MBA senior Blake Rhodes ’05 took the leap into the Internet search engine industry last year when he founded a company called IceRocket.com. His office is in the Dallas Mavericks’ headquarters building in Dallas. So what’s the connection between basketball and search engines? Mark Cuban, of course.

Yes, Rhodes’ business partner is the same Mark Cuban who owns the Dallas Mavericks, founded Broadcast.com and had his own reality show, “The Benefactor,” in last fall’s television lineup. After seeing the success and efficiency of IceRocket.com, launched in April 2004, Cuban climbed aboard as a partner and investor.

For Rhodes, a communications major, timing was everything.

“I felt like that space was wide open for new players,” Rhodes said. “There were things I knew were not being done and I felt like we could do those things.”

IceRocket.com targets those in search of a user-friendly platform, with snapshots of each Web site on its results page, and traffic rankings to show users which sites are more popular. The company offers both free listings and paid listings, where his customers pay to be listed as sponsored results for top placement. IceRocket.com also offers a search specifically for blog Web sites.

“We are currently the only major search engine that offers that,” Rhodes said, adding that he and Cuban both develop the ideas that put the site in a league of its own. Although Rhodes initially advertised by word of mouth, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the Fort Worth Business Press have since written features on the local entrepreneur.

Today, Rhodes employs a team of programmers and will assemble an advertising sales team in the spring in preparation for financial growth.

Rhodes’ forecast for the next year includes selling advertising on the site as well as improving the blog search and its features. “I think over the next 12 months we will position ourselves as one of the premiere search engines,” he said.

On working with the Maverick Man, Rhodes said: “Mark leads by example. He is such a great guy and a hard worker. I really think it drives everyone else to work just as hard. I can’t think of anyone I would rather have as a partner.”