Happy 10th, gowebcasting!
Today marks a momentous day in the history of gowebcasting.
In early March of 2010 we opened our first office in downtown Toronto, the opening chapter of a story that is still going strong a full 10 years later — thanks to all the amazing clients we have had the pleasure of working with over that time, and the equally amazing people that have worked with us and for us over the years.
You all know who you are!
It seems like just yesterday we took the leap and set up gowebcasting – moving from being employees to employers and choosing our own destiny.
Setting up on King Street in the heart of downtown Toronto. Our first contract. Doing our first event. Watching Sydney Crosby score the golden goal in the 2010 Winter Olympics on one of our brand new monitors. The maxed-out personal credit cards and credit lines. Tweaking our event software on the fly. Discovering that we turned a small profit in year one, mostly because we paid ourselves almost nothing that year. All classic start-up experiences, but the lessons learned were priceless and shaped what was to come.
Life, however, is always complicated, and a set of unfortunate family circumstances in our first year led to management of the business having to be split between our lovely new downtown Toronto office and an office in Nova Scotia — later in rural Cape Breton.
This unavoidable scenario would test even the most established of businesses, but the team never showed any sign of frustration. We learned a lot about loyalty and priorities, which stood the company in good stead in the years that were to follow.
One thing that we have come to realize over the past decade in business is that a company should not simply focus on growth for growth’s sake, but also on the service it provides to its customers. Providing proper service leads to true organic growth, and our main philosophy throughout the decade was to offer a high-touch level of personalized service.
We were never looking to develop an automated, client-controlled, mass-webcasting solution. We always took pride in taking our clients phone calls in the middle of the night, doing that last minute event, reassuring them in what is usually a stressful time. They know we’re here if we’re needed, but they never have to worry about us.
Because of this approach we have been rewarded with the kind of loyalty that is rare in today’s business world. We have clients that have been with us since the very beginning, and many more clients we have gained through direct referrals – something we are forever grateful for. There are even some clients we have been working with for so long now that we can rightfully call them friends.
From the outside, people may think that we are a technology company — in reality, we see ourselves more as a service provider.
This doesn’t mean that we have neglected our technology in any way! We have had to keep up with and in many cases be ahead of the pace of change in the emerging webcasting world.
When we began, all the focus was on desktop windows machines. Mobile devices are now preeminent, and we have adapted our technology accordingly.
We will continue to tweak, hone, and innovate for the future. There are a couple of exciting developments in the pipeline for the start of gowebcasting’s second decade, which we are very excited to share. Keep an eye here and all will be revealed very shortly.
So as we enter our second decade we look back fondly and with gratitude on the 10 years that have passed, while looking forward with both excitement and optimism for what is to come.
Finally, yet again we want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of our clients for being such an important part of our success.
Here’s to the next 10 years!
Mark and Charles
P.S. We want everyone to celebrate with us, so to mark the occasion and extend our celebrations right in to our 11th year we are offering a 10% discount on webcasting packages to all new and returning clients who sign up during the course of the year.
