By Simon Woodhead
…Simwood was incorporated. This nearly passed us by as the business has been “20” for a number of years given our mission started some years before incorporation. Thankfully, we have some very detail oriented colleagues on our team who get excited about this kind of thing (along with pixel misalignment and white space).
20 years. Wow! Back then I was a babe-magnet, had issues with incompetent authority and even wore a suit. Whilst I don’t wear a suit much nowadays not much has changed!
I was late for my finance day-job due to road-works lasting 6 weeks, only to realise they were due to the ISDN install to my house. Dual 64kbps channels to Demon Internet vs 28.8kbps modem was a game-changer and made the rather large bank of Nokia handsets send SMS at an unimaginable rate (until I had an X.25 installed at the house). Telehouse was a mecca and somewhere I dreamt of going, and LINX was only a few years old but already changing the world. Little did I know then who I’d have the pleasure of working with and for these years later!
I’m genuinely choked by the awesome people who now call Simwood home, and those who ride with us and support us. There’s no better opportunity than now to say ‘thank you’ to you all!
I found the original business plan the other day, that in essence described how this Internet thing and mobile phones would probably catch-on and converge. It is interesting how we’ve evolved from that but the one thing that has not changed is why we exist. Some companies are started to make money and put some shallow mission statement around it, others start to meet a legitimate need but we started with a vision of the future and excited over what that future could bring. I don’t really think our reason for existing has changed:
“We believe technology convergence can change the world for the better and we exist to enable that change. From developer-friendly APIs and human-friendly interfaces to our unconventional approach to fraud protection, we empower customers and champion a fair and transparent marketplace.”
Who knows where the next 20 years will take us but I hope you’ll all be with us still. Thanks again!
