March 6, 2008

We begin our fifth year of life as we began our first, grateful for the opportunity to work together doing something truly worthwhile.

We have grown fairly steadily over the five years, to the point where we are now doubling our office space, an expansion project due to be completed this month (or perhaps next month, our contractor was the lowest bidder!). I remember when we were 6 people sitting around the warehouse, working off a couple of old doors propped on sawhorses, waiting for our one telephone to ring. We have since ballooned to 70 folks on 25 project sites and sharing a 13,000 square foot home office.

Last year we were named the #2 fastest growing company in Silicon Valley, perhaps you heard? It has been good for publicity but, honestly, it was not what we set out to do. All we wanted to do was to offer our clients the sophistication of a much larger contractor with the aggressiveness and personal attention one would expect from a start-up. Apparently that is a popular way to provide construction services, and it resulted in a lot of opportunities coming our way. That's my theory anyway.

This year we aim to solidify some of our key internal programs - Training, Safety, and Quality Control. These "meat and potatoes" functions have been provided since the beginning due to the high caliber personnel who have joined us but this has come largely as the result of individual initiative. Now we want to make these efforts routine, efficient, and consistent throughout the organization. We are investing in efforts to systematize these programs, hiring or assigning dedicated personnel, building a large training center and committing lots of hours to bringing everyone up to a high standard.

2008 is expected to be an unsettled year, economically and politically. While we are concerned about being able to steadily "feed the beast" our strategy for survival is simple: provide incredible value to our customers. There is always work for the best companies.

We continue to seek the best teammates to join us in our odyssey. We are trying to build a company which is a great place for great folks to spend their careers. It's a terrific time to get on board the train. Call me.

Andy Meade