A  chance encounter in a history course built a friendship and a business.

In the fall of 2018, Sage Del Valle and Francisco Vizcaino-Martinez found themselves taking “The History of Christian Thought I” to fulfill a general education requirement. And as the saying goes, the rest was history.

Del Valle ’20, who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Business Administration, and Vizcaino ’20, a Computer Science major, quickly became friends and business partners.

By April 2019, they launched their business, F & S Digital, working from dorm rooms and the N Wing cafeteria on the Galloway campus.

While they completed their Stockton degrees, they steadily grew their business, providing digital solutions for their clients. The pair specialize in bridging technology gaps for both established and startup organizations, including custom software, automations and cloud infrastructures. 

They never imagined within five years they would be hiring over 50 employees and contractors and preparing to expand outside of Atlantic City. The forward-thinking technology consulting, development and implementation firm is headquartered in Ventnor Heights, serving businesses of any size in health care, gaming, government, hospitality, logistics and beyond.

Del Valle, 26, and Vizcaino-Martinez, 25, have built trusted client relationships with Ocean Casino Resort, Hard Rock, Showboat, Netflix, Amazon, StubHub, PBS and the New Jersey Department of State, among many other leading institutions.

This spring they celebrated the fifth anniversary of their rapidly growing company with a new name, Differnt Systems.

“We took the opportunity to say to our clients that we are going to provide you with something you haven’t seen before,” Del Valle said of the unique name change. “We wanted to stand out and the misspelling is intentional to capture you.”

Vizcaino-Martinez said the plans to rebrand their business began over a year ago.

“We almost didn’t go with ‘Differnt’ because it was a lot of pressure. It means we have to stick by the name. I think we can do this. We can live up to our name,” he said.

In the coming year, Differnt Systems will open satellite offices in New York, Nevada and Philadelphia to support its expanding client network and talent base.

But Stockton is never far from the business partners’ minds.

“Everyone who works at our organization has some tie back to Stockton, whether they are a student, we met them there or through someone from Stockton,” Del Valle said, adding that one of their summer interns is a Stockton student.

Del Valle and Vizcaino-Martinez each embrace lessons from their time at Stockton that went beyond that first history class.

“In my area in particular, tech keeps pushing forward. A lot of what I know now, when I was in school, wasn’t a thing, like generative AI,” Vizcaino said. “But one thing that was invaluable was the network of people you build while pursuing the degree. Some of my first classmates are employees or employers.”

Del Valle agreed the connections they built while undergrads shaped the trajectory of their business. “That’s been the coolest part of Stockton — the network and faculty. Everyone is still there for us. Everyone actively reaching out to us.”

The pair continues expanding the network by hiring Stockton interns and speaking to future entrepreneurs, like at the Summer Entrepreneurship and Business Academy that Stockton offers annually for high school students interested in business careers.

They have a lot of advice for the students who are where they were just five years ago.

“We have a daily discussion about what we would tell ourselves a couple years ago. You never know the path your business is going to take you, so you just can’t be scared. You see it all as business owners, you just can’t panic,” Vizcaino-Martinez said.

Del Valle added: “Take the risk. You’ll never know. I can never say, ‘I wonder what would have happened.’ This has been one of the most fun journeys I have ever been on.”

Those risks are one of the reasons they will be expanding this year.

“Atlantic City will always be our home. We love it here, there is lots of talent, and we are not leaving the area. We want to keep our roots here,” Vizcaino said.

But he and Del Valle have carved a niche within the gaming industry and see ample opportunities in New York, Nevada and Pennsylvania.

A second reason the founders believe they will find success in those markets is their community ethic, which has fueled philanthropic partnerships with the YWCA, Sovereign Avenue School in Atlantic City, Stockton Esports and the Atlantic City Arts Foundation.

“What truly makes us ‘Differnt’ is our sense of responsibility to take care of the communities that take care of us,” Del Valle said. “Community is at the core of our business because we believe strongly in supporting reciprocity and the impact it has for people locally.”

They will strive to build roots in the new cities they are venturing into by joining chambers of commerce and giving time and money to nonprofits.

“Since we started, it was always about belonging to something. One of first things we did was join the Greater Atlantic City Chamber of Commerce. We wanted to walk that walk with other business owners,” Vizcaino-Martinez said. “Listen to the community we are serving first and foremost.”

And they plan to be in the community for a long time.

“People ask us when we are going to sell. That is not the goal for us. We’ve had offers and we’ve turned them down. We are really trying to build something that is the next big tech company that happens to be based in South Jersey,” Del Valle said.