Conceptual Clarity

On the 12th of November Ephox will turn 10.  It will also mark eight and a half years of me being at Ephox.  Unfortunately though, while the team at Ephox celebrate our 10th Birthday I’ll be on my honeymoon.  This Saturday (tomorrow) I’ll be marking a personal milestone of my own as I get married.

So, since I can’t be at the Ephox celebration to thank people personally, I thought I’d write this post.

It’s been a tumultuous decade to be a software company.  Since our incorporation in 1999 we’ve made it through the Dot-com Bubble and now we’re achieving our greatest growth ever despite a global financial crisis.   There’s no doubt in my mind that Ephox’s ability to survive and thrive during these challenging times is because of the fantastic people who I work with all around the globe.

When I joined the team as an intern in July 2001 I wasn’t planning 8.5 years in advance, but I’m certainly glad that the last 8.5 years have been spent with Ephox.  Ephox has given me one of the most remarkable opportunities of my life – and this is despite me almost falling asleep while our now CEO (then CTO) Andrew Roberts explained HTML authoring to me on my first day on the job.  I started out here as an intern, developed software, worked in the USA as a consultant, traveled the world, and now am the Director of Products – all thanks to Ephox.

Over those years the company itself has grown and faced it’s challenges.  From our offices here in Paddington, Brisbane, Australia we branched out to the USA.  I can recall when Andrew Roberts started our first USA office – in his apartment in San Jose.  From there we’ve grown to have offices in Palo Alto, just outside Stanford University and European offices in London.

Along the way I’ve met and worked with some tremendous people not only here at Ephox but also amongst our partner organizations.  Our partners have always been incredibly important to us at Ephox and personally, it’s given me the chance to meet some fantastic, like-minded professionals at IBM, Vignette/OpenText, Stellent/Oracle, EMC and more.

So Happy 10th Birthday Ephox.  Congratulations and thank you.  I’m looking forward to what the next 10 years hold for us all, particularly if the first 10 are any indication.