Thirteen people crowded around a large round table…
…in the back of Denville-based Hunan Taste after hours on the 13th of April 1999. The gathering force of the group, a great judge of genius and personality, brought together the brightest programmers, the most gifted graphic artists, the best marketing minds he’d met in his professional and personal lives. Each brought to that Chinese restaurant their talent, their ambition, and their determination to take the dream of starting their own company and make Thingee a reality.
Thingee’s initial focus was developing Web-based software applications. But while building and finessing and tweaking the initial application, the telecom bubble burst; drying up venture capital and rendering the partners’ Fortune 100 stock options virtually worthless. The team quickly realized that if Thingee was to become a viable company, it needed a steady revenue stream. So with thoughts of software dominance always in the back of their minds, the initial full-time partners began selling their expertise: multimedia services.
The first client came accidentally, via an overheard conversation in the checkout line at a major computer supply store. The first project was a CD-ROM business card. The first check? It bounced. Other projects followed, and there was enough work to warrant obtaining dedicated office space — the basement in Grandma Lomauro’s house.
By the end of 2002, Thingee’s workload was sufficient to support 4 people full time, and within the next year the remaining partners left their full-time jobs and turned Thingee into a full-time multimedia services operation. As the team grew, so did their success and financial growth year after year. The big-company veterans wisely implemented processes and procedures that significantly streamlined their operations and enabled them to deliver projects and services more quickly and efficiently.
Thingee’s well-deserved financial security and extensive Web development experience enabled its hungry programmers to return to their roots: building Web-based software applications. The company currently runs its financial and project management operations on its unique, proprietary software, which has generated interest and potential for a future public release.
With personalities that defy complacency, the Thingee technophiles are busy masterminding the latest “thingees” with the cutting-edge tools the general public is just hearing about, leveraging bandwidth breakthroughs and the proliferation of mobile devices; as well as capitalizing on the demand for high definition content and the popularity of social media/social networking.
Stay tuned, the newest thingee may be just the Next Big Thingee your customers will be clamoring for tomorrow, next week, or next year.