we started the company in the dorms at
Cal Poly just two of us running an
inventory out of the closet and growing
slowly hiring our friends to help us run
shipping by the time I graduated we had
over a million dollars in revenue when
we were growing fast we've been
profitable since our second month of
operation and we've continued to grow
the rate that's kept us on the Inc 5000
fastest growing company lists the last
several years in a row we've been able
to not just reinvest that profit and
growth but also use it to build the
absolute best team we could we've got
world-class people here in all kinds of
fields like electrical engineering
system architecture repair technicians
programming all under one roof plus you
you know people who are just crazy
obsessed about doing things because
they're passionate about it not because
someone told them to do it or you know
that they they need to do it they are in
a paycheck or whatever I remember a time
soon after I graduated that every
weekend I would just sit around and wait
for monday to come around so I could go
in the working program again everybody
that works here really loves what they
do and I feel like it's not a place
where people just come and clock in and
then leave and then don't think about
work in the off hours compared to my
previous programming jobs working and I
fix it feels much more like working with
a family we're not really a team or a
staff of people we're a family and we
work together every day as a family that
really cares about each other and invest
in making sure that we're all the best
that we can be I feel really fortunate
that we've been able to gather such an
impressive team here in San Luis Obispo
one of the most fun things about
starting your own company is that I got
to choose where I wanted to live and San
Luis Obispo was absolutely the right
choice this is such a phenomenal place
to be there is a ton to do here and so I
mean on a whim i can go wine tasting or
i can go surfing hiking is absolutely
gorgeous here the weather is phenomenal
year round and there is no lacking of
both outdoor activities to go and relax
on the weekend and also all sorts of
interesting culture and bands coming
through all the time we really have the
ideal intersection of culture and access
to the outdoors I love it here I grew up
here there's amazing mountain bike
trails right outside the door i get off
work every day and i don't even have to
throw my bike and a truck to get outside
and enjoy the sunshine I like hiking I
really like the outdoors I really like
surfing one of the things that I
absolutely love doing is taking my kayak
out and going surfing alongside all the
surfers there's maybe 15 and 20
incredible surf spots within a 10-minute
drive of the office and I just have a
blast kayaking along with everybody else
I'd love to brag to my friends about
where I live and if they laugh at me I
can just tell them that Oprah says that
we live in the happiest place in America
top five in the world so that's pretty
awesome we've set the gold standard for
a pair documentation and that wasn't
good enough then we we took and we built
the absolute best software anyone's ever
made the right repair manual around that
our repair manuals are the best and when
I say that I'm really honest about it
and we've chosen a format that works
really well that's been proven over time
and the reason why I work so well is
because we take amazing photographs we
explain all the steps as clearly as
possible and we let the user do whatever
the heck they want with those bangles
it's exciting to work with technologies
that actually matter the traditional
repair mules are stuck in the 20th
century they're very static you can't
change anything about them aren't
manuals are more organic it's empowering
to me to know that we're building tools
that help people help each other and I
see our role as providing the software
and the tools to make our community
incredible at teaching people how to fix
things that's one of the great things
about software is that if you write it
once and you write it well it can scale
to thousands tens of
hundreds of thousands millions of people
and it really has power software has
power to create communities we have one
of the best communities that I've ever
seen we have members teaching each other
how to do everything from fixing
waterlogged iPods to installing new
brakes in their minivan one thing that I
think is pretty cool is that customer
wise we work with I mean big
organizations but also individuals and
that's probably more where my heart is
is getting an email from a mom that
fixed her kids iPod or getting an email
from a kid that fixed his mom's ipod we
also have a bunch of users from around
the world who are actively contributing
on our site every day through answers
through repair guides and even tear down
we've made a website that isn't you know
a super complex intimidating product you
know you go to our site and you know
exactly how to interact with it you can
ask you a question you can submit a
guide you know how to modify a guide I
mean it's not rocket science and I think
that that lowers the barrier the barrier
to entry the biggest reason we've been
effective has been our top-notch
development team the other developers
are always there to to toss ideas around
I like being able to just bounce next
door and say hey what do you think about
this and have a conversation with
someone who's equally passionate about
what we're working on so there's
collaboration and there's but there's
still ownership working on
working on features we have one of the
quickest turnaround times for any sort
of feature I think of any website out
there especially for things that are
high-priority you know it literally
happens in hours as a developer it was
really important to me to build an
environment where I would be productive
and effective and we did that we have
private offices for developers
management that helps out but doesn't
get in the way instantaneous deployment
and we've really been effective at
creating the kind of place for a
programming those you can just go and
get work done and publish coat well we
have a really nice office there's a lot
of open space there's a lot of people
available and a lot of resources
available instantly having a private
office is nice because it allows you to
close the door and basically mute
everybody else there have been times
where a feature has been requested and I
felt there were better ways to do it and
it's the floor is always open to have
that discussion to decide you know all
right maybe this is maybe there was a
better way to do it there's not a whole
lot of top-down angry management with
quotas I think so there's a place where
I can go to work and know that I'm
making a difference both of the global
scale and also impacting people's lives
our whole mission is to help everybody
fix everything and people fall in love
with that mission right along with us we
are an ecommerce company but we're also
more than that we want to want to do
something that's going to have a
long-lasting long-term positive effect
in the world
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