Yesterday we turned three. Today we celebrate going into our fourth year of exciting projects, amazing clients and continuing to grow a creative team that amazes us. They say the first year is the hardest and the third year defines success – we don’t like the term ‘success’ for such youthful organizations, but we like defining ourselves as ‘happy’. And three years into it, we’re happy to say we are happy. We’ll wait till our fifth birthday before we start throwing around the ‘S’ word.
We started nclud on a simple premise; create an environment that embraces creative talent and assume great people doing great work will create success. We believe in believing in people first and assuming profits second; it’s a unique and perhaps risky model, but it makes us happy that it continues to prove a successful model.
As we continue to grow and with it our success, we remember to remember why we started it all. We are not strong believers in the ‘business plan’; however, we put together a slide show on ‘why we started it all’, it’s as close as we’ll get:
We believe that an environment, the people you work with and the space you work within, are of the most fundamental elements to creativity. We believe that if you get paid for forty hours of work, you should only work forty hours of work. We believe that being a part of a community isn’t a business model but rather the best opportunity to learn; and contribute as a way of returning the favor. We believe that project management is achieved by efficient and responsible teamwork and sales leads achieved by reputation influenced by quality of work. We believe smart, ambitious and passionate with a driving desire to constantly and consistently exceed expectations will always equate to success. It’s not a mission statement; it’s a culture, it’s a brand.
We’re excited as we enter the fourth year of nclud. We’ve learned a lot and have a lot to learn.
Andrew Cohen
January 19th 2010
Congrats to everyone at nclud! You guys are a great bunch and truly an inspiration to what you can achieve with the right mindset. Cheers!
Doris
January 19th 2010
LOVE the slide show. especially the ones about “inspiring others…” :)
a big congrats on the three years, i’m proud and so fortunate to have been a part of the journey along the way.
miss you all so much.
Matt Sanders
January 19th 2010
Happy Birthday, I hope you all find the next year exciting and the ‘S’ word.
Juliana
January 19th 2010
Happy b-day guys! You are a very talented bunch, and one that has set a nice and successful example of what pursuing good design and good development can be.
May you have many more!
Martin Ringlein
January 19th 2010
Thanks guys! It’s been an exciting three years ... and there is still so much do :-)
Samantha Warren
January 19th 2010
I admire your ability to stay true to your web design philosophy and practice what you preach. Man, I love you guys.
Joe Grossberg
January 19th 2010
I’m partial to the “Work with Everyone We Love” slide, personally.
And congratulations! You guys have accomplished a lot, starting from scratch.
Brian Talbot
January 19th 2010
Congrats guys! Can’t wait to see what you have up your sleeves for Year #4 and beyond.
Alex Giron
January 19th 2010
Oh man, you guys are great. You (the community) have helped us get where we are :) So Thank you!!!
Keith Muth
January 19th 2010
Congrats on the big four and the many more to come. Those were great slides too, especially that “social media expert” on slide 14 :)
Martin Ringlein
January 19th 2010
HA HA, slide #14 cracks me up! Samantha is pretty badass on slide #22 also ... still our favorite ‘design face’.
And ... completely agree with Alex. We are only here because of you guys (the community). From the close DC community we have here to the larger web community; we’ve received so much support, advice and inspiration from everyone. You even help us build the creative team we have; every member of the nclud team has come as a direct referral from a friend in the community—several of our clients have come to us the same way.
Nguyet
January 19th 2010
Happy Birthday nclud! I love your philosophy and admire you for practicing your beliefs everyday. That is truly admirable. Thank you for all you’ve done, your generosity, and your impact on the community. I’m honored to know you :)
(((HUG)))
Zvi Band
January 19th 2010
Congrats on three years!
Antoine Butler
January 19th 2010
Congrats, and here’s to many more!
Dave DeSandro
January 19th 2010
My hat is off to Alex and Martin for making it through the first couple years and creating an incredible place to work. It has been a true boon to be a part of nclud. The coming months and years hold just as much tremendous potential.
Patrick Haney
January 19th 2010
Who’s that handsome fellow in slide 18? Oh right, the same guy that took those great ping pong photos!
Congrats on finishing year 3, and here’s to making year 4 even better. If we ever get our little design agency from side project to full time, I hope we do half as well as nclud. Props from the Hanerinos.
Nick Whitmoyer
January 19th 2010
I’m just going to come right out and say it… Alex probably deserves the biggest congratulations of all. Three years with Martin is no easy feat! I could always picture Alex pulling a Homer Simpson (wanting to strangle him like he was Bart). This hasn’t happened, as far as I know :)
Seriously though, congratulations nclud! Alex and Martin, you’ve done a great job at creating an exciting culture within your company and also at helping the web community continue to grow. It’s been a pleasure collaborating with your team on past projects and I look forward to future endeavors with you guys.
Justin Thorp
January 19th 2010
You guys rock! XOXO
Martin Ringlein
February 4th 2010
Thanks again for all of the comments and continued support!!