Next

I rarely ever post internal messages I send to the ExchangeDefender staff on Vladville. I think between the announcements and details I share you have a pretty good idea about the kind of a place we run and why our services are so popular and why there are seemingly so many ridiculously successful partners and some people that probably build voodoo dolls of me in their spare time. But today marks a point of demarcation at which everything I set out to do in 2007 has been built (nearly 10 years into the life of Own Web Now Corp) and now I get to watch it actually take flight. It’s incredibly fulfilling. So without further delay, here is my message to my folks and hopefully it shines some light on what we actually do (between brewing beer, driving Ducati’s and killing SPAM).

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From: Vlad Mazek
Sent: Friday, June 08, 2012 11:51 PM
To: orlando
Subject: Next

I wanted to bring you up to speed on what we’re up to and what’s next.

I’m sure most of you remember the many webinars that started with pictures of Ferrari’s and ended with “If you’re not banging Beanie, you have to get to work.” – and since just about everyone that has been hired since 2007 is still here today I’m sure you know it but I’ll say it again: nobody is going to just hand us shit. Everything we’ve built, everything we’ve got and everything we continue to make happen we do on our own.

If you look at this company on a year-by-year basis, it’s amazing how much it has grown and how much better just about everything has gotten. Mostly because this has been a total team effort: There are people in the office at all hours of the day and night and even when we’re not there we’re somehow connected to what is going on. That I believe is the difference with us: everyone that is here is because they need to work and they need these jobs. That pushes us to move faster and solve harder problems and put in more effort into everything. As different as we all seem to be individually, everyone I interact with is on the ball, responsible, accountable, prompt and fighting. This is why you’ll be here forever and why we don’t do typical big company BS of “working in fear” and total uncertainty. Loyalty is rewarded with loyalty, for everyone. What that means is that if you’re here for us, everyone will be here for you. Well, except Frankie, I’m gonna need to see you at ~5pm next Friday.

That’s how we got here.

Those of you that interact with our partners know the challenge they are facing. It’s not pretty. It doesn’t get prettier either and there isn’t a lot of time on the clock either.

Since late 2007 we’ve been working on building a communications business that earned it’s keep on a very simple premise: If we’re having this problem so are a lot of other people out there. And if the solution is easilly fixed just by throwing money at it then all we need is a money printing machine and we’re done. And since we couldn’t find a money printing machine and nobody wanted to go to jail for 10-25 years we did the next best thing: we designed the technology behind it. From the ground up.

Now we’re moving to the next step. We’re rolling up our technology, our partners, our services, our support and our expertise up and throwing it at the collection of SMB pins at the end of the alley.

There is also a change in the way we manage this business.

I have always been involved in almost all of the areas of our business because I knew what I wanted this company to look like and I just didn’t know how to explain it. You’re looking at the finished product. From technologies to workflows to the implementation. If you happen to read Vladville you know that I from time to time manage to stumble to a meaningful conclusion. This is very much that conclusion as far as OWN is concerned. I have taught you everything I know and I’ve helped you all get us to this point. Now it’s your turn.

With few exceptions, Hank and I will be working on the technology and the products.

Everyone else gets to take the output and implement it in a way that generates the most profitable opportunities for our partners and consequently all of us. You will be working together more and you will be leaning on each other more without my waywo’s and last minute flashes of brilliance that have driven most of you to obesity and male pattern baldness.

When it comes to our core business and to our extended portfolio, we’re now light years ahead of our competitors. To be honest with you, I can’t even think of another company that can do what we do, with the reach that we have, with the levels of partnership and at the price we’re able to hit. My best guess is IBM or Cisco. And I’d rather drive my Ducati off a cliff and hope to land into a sea of sporks and BBDs eyeball first than to work for that kind of a company.

I’m glad that the rest of you agree otherwise you wouldn’t have made it here.

Thank you.

We have a great 2012 ahead of us and things are definitely picking up on all fronts. So till you meet your Beanie, ABP. A. B. P.

-Vlad