Eighteen years ago tomorrow, 10 November 1994, a legal document was finalized that brought Pointwise, Inc. into existence.

What an interesting 18 years it has been. When my co-founder, John Steinbrenner, and I first started thinking about Pointwise we figured that if we crashed and burned within a year it wouldn’t damage our careers too badly. Fortunately, a year later we were still alive and kicking and Rick Matus rounded out our triumverate. We’ve been having fun since.

We’ve learned a lot too.

1. Pointwise turned out to be a much better company name than Discrete Partners.
2. Everything is harder and takes longer than you initially think except for the things you postpone out of fear or loathing. Those things usually turn out to be not such a big deal.
3. There’s always a lightbulb to change or trash to take out or a door to fix. Those things are important too.
   1. Corollary: Choose the low bidder with caution.
4. Everything in life boils down to the interaction of two people.
5. Charging money for a product or service doesn’t make you evil – although some people will try to make you feel that way.
   1. Corollary: Businesses exist to make a profit. Don’t let anyone dissuade you of that notion.
6. Murphy’s Law of Demos (a new bug will always first manifest itself when you’re doing a demo) is real.
7. Having great partners (e.g. attorney, accountant) is vital to success. And we’ve been fortunate to have great partners.
8. At the end of the day, it’s all about having satisfied customers.

We’ve been very fortunate to work with some great people – customers, employees, partners – over the last 18 years and look forward to even more in the future. Thanks to everyone for your support and interest (and even your morbid curiosity).