Soapbox Engage Blog

This is a guest post by Grey Frandsen, our company's co-founder and inspirational guru.

Dear PICnet Family and Friends:

10 years ago Ryan Ozimek and I set out to create a company to serve organizations with brave and selfless missions.

Our objective was clear: produce highly-functional and cutting-edge technology solutions for organizations that typically were more focused (and rightfully so) on their own critical missions - tackling challenges like homelessness, refugee resettlement, education, emergency response, social justice, community development, cancer treatment, etc.  You know, really important stuff.

Funny enough, though, we didn't start with a product or silver-bullet solution.  We set out only to help these organizations do more for less so they could make a greater impact.  Our work for our first great client led to a second amazing client.  Our second client turned into numbers five, 10, and so on.  As we grew, so too did our understanding of the market, our clients, their challenges, and what PICnet could do to continue to serve a growing number of fantastic organizations.  It actually worked.

To be sure, thought, this vision was pretty unique in 2000.  Serving charitable, non-profit and international NGOs wasn't exactly sexy.  It wasn't where the IPOs were being offered or where the angel investors wanted to spend a lot of time.  In fact, Ryan and I were viewed as "the goodie-two-dudes" by those setting out to make big profits in other, more glamorous arenas.  Better for us, we thought, even if it meant we'd be charting our own course in unknown territory (like Albania, Uganda, or Indonesia).

Fast forward to today and you can see now that PICnet rests on this same foundation.  In a tribute to its original efforts, the company's mission statement has gone virtually unchanged for 10 years.  A look at Waybackmachine.org shows one consistent theme on PICnet's site:  its sole focus on "empowering the missions of organizations to more effectively promote much needed services to their constituencies."  That is supremely impressive, in my mind, and shows just how committed this company is to serving.

So too is PICnet's continually-expanding offerings.  The company now offers both custom services and bullet-proof applications for the world's smallest and largest organizations (literally).  PICnet's custom services help client organizations tackle the toughest challenges with a unique, caring, and professional approach.  Its products, on the other hand, generate huge cost-savings and reduce stress by packaging years of experience relating to what its clients need.  These products are tightly-bundled, affordable and highly-functional solutions for any organization seeking excellent and rapid-deployment capabilities.

I'm really proud of what PICnet has become over the last 10 years.  I'm equally proud of the fact that my partner, Ryan, was as clear-minded, innovative, and compassionate then as he is today.  As the company's co-founder and leader for its first decade of its life, Ryan today is leading an incredible team at PICnet that is the best its ever been.

Ryan's unique ability, knowledge, grit, and pure geniusness (my word) have made him one of the true champions for the most important organizations in the world.  And he isn't only an innovative CEO; he's a thought-leader worldwide who is guiding and leading trends, patterns, and large-scale technology advancements that will only better serve the clients he so dearly loves.  It has been such an honor to watch him build this company from our humble beginnings.

From the early days where we hustled, shucked, hawked, scratched, squeaked, and stretched to gain the trust of our first clients, to now, with clients worldwide and a truly global workforce, PICnet continues to lead the way for the right reasons with the right people for the right clients.  (Way) Back in 2000, we felt that it was possible to create a nexus of entrepreneurial vitality and good-hearted focus to help amplify and expand the capacity of those who are really doing the hard work of serving others around the world.

After 10 years, it's clearly working.

So Happy Birthday, PICnet.  And congratulations to Ryan, my dearest friend, and the entire PICnet family, for pursuing such an excellent, selfless, and critical mission ten years in the making.  Here's to another 10 fantastic years of the best mission any of us could be part of.

Grey Frandsen
Proud PICnet Co-Founder