It’s almost a clich & #233; for a tech start-up to have its genesis in a garage or bedroom office. But for Jacked Inc., the Santa Monica Library played a crucial role.

Founder Bryan Biniak and a handful of key developers of the Web-based interactive TV service would take turns reserving free meeting rooms at the library for their brainstorming sessions in lieu of paying rent for even Class C office space.

Since most of the group still held day jobs, team members often would steal away during extended lunch breaks as a core group held down the fort at the library. In between, they’d stay in touch via email or instant messaging. Outside library hours, they’d meet in sandwich shops or someone’s living room.

“We all tend to be frugal people and understand that with a start-up, if you spend money on unnecessary things and have to raise more money too soon; that’s money out of your own pocket later on in equity,” said Binak, 42, who also had a more practical reason to guard the company’s seed capital.

It came out of his own pocket.

Biniak used savings and credit cards to launch the company in early 2006 until he received unexpected windfall. A video game company he had worked for 12 years ago was sold to MTV Networks. Stock certificates he had forgotten about were suddenly worth more than a million dollars.

And rather than sock it away for his own retirement, Biniak had put $500,000 of it on the line to chase his dream of owning a successful Web-based company. Maybe even one day, he said, joining the Business Journal’s list of fastest growing private companies.

Today, with $6 million in venture funding under its belt and the service having gone live earlier this month, Jacked has a permanent home. Biniak’s wife, a real estate developer, was able to negotiate an affordable lease last November in the city-owned General Aviation Building at Santa Monica Airport.

But the office still has no running water and people have to go outside and walk to the other end of the building to find a restroom. Tattered carpet was ripped up to make the place habitable, and the quiet tapping of keyboards is often shattered by propeller grinders at the repair shop next door.

For Jacked employees, it’s home. But it’s also a reminder that the company has a long way to go before it’s on solid ground.

Quitting job

The Jacked.com “Webtop” enables users to receive free customized, real-time information on their laptops that is synchronized with programming on a regular TV screen. The idea for the service percolated in Biniak’s head for months as he supervised the Santa Monica-based interactive group of American Greetings Corp for two years, a job he quit in August 2006.

His initial motivation was that such a service would be useful during the 2008 presidential campaign. But for now, what pays the bills are college and professional sports, which have fervent followings of fantasy league fans accustomed to multitasking with a computer on their laps as they watch a game.

The company’s first contract was with NBCSports.com’s Play Action for the Notre Dame football season. Jacked provides a library of widgets to the NBC site for player profiles, chats, news, photos and play-by-play information. Still, whether Jacked.com can expand its presence beyond niche markets is uncertain.

Since a tech company can burn through several million dollars fairly quickly, Biniak has had to be frugal hence the need to work out of the Santa Monica Library. Biniak also pulled from a cadre of former co-workers. First to be hired full-time was former colleague Brock Meltzer, who became the company’s project and product manager.

“We had advantage in that most of us had worked with each other and we knew each other’s strengths and weaknesses,” Metzler said. “We gelled and got into a rhythm pretty quickly.”

A bit later, to staff up cheaply, Biniak relied on teams of experienced Indian programmers assembled by Core Objects, an El Segundo firm he had worked with before.

Still, obtaining the needed venture funding to take the launch to the finish line turned into a mad scramble. After months of piling up frequent flier miles making pitches back East, he landed commitments from two firms, which provided $3 million each last April.

As the November launch date approached, most of the Jacked team put in 20-hour days, seven days a week, sometimes into the wee hours of the morning due to the 12-hour time difference with India, where the company now has 15 programmers.

Metzler’s fianc & #233;, Kristina Hedrick, recalls that on weekends, he’d often go to bed with his laptop within arm’s reach.

“A cell phone call would wake him up, he would grab his laptop and work from bed until he’d eventually move into the living room,” Hedrick said. “When he wasn’t sleeping or taking a jog, he was working.”

In fact, one of the few social events the team allowed itself was attending Metzler and Hedrick’s engagement party this summer. Bangalore for once was told to hold all calls.