. Martin himself is an avid fisherman and biker.
But he still loves to tinker with electronics.