This week, Bowdark turned 18 years old. Like most things in life, we wonder where the time has gone and couldn’t help but reflect upon how we got here. Although we try not to make this blog about ourselves, perhaps a look behind the curtain might help our customers understand a little bit more about who we are and what we’re about.

Humble Beginnings

Andrea Wood and I started Bowdark together back in 2006. Like many young entrepreneurs, about the only thing we had day one was a vision: we wanted to bring that honest, small business, roll-up-our-sleeves-and-get-to-work style approach to consulting. Like Don Quixote, we were on a mission to civilize (and digitize). So, we bet on ourselves and took a huge leap while wondering where our next paycheck might be coming from.

Pigeonholing: Who is Bow-dark?

As you might expect, our naive little journey was fraught with peril — especially in the early days. One thing you should know about Bowdark is that we’re stubborn.

While many mentors strongly recommended that we find an area to specialize in, we’ve always felt that we have so much more to offer our customers and that it would be a disservice to not share our knowledge in a broader sense. In many ways, our secret sauce has always been our ability to see the bigger picture and look across the enterprise landscape to build more holistic solutions.

At the end of the day, we’d like to think that we were both right. Although it took a while for customers to figure out what to do with us (or pronounce our name), we have been able to connect with customers who share our values and were willing to go on an innovation journey with us.

The Friends We've Made Along the Way

They say that it takes a little bit of luck to find success in business and, in that sense, it’s fair to say that we’re about the luckiest company in the world. If you were to ask what makes Bowdark special, the answer is its people. We’ve been extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to work with some of the best and brightest consultants that bring a real passion for the work. It’s truly been an honor for Andrea and me to get to work with such a special team.

We’ve been equally fortunate to connect with some really great partners and customers over the years. They’ve taken chances on us and given us opportunities to win their business which is all you can ever ask for as a business owner. To everyone that’s given us a chance over the years — thanks for everything!

What's Next

While most 18-year-olds are thinking about playing the lottery or getting a tattoo, we’re going to be staying close to home and continuing to build on the team we’ve put together. Now if we can just avoid those freshmen fifteen…