June 12th, 2026 marked our 25th Anniversary.
Friends have asked if I was surprised to have made it this far. Frankly, no, but not because I’ve thought much about it. Rather, one day led to another, then weeks turned into years, then decades, and here we are.
A quarter of a century is remarkable.
A few years ago, we joined The Tugboat Institute, a membership consortium that has two big goals:
- Keep privately held companies privately held.
- Build Evergreen® companies that last 100 years.
We are a quarter of the way there!
The better question at a milestone moment like this is: have we done what we set out to do?
In our earliest days we established a mission to end human suffering in the world as it relates to technology … for users, for sponsors, for teams. We had a big goal: to return joy to one of the most unique endeavors mankind has ever undertaken, the invention of software.
We have worked on some very big, very important, and very long efforts:
- The Organ Transplant Information System (OTIS) at U-M Health. OTIS ran that department for over 20 years. People I know who worked there loved it.
- The Cflow software for the Accuri Flow Cytometer. The first unit shipped in 2007. The product is still being enjoyably used almost 20 years later!
- The CAVA software for the IMAP space mission.
And many, many more.
My personal lament in my early career revolved around the number of projects I worked on that never saw the light of day. It has been so different in these last 25 years. Our work ships without fanfare, with very little overtime, and almost never an emergency.
Along the way, we have helped build very successful professional lives for so many of our team members.
Tens of thousands of people have traveled to visit, to tour, to take classes, and be inspired by our team, our process and our results. So many of those visitors encourage us and cheer us on.
All of this has added up to a joyful 25 years!
Here’s to the next 75!