This post is part of the Spreadable Startup Series, which tells stories__of entrepreneurs trying to change the world.  The series is made possible by Grasshopper Group.  Each week we will profile a new company and help them spread the word!  Want in? Apply here.

“I remember reading an article on one of these computer-oriented, dial-in bulletin boards,” recalls Jay Owen, Founder and CEO of Design Extensions, “and it said this new thing is coming, and it’s going to be called the World Wide Web.” For Owen, it was a moment that would come to define his career.

More than a decade later, Owen is still making his living on computers, building websites for clients all over North America. It’s been a long road for the entrepreneur and father of three, who got his first job at a software company and started Design Extensions at 17 while still in high school.

“Since preschool, there’s pictures of me with computers, it was always just something that I connected with,” says Owen. But wunderkind though he may be, Owen doesn’t come off as a nerd. He speaks fluently and confidently, imbued with the poise that comes from having to manage client relationships at an age when most young adults can barely manage their emotions.

“I started playing around with some text-based stuff, HTML, and from there I started to get into some of the design side of things as the internet really started to take off,” he recalls. “My neighbor’s ex-husband was the CFO of a technology company in Jacksonville, where I lived, and he said ‘Why don’t you come in and do an internship?’ I was fifteen at the time.”

The internship turned into a job, and after picking up additional projects here and there, Jay “quickly realized that I could do better for myself building websites on my own.” So Jay did what came naturally – he set up shop with a friend from high school, and in 1999 Design Extensions was born. “In high school I’d make fifty bucks to pay for my car insurance and spending money on the weekends,” he recalls. While his original partner left the business after high school, Jay continued to run Design Extensions during his tenure at the University of Central Florida. But trying to run the business while in school full time was taking a toll on Jay. Eventually, he was pushed to a decision point.

Read the rest of  Jay Owen's Design Extensions success story on BostInnovation.com.