Last year, on this day, I told the story of Viget's incorporation on December 27, 1999. It explains how we can thank my dad, Viget's first developer, whom we all affectionately called Pop, for being able to say that our company was established in 1999. In that post I neglected to include a photo of Pop, so here's my favorite one (taken closer to 1979):
If you know that story, you know that today Viget legally turns 10. Here's what our logo and business card looked like back when we started -- before we even had an office:
We've come a long way in ten years (for one thing, they don't let me design our cards anymore).
I can honestly say that 2009 has been the most challenging year we've had so far -- as I'm sure a lot of businesses our age would say. As we head into our second decade, though, I can also honestly say that I've never been so excited about our future. We've had some awesome people join the company recently, and we're in a strong position to bring on more. We've added some great clients to our client list -- some we can't announce just yet -- and, oh yeah, we're looking for more of them, too.
We've learned a lot about this business in ten years. I'd like to think that along the way we've succeeded in our goal to help shape the industry, but really we've just scratched the surface. I expect 2010 to be as significant a year for Viget as 2000 was, just with better office space than we started with that year:
Ten years ago today, I never imagined how hard, fun, and rewarding helping to build Viget would be. Not just for Andy and me, but for everyone on the staff. Even the people starting here now, ten years in, can help shape the future of Viget, and simply put: it's a great experience.
There's just nothing like working on a team to help clients (and ourselves) be successful on projects that vary daily in an industry that seems to completely reinvent itself annually. There's never been a manual for how to build a company like this. We've got some big ideas for where we want to go from here, and I'm looking forward to getting started on the next ten years.
