Issue link: https://nebusinessmedia.uberflip.com/i/1511885
3 6 C T I N N O V A T O R S , 2 0 2 3 Continued from previos page was designing more than web pages. He was designing demand. e analytics showed sales were rising based on his work. Working with MTV allowed him to refine his thinking further — from "change peoples' lives with a click of a mouse" to "own the mind, own the wallet" — he recalls. It was like he'd found "the cheat code for life," he said. But it also had become clear he needed help to harness this new world. Sena confesses he'd always been disdainful of sales and business development types. But now he saw their value, and he needed one. Enter David Salinas. Yin and yang Salinas had been working on the edges of the music industry and in digital marketing. An engineer who knew both Salinas and Sena thought they had similar interests and should meet. e rest, as they say, is history. e two saw quickly that their strengths were complementary. Salinas recalls the new team's first prospective client was a fledgling clothing line. "How much are you going to charge them," Salinas remembers asking Sena. When Salinas stopped laughing at Sena's answer, he suggested a number 10 times higher. Salinas closed the deal. Over the ensuing years, what Salinas calls their "superpowers" developed. Sena became an expert at seeing possibilities and anticipating trends. Salinas sharpened his sales techniques. "He could smell it, I could sell it," Salinas said. For Sena, a personal high point was helping launch and drive record sales for the video game BioShock Infinite. "I was so grateful when they featured us in the end video game credits," Sena said. "Being able to see our brand name scrolling through the end-game credits created a sense of relief for all that hard work." Predictably, Salinas takes a different approach in identifying a highlight. He points to work Digital Surgeons did with Lady Gaga as a turning point in the firm's climb. e singer was trying to crowdsource locations at the same time Sena and Salinas were exploring a "shoot- local" concept that would eventually feed into the District Studio plan. e ideas were different enough that a partnership wouldn't work, but Lady Gaga liked what she saw and hired Digital Surgeons to work on a project — Gaga's Workshop — she was launching with Barneys New York. at project won a Webby, the top honor for digital arts, and boosted the firm's New York City street cred. Today, Digital Surgeons employs around 50 people. e privately held company doesn't disclose revenues. Brooklyn east Salinas, who'd grown up in Queens near the Brooklyn border, knew and liked the feel of the big city. Sena, however, was determined to stay rooted in Connecticut. Sena won that round, but Salinas brought a Brooklyn vibe to the District in New Haven. He even named his daughter Brooklyn. While Salinas became the frontman for the District project, it was always and remains a joint undertaking with Sena and other partners. Sena explains the origin of the District with the industry term "dogfooding." at's the process of solving your problem, then selling the solution to others who face similar challenges. Digital Surgeons was outgrowing its space near the vacant CT Transit bus depot. If it could buy the building, remake it into a trendy coworking space that included a studio for Digital Surgeons, perhaps it could tap into the energy that was growing in New Haven's nearby biotech corridor. Matthew Nemerson, whose fingerprints have been on a number of New Haven development projects over the years, was serving as the city's economic development administrator at the time. e competing bids for the CT Transit property came down to a retail concept, or the District, he remembers. It wasn't a close call from the city's perspective. It wanted tech energy in that space. But it wasn't until the state agreed to pay about $6 million to mitigate environmental problems at the site, that the District became a reality. e District's founders paid $1 for the property and invested millions more to renovate it. More to come Nemerson describes Sena and Salinas as "go-to people" who are "evangelists for New Haven." "ey are aggressively looking for ways to pay it forward," he said, pointing to their unsuccessful plan to develop a new entertainment complex — including a floating restaurant — at Long Wharf, a New Haven waterfront district. Sena and Salinas said while they are disappointed the Long Wharf idea didn't work out, they are actively looking at projects around the state — in Hartford, Norwalk and Stamford, as well as in New Haven. Salinas frames it as a desire to help the state fulfill its "real need to connect people." Sena also points to the duo's investments in both client and tenant companies that are driving important innovation. Sena is also focused on creating opportunities for the area's diverse creative arts community through various programs at the District, including Creative Wild and Find your Venn, which are involved in talent development and recruitment. "Right now, I'm focused on unlocking creativity in a million people," Sena said. "When that number reaches 1 million, I'll move the goal post to 10 million and hopefully can keep achieving that as long as I can." Salinas looks at Sena and says his partner is still climbing toward the peak of his "superpower" of seeing the next big thing. And when that next opportunity presents itself, Salinas will be ready to apply his "superpower" to make it happen. I Pete Sena's Digital Surgeons has a major presence in the District coworking and office space in New Haven.