December 10 2014
Wow, what an amazing ride!
Wow, what an amazing ride!
I remember fondly standing in my kitchen showing my wife Karen (@nerakmugnet) this little app I built to help get us paid. I was proud, it was something tangible that I could see helping others to get paid. It was cool, it was simple and I thought it was clever, but it didn't have a name. So I stated that I needed a name that represented something Simple, easy and awesome to which my son Hunter proclaimed Pancakes! Pancakes are simple, easy and awesome and he was right. Now, Im not saying that he was some sort of marketing genius, he was standing in the kitchen wanting breakfast after all, but he really nailed that one.
Since that humble beginning, Pancake has gone on to do amazing things. Weve grown from a few people using this to chase payments to thousands of companies using it daily and growing every day. That last part is amazing to me, every day we grow our user base, our codebase and more importantly we help people to get paid for doing what it is that they love.
Though Pancake has been in such illustrious publications as Inc Magazine and .Net Magazine, the benchmark that I hold high is our progress and that could not have been accomplished without Bruno De Barros. Bruno started out as a customer, order #189 and four hours later he emailed with an issue he found, more importantly he emailed along a fix and a couple suggestions. A few months later I sent out a subsequent email announcing a bunch of new features as along with the announcement that Bruno had joined the team which consisted mainly of myself and Phil Sturgeon. Over the next few years we adjusted, Phils role diminished as he travelled the world, another Pancake customer #1174 Adam Jackett not only stepped in to become a strong contributor to Pancakes growth, but has become one of my best friends and trusted peers.
One thing that I struggled with was support, it was something that I often put onto other peoples plate, offloading it to Bruno as he loved dealing with issues (or at least never complained about it) and I would often work on new features or spend time traveling with my kids. Over time with Pancakes growth rate it was difficult for Bruno to take on all the support as well as build all the features people requested, so we brought on Matt Shirey, customer # 1310 to help with support earlier this year. The combination of Bruno looking after development and Matt looking after support left me with looking after marketing and business development.
We have really found our stride, we solidified a product-market fit that aligned us with like minded customers and the product has been growing like crazy. In fact Id say more so now than ever before Pancake is growing at an impressive rate and there are big things on the horizon for Pancake, which is why its time for me to bid Pancake Adieu.
I have two young boys, Hunter and Sawyer, who like Pancake are growing right before my eyes and lately Ive been having to choose between Pancake and them, which is not fair to anyone. Now being that Pancake is my baby, its not been an easy decision to let go and one that has weighed heavily on my mind for some time, however I am happy to announce that the company taking over Pancake is not only an amazing fit with the resources to look after and grow Pancake in ways that I never could, but that Bruno and Matt are staying on board with Pancake.
Now with Ryan stepping in to fill my shoes Im confident that the future for Pancake is bright and with the things on the horizon for it, along with the resources and proven track record he brings to the table, its the best thing for Pancake. Its incredibly hard and humbling to know that someone can do your job better than you, in the end though I have to decide what is best for Pancake, our users and the future of the app which means getting out of the way and letting go.
Im really excited for this though, please do not see it as anything other than great! When this first started to materialize it was very clear to me how much I was holding things back. There are huge things on the way for Pancake and it is a very exciting time to be a Pancake user.
As for me, well, you can find me on twitter (@thatleeguy) where Ill likely be posting pictures of the family on our adventures and generally poking fun at life. I owe my wife a few hundred or so date nights, she's been incredibly patient through all of this, understanding that we could only camp where there was wifi and I often couldn't watch a movie as I had tickets to answer. Make that a few thousand date nights ;)
So long friends, Im really excited for everyone and look forward to things to come for Pancake. For now, Ill be collecting sand from beaches and seeing the world with wife and boys.