Oroville >> Bitwise Industries is the “mothership of technology” in Jake Soberal’s universe.

Bitwise Industries has created a vibrant tech community, job growth, motivated students, links to high schools, colleges and promising start-ups, and has dollars flowing into an economy from real-life work.

It wasn’t easy and it isn’t in the Silicon Valley. It is in Soberal’s home, Fresno.

Soberal and six investors thought they had something in 2013. Today, more than 300 jobs later, they know it.

Soberal explained the three ingredients Tursday to several hundred who had gathered for the 2015 Economic Forecast Conference in Oroville put on by the Center for Economic Development at Chico State University.

It’s about place, about education and about execution — actually doing it — Soberal said.

Simplistically, it’s about making an appealing place to work, educating a workforce, and then feeding the workforce challenging work.

Over the last two years, Soberal and his team bought a building and created an environment for “technologists” that didn’t exist in Fresno, with colorful walls and music and where hoodies, flip flops and collaboration meet in the hallways. It’s work by “their” rules, not mainstream America’s.

In the first year, the 100,0000-square-foot building had 28 companies and a waiting list. A second building of 50,000 square-feet is under remodeling and will open this year. It has a waiting list too.

For Soberal, it’s more than a story about buying buildings and creating environments.

It’s about encouraging education and people to choose what enthralls them. Asking technology companies specifically what skills they need in a workforce, Soberal worked backward to map out the job and then educate the student to fit.

The first year, 1,000 students graduated from his Geekwise Academy. This second year, 5,000 students are expected.

The school teaches computer code to high school students and long-term unemployed.

“Our belief that this unemployed-to-career is one of a kind.”

That student doesn’t need a college education for a good-paying job, but might decide to pursue that avenue, which never would have happened otherwise.

Along with school, Soberal looks for the “superstars” and connects them with “real-world projects and real-world clients” through another company of his, Shift3 Technology. He and his team lands projects and funnels the superstars into challenging work.

Students rub shoulders with achievers on common ground.

“BitWise is about humans, their stories and empowering the next generation of technologists in Fresno.”

Not only is this economic development by the private sector, it could be the manner that creates jobs in the future, he noted.

“We’re trying to make Fresno the best place on the planet to become a professional geek. They will take care of the rest.”

More about Bitwise is on www.bitwiseindustries.com

Also speaking were economist Robert Eyler from Sonoma State University, who said the outlook in the north valley is brightening, and Jaana Remes of McKinsey Global Institute, who noted the job growth in the future could be different because the rules are changing.

Contact reporter Laura Urseny at 896-7756.