Forty Under 40: Michael Paladino

“I’ve got your back, and you’ve got mine.”

That’s the attitude Michael Paladino tries to instill in the staff at RevUnit, a digital product development and marketing agency.

“As a leader in the company, I want to do good work, so that the other folks around me will do good work as well,” he said.

Paladino was working as director of technology activation at Rockfish Interactive in 2012 when he joined with colleague Joe Saumweber to form RevUnit.

“We started to see opportunities, and it felt like we could go create something great,” Paladino said. “So far, it’s been a great ride.”

RevUnit now boasts 22 employees and has opened offices in Las Vegas, St. Louis and Dallas.

Paladino is heavily involved in the local startup mentorship scene and also the NWA Tech Council, a group focused on helping with technology education.

Paladino’s interest in computers began in fifth grade, when his father brought one home, and from a Web design project freshman year at the University of Arkansas. 

“I thought, ‘Wow, this is cool. I type things and things show up on the screen.’”

He graduated in 2001, with a degree in computer information systems.

The early stages of the Little Rock native’s career featured stints at Fort Smith-based software companies Data-Tronics and EagleOne Logistics.

He and his wife moved to Bentonville in 2009, when he started at Rockfish.

“We absolutely love being in Northwest Arkansas, and love being in Bentonville, specifically,” he said. “I feel like we’ll probably be here for quite a while.”