Mindscape History
In January of 2000 Pete Brand and Paul Ferrier were running their own Internet companies. Pete was running a company based in Grand Rapids and Paul was running a company in Muskegon. The two were brought together through a common mentor from Muskegon and the journey began. Pete was very impressed with the quality designs Paul was producing for the web and Paul loved the cutting-edge functionality contained within the websites Pete’s company was creating. Almost immediately, they realized if they brought those two skill sets together they could create something powerful and they decided to merge the two companies.
In October 2001, Pete and Paul decided they wanted to build a company which would be intensely focused on delivering a return on investment to the clients they served. The passion they shared for delivering this value gave them the motivation to start Mindscape with Mark Swanson and Steve Olson, who had both previously owned their own companies. Mindscape had a location in Grand Rapids and also in Muskegon for six years and on March 1st, 2007, they centralized operations in downtown Grand Rapids.
The early years of Mindscape didn’t happen without the typical pains of a small business. We started within a month of September 11th and the following summer was extremely difficult. The flexibility of the small staff and the willingness to occasionally go without a paycheck proved to be the saving grace. It seemed as though every time we were thinking it was time to call it quits, the phone would ring and we’d have another client. Although the initial 18 months were very challenging, we slowly and steadily increased our annual revenue. We grew revenue each year and in 2005 realized it was time to expand our staff. We were fortunate to add Aaron Brander. Aaron brought with him great experience working for larger companies and a very organized approach and intense attention to detail. The next 12 months were great! Our revenue increased nearly 30% due to the processes we put in place with Aaron’s guidance.
We were able to quote jobs much more accurately and began to see profits. In early 2006 we added a second programmer, Brian Timmer. Brian is a talented programmer who has the ability to come up with creative solutions to the most challenging obstacles on the web. The quality of our developments took a huge leap forward. We made the move to Grand Rapids on March 1st, 2007 and at that time were a staff of six. We continued to tighten up our processes and intensified our focus on the marketing side of the web throughout 2007. Our revenue exploded nearly 75% and so did the growth of our staff. As Mindscape ended 2007, we had a total of eleven team members.
In summer of 2008, we formed an alliance with the nationally reknowned brand consulting and advertising firm, Hanon-McKendry. We relocated from our suites on Monroe Avenue North to Hanon-McKendry's offices at 25 Ottawa, across from the Van Andel Arena. We've added more staff and created an Account Services role to improve client communication and to provide even better service.
What's in store for Mindscape? We're seeing significant interest in
webTRAIN as a platform and we continue to enjoy new clients and new projects.