Woman-Veteran-Owned Computer Company Expands Business from CV Home
Just some of the offerings from Kubuntu Focus, a business that is run from a home in Castro Valley.
Dana and Michael Mikowski launched a computer-making business back in 2019 out of their home garage in the Parsons Park neighborhood of Castro Valley. This past month, they debuted their second laptop with hopes of expanding into the market of custom-made computers for developers, engineers, and scientists.
The company, Kubuntu Focus, employs a handful of designers and software engineers based in the UK, Canada, and Washington State. The parts are purchased from about five or six overseas suppliers, assembled, and then set up in Castro Valley before the software is installed and shipped out to the rest of the world from the couple’s garage.
“We have one of our hardware suppliers in Southern California and we sell to Silicon Valley customers, so Castro Valley is a good and central place for us to do business” told the Forum. “I spent 10 years in Silicon Valley building software for other companies, so I know what types of powerful laptops our customers are looking for.”
While Michael is listed as the founder and overall manager of the company, Dana is the chief executive officer. With her three years serving in the US Army Reserves as a Military Police officer, Dana is very disciplined in making the woman-owned and veteran-owned company a success.
“Running our own business is an amazing opportunity to instill an entrepreneurial mindset in our children. They have watched the company grow from concept to production, to managing the daily needs of each aspect. Anything is possible if you keep driving forward.”
"I truly believe that having been raised with a strong work ethic and serving in the military, has given me a strong base to stand on. I have always enjoyed tinkering, organizing, and putting things together, so leading the Operations team was a natural fit. Watching each section come together, and interact as a whole, is very rewarding," Dana says. "Running our own business is an amazing opportunity to instill an entrepreneurial mindset in our children. They have watched the company grow from concept to production, to managing the daily needs of each aspect. Anything is possible if you keep driving forward.”
“Dana keeps us all sane,” Michael says.
The laptop, called the Focus XE, has a 14-inch screen on the diagonal and is classified as an ultra-portable design, which means it is lighter in weight and compact enough to fit in a Manilla envelope. The baseline unit retails for $1,195 with free shipping in the US. Adding all the bells and whistles in their “Beast Mode” category will set you back $2,290. The company’s original laptop, the M2 has a larger 15.6 screen and is optimal for the gaming developer community.
What is novel for engineers and scientists is that the operating system is neither Microsoft Windows nor Apple Macintosh OS. The Mikowski’s sell their laptops with an operating system called Linux. To non-computer people, it is an operating system found in phones, thermostats, cars, refrigerators, and televisions. It also runs most of the Internet, all the world’s top 500 supercomputers, and the world’s stock exchanges.
And where many computers running Linux do not automatically come with ready-to-use software programs like word processing or spreadsheets, Kubuntu Focus includes professional software that allows a scientist to analyze trillions of bits of data to solve complex questions or high-performance software for designing games or enhancing video.
“If you were going to install all of that necessary software by yourself, it could take a day or a few days to make sure everything works… we save our customers lots of time by pre-installing a majority of the software they need,” Michael says. “If you were to call larger laptop vendors like Dell or HP for support on your Linux machine, they would likely try talking you into a Microsoft Windows operating system. We make our laptops for people who are looking for the best out-of-the-box Linux experience but don't need the power, complexity, or expense.”
The M2 and XE laptops are listed for sale at kfocus.org