How’s it going?

On October 1, we founded Centricient (now known as Quiq). As I meet people, the question I always get, “How’s it going?”.

The simple answer is “It’s going great!”.

But there’s so much more to it. Its been 11 weeks of creativity, designing a product from nothing, juxtaposed with tedious corporate documents. 11 weeks of a euphoria fueled by opportunity and potential, but weighted down by a to-do list that doesn’t end. And 11 weeks of building and starting to work with a team that I’m sure is going to change the world and that I enjoy coming to work with everyday.

Although I joined RightNow in the early days (number 7), the company was well underway when I got there. Day 1 at a new company is unlike anything else. You’re starting with nothing more than an idea and ambition. The company has nothing to work with — no email, internet, laptops or servers. There’s no payroll, HR policies, benefits, or stock options to take care of the folks and families who have taken the risk to join. And first and foremost, there’s not even a company at all!

Well, 11 weeks have passed and not only have we accomplished all of that stuff, but we’ve also got a lot done on our most important task — building product! We’ve talked with potential customers, defined our MVP and are working on UXD. And we’ve built the start of a technology stack, engineering and deployment process that is more robust, automatic and complete than anything we’ve ever used before. It’s amazing what a small team of smart, focused people can do with the latest technology. In other organizations, what we’ve done so far could have required months of meetings and years would have passed by.

But with all the momentum of what’s been accomplished so far comes the realization of just how much more we need to do. The tip of the proverbial iceberg. But, I couldn’t be more excited and encouraged by the opportunity that lies ahead.

So, like I said, the answer to the question is, “It’s going great!”.

Stay tuned…