My last post,
“Promise”, talked about how Forbes magazine recognized us as
#10 of America’s Most Promising Companies. This is a VERY BIG DEAL for us, and before too much time passes, I want to make sure proper recognition is given to some very key people.
In a previous post,
“Unsung heroes”, I talked about all of the people in the background who make things happen and seldom get recognition. Because of my role at Prolifiq, Forbes interviewed and videotaped me for the website; and while I am the face of the company to the outside, I did not provide the creative spark that caused this collection of incredible talent to coalesce. This came from our three founders.
Jeff Farnsworth, Anh Huynh and Hemingway Huynh were 26, 25, and 22 when they all met at the Portland Trailblazers. Jeff is a Duck, having completed an architecture degree at the University of Oregon. Anh is a Beaver having received his degree in Computer Science from Oregon State. And, Hemingway is a Pilot having completed his undergraduate in Business at the University of Portland. The Forbes recognition is a testament to their vision and the quality of education they received at Oregon schools.
This last point is very significant, as many leaders in the local business community, while working hard for economic development in the region, bemoan the fact that the “network effect” of capital, incubator companies and educational institutions does not exist in Oregon to the same degree as in Silicon Valley or Seattle. I believe Prolifiq’s history suggests this is changing as there are successful, promising companies resulting from “home-grown” education and the nurturing provided by the local business community.
Once their original business idea was formulated, the three Prolifiq founders were joined by our founding investors: Neil Marshall (also a Beaver), Roger Pringle (both a Beaver and a Duck) and Mike Henderson (the odd man out – he is a Huskie). These three provided the initial capital, office space and “adult supervision” (management experience, coaching, legal contacts, banking relationships, accounting oversight, customer introductions, etc.) to start the company and get the very first product off the ground. All six still serve in key capacities: two (Mike and Roger) serve as Board members, advising and guiding me on a daily/weekly basis and holding us accountable, and the other four are in key positions within the company.
Jeff is our chief architect. His primary role is to take our white-board application ideas (see: “
Harold and the purple crayon”) and turn them into functional designs that are broken into sub-components that can be developed and woven into Prolifiq’s application fabric by members of our development team. Jeff uses his architectural design aesthetic in formulating our applications. If software were buildings, Jeff’s work would be showcased in Architectural Digest. Anh is a developer extraordinaire. He produces top-quality code in record time and is a “benchmark” for sheer brain-power against whom all of our developers are measured. If Anh tells you something can be done and gives a date it will be functional – we take it to the bank. Hemingway is our “Jack Bauer”. He works side by side with me in our business development functions, fearlessly taking great risks in securing and executing partnerships and managing our largest customer facing team. Hemingway is a “fire and forget” weapon – when I set him on a project, I sleep knowing it is taken care of. Period. Neil responded to the question I posed in “
The world is your oyster” with a one word email to me that read: coach. Neil’s fingerprints are all over everything we do; however, this is often not seen by outsiders. He coaches and advises on virtually every decision we make, every product we produce, every customer we touch, and every cultural aspect of the company. In fact, it was Neil, while serving as our COO, who came up with the name Prolifiq. Neil is the soul of the company; and, best of all for me, he has turned out to be a true friend – never afraid to tell me the blunt, cold hard truth.
The Forbes announcement came as a complete surprise to us because we have always been publicity shy. However, it comes at a very interesting time in our evolution. Our Life Sciences initiative is the first of several vertical markets we will address, and marks the “inflection point” in our growth. We will be expanding, dramatically, adding new teammates in executive and functional roles, and our interpersonal dynamics will naturally evolve and change. But before all the “headiness” of the growth takes over, I wanted to make sure the “unsung heroes” got their due recognition; I wanted to tell the story of: two Ducks, three Beavers, a Pilot, and a Huskie.
Gentlemen, it’s an honor.
Currently rated 4.9 by 12 people
- Currently 4.916667/5 Stars.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5