Oli's Introductory Blog....

8:47 pm | Oli Thordarson | Be the first to comment

I have been asked to write this column for IncBizNet.  I have never used this software before so let's see how this goes.

For my first post I thought I would post a short little CEO Message of 500 words I wrote for Alvaka Networks 25th Anniversary Open House celebration we are holding on November 15, 2007. 

Please share with me your thoughts and experiences of your start in the IT business and your view of your passage through IT history.

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            Alvaka Networks at 25 Years!

Wow!  That is all I can say about making it 25 years.  In some ways it seems so long, in others it seems like just yesterday.

I can remember working on the ol’ Osborne 1 computer.  A $1,995 Zilog Z80 powered machine with 64k bytes of memory (yes, that is only 64,000) and two 180k 5.25” floppy disks drives.  I kinda’ of miss all those corny jokes about the “floppies.”  Seriously, I am feeling a wave of sentimentality as I write this short ditty.

Then came the wave of IBM compatible machines, the early networks, the first laptops that weighed 20 lbs and more.  There have been a lot of great products.  A lot of them did not make the cut though I thought them ingenious.  An example was the first expansion card to have your PC answer the phone and such.  It was called Watson.

My first network installation went so bad, although I did get it to work; I vowed never to use the product again.  I swore that company was going to go out of business.  That was 1985.  Instead I should have been borrowing money from everyone and anyone to buy stock in the firm.  That stock was the single biggest gainer on the NASDAQ from 1985 to 1995.  That company is Novell where $1 became worth $1,000 in ten years.

No one could have imagined then what we have now.  Just look at a modern hand-held PDA that is a phone, computer, camera and GPS.  I love this industry.  It constantly changes.  That is both the excitement and headache of IT.  But I would not trade it for a thing.

People ask me when I am going to sell the Alvaka.  I have no plans to do so.  While that is not ever a guarantee, I am just having too much fun.  I tell people I expect to still be doing this when I am 70 years old, another 25 years, as long as it stays this invigorating.

Alvaka Network has been built by its clients.  No one invested a zillion dollars to start the company.  It got started with a lot of sweat equity.  Only those who have started companies this way can appreciate the years where the founder does not get paid, sweating bullets when payroll is looming and more.  But that is how this firm was started.  Somehow I beat that trap in the first five years where 80% if the start-ups fail.  I even beat the fate of the second five years where 80% of those survivors go away.

Alvaka Networks is going strong, buoyed by our many investors who keep the company going by paying their invoices every month.  It is a tough and challenging profession at times, but by listening to our clients, bringing them solutions and helping them grow their businesses, I am looking forward to an even more exciting next 25 years.  I have seen what is looming on the horizon and it is some exciting stuff…!

Best managed and most secure regards,

 Oli Thordarson, Founder and CEO

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My next blog I will talk about IT disaster preparedness and share some insights I learned while undergoing a "mandatory" evacuation for six days of the firestorm in Orange County California in October 2007.