19 years ago this past Sunday, I started Ipswitch with aspirations to have a real impact on IT, on the world, and how software companies achieve and measure success. I wanted to create an environment that would attract smart, ambitious people who share our values, which emphasize honesty, integrity and treating people with respect. I see our impact on IT every day in our many thousands of customers whose lives are made more productive by our software. As our iCare community program grows each year, I see more and more impact on volunteers and the communities that benefit from iCare. We fund iCare with 5% of profits. And I think we have shown that taking a longer term perspective on growth has allowed us to become a significant force in IT software while retaining control over our future. Change has accelerated, but it is still more important to identify long term trends than to react quickly.

In 1991, as we got started, it was much more about the potential of the Internet than the market for our initial products. I wanted to get going with a product – any product – that would establish us in the market. Once established, I thought we would be in a much better position to understand IT users’ needs and better able to decide what products to introduce.  And although that is in essence what happened, serendipity played a big role – Dan Lanciani pointed me to John Junod and the software that became WS_FTP, IMail and WhatsUp Gold.

During these 19 years, we have personally had some ups and downs. At the beginning, I was looking for a challenge, but four years into the tunnel and seeing no light, I considered giving up.  I decided to continue not because I knew there was a bright future, but because I hadn’t quite given it a complete effort and I felt that if I didn’t persist for a while longer I would regret it.  That’s when I met John and we found a path towards success.

The late 90′s were a period of excitement and fast growth. Then we slowed in the early 2000′s. It took several years for me to recognize that our prior success was a result of how we managed the company when we were much smaller, and that that approach no longer worked in a larger company. The strategic change I am most proud of is the one that we as a senior management team talked through for over a year before we reorganized Ipswitch into divisions almost three years ago. That one decision has had many profoundly positive effects that continue to this day. Without it, we would not have been prepared to expand by finding other companies for whom it made sense to become part of Ipswitch. We would not have been able to carry on so much parallel activity; we would not have the depth and breadth of management we do; and we would not have the range or quality of software solutions we do today.

Today, we are a major force in two big markets – secure file transfer and network management, with the exciting potential to increase our share and clout in both.  With our third division – messaging – we are in a competitive market where we stand out as a high quality product with superb support. Our potential exists because of our people, our customer base, our reputation, our brands and our technology. Our 19 years of continuous profit and growth, our stronger-than-ever market position and potential – this is all cause for giving thanks – to our customers, without whom we could not understand our markets or produce software for them; to our partners, who let us focus on what we are good at and rely on what they are good at; and to our employees, who inspire me and each other to continue to pursue our vision of building a software company that makes a difference for IT, for the world and sets an example for how software companies can achieve success.

Roger