SourceGear Customer Newsletter - Issue 2

People think we’re odd.

And maybe they’re right. I mean really — a software company that publishes comics?

Let me try to explain. The root of this goes deep, all the way back to the beginning.

In the summer of 1996 I was at my church for one of those Saturday morning men’s pancake breakfasts. The speaker that morning was a guy named Greg. I don’t remember anything he said except this: “If you hate your job, then you either need a new attitude or a new job.”

I was working for a company that had been through a lot of major changes. I had once loved working there, but I no longer did.

After six months of trying to get a new attitude, I founded SourceGear with one very simplistic mission statement: I want to create a place where I will enjoy working.

At first glance, this mission statement appears to be incredibly deficient. It’s too short. Where’s all the stuff about making the world a better place? Why doesn’t it talk about delivering great solutions to customers? How can it be a real mission statement without words like “synergy”, “leverage” and “paradigm”?

Surprisingly enough, my mission statement has worked out very well in practice. It’s simplistic, but it creates all kinds of very positive secondary effects that are visible throughout our company.

First of all, the core principle is contagious. It is no surprise that a place where I enjoy my job is an attractive place for others to work as well. Having a great work environment is part of why we now have an excellent staff of people I am proud to call my coworkers.

And once you have a whole bunch of people who want to enjoy their job, a lot of other things fall into place.

We use our own products every day, so we want them to be great. If they’re not, we’re not going to like working here as much.

Why am I so fanatical about keeping customers happy? Because when you are disappointed with our products or the quality of our service, I don’t like my job very much.

I’m not saying we never make mistakes. We’re not perfect. Our products aren’t perfect. But our goal is always to make great products that our customers like to use. The simple truth is that doing things right is inherently satisfying.

I’d have to admit that my simplistic mission also has a few secondary effects which don’t sound quite as noble. Why does our office have all kind of toys, like a pool table and a Wii? Because they’re fun.

A few years ago we moved our office from a rural location to downtown. Why? So we could walk across the street to great coffee and some excellent local restaurants.

And then we get into a SourceGear marketing meeting and ask ourselves what kind of ad campaign we’re going to do.

“Maybe we should do a basic ad like everybody else’s with a logo at the top, some bullets in the middle, and a download URL at the bottom.”

“If we’re going to do boring marketing that nobody notices, I don’t think I’m going to like my job very much.”

“Hey, instead let’s do a full color comic strip where the dumb project manager who didn’t choose our products is portrayed as an Evil Mastermind with a dry sense of humor and an obsession for pop culture and all the smart developers who wish they could use great version control appear as numbered minions and many of those minions will be drawn with a striking resemblance to people on our own team!”

“But if we do that, won’t people think we’re odd?”

Yeah, maybe.

Welcome

DiffMerge 3.2 Released

Fortress Clouds

Vault/Fortress Power Toys

The Evil Mastermind, Issue #2

Sending out an SOS (Survey)

SD West recap

Life is Short. Upgrade to Vault 4.1, and then Go Fishing

Customer Testimonial