Thank you

A few words of thanks as a crazy week comes to an end. It doesn’t end here, this is just me being being grate­ful for what hap­pened so far.

Big day for us at Podio this last Wednes­day: The com­pany I started with a cou­ple of friends in a base­ment got acquired by Cit­rix. Which of course is a big deal. It’s a big deal because our baby is no longer ours and because it can now grow up to do what it was meant to do faster and with much big­ger impact. Which is what you’d want for any baby.

So we’re in a very good mood these days as we join our new fam­ily. The (huge) Cit­rix fam­ily has already proven to be nice and enthu­si­as­tic and best of all: They share our vision on what work should look and feel like in the near future. We’ll con­tinue to work out of Copen­hagen and San Fran­cisco and as I write this I have the plea­sure of look­ing out over our team which has made all this pos­si­ble in a very short time.

It’s been quite a ride and I’m proud and happy to see Podio impact thou­sands of busi­nesses on a daily basis. I feel grate­ful that we man­aged to get all these peo­ple to join us and work hard on get­ting Podio out there. It takes guts and skill to exe­cute on this scale at this pace and I’m happy to know peo­ple that can do that while being a friendly bunch at the same time. Here’s to peo­ple with guts:

Jon and I talk a lot. That’s how it all started. In the early morn­ing, in the late evenings, in the mid­dle of the night. Thanks for want­ing to act on our work vision. Thanks to Andreas for join­ing what was basi­cally an idea on day one, jug­gling thou­sands of tasks respon­si­bly with a level of patience I have yet to see matched by any­one. To Thomas and Ulrik for believ­ing and shar­ing ideas at the right time. Thanks to Kasper for join­ing the talk­ing heads with a no bullshit-attitude that makes all the dif­fer­ence, always. To Tommy for trust­ing us and for work­ing crazy hard with an amaz­ing set of skill and energy. Thanks to Chris­t­ian who had the guts to sign the con­tract while still in the base­ment, on a table built from ply­wood. He’s been run­ning a tight ship with Phil and I con­tinue to be amazed by the qual­ity these guys put into every­thing. I could go on (I’ll spare you). The team has been grow­ing quite a bit by peo­ple quit­ting good jobs around the world to come work with us, all adding their own energy and ideas, tak­ing own­er­ship of Podio and mak­ing it what it is. I’m work­ing with world class devel­op­ers and design­ers, I’m work­ing with peo­ple who put their stud­ies on hold to go full time on Podio, I’m work­ing with a ded­i­cated bunch of guys and girls that I’m proud to call my friends. Best thing: I’ll con­tinue to do just that.

I makes all the dif­fer­ence: From sit­ting below the ground, look­ing at dogs tak­ing a piss on your bike at eye level, strug­gling with the myr­iad of tasks a do-it-all-yourself busi­ness throws at you in those early days, to being sur­rounded by peo­ple doing their thing. The “hire peo­ple bet­ter than you” is totally true. Which of course is no sur­prise, really. I’ve been work­ing with the prod­uct all along, touch­ing pretty much every­thing. Now I work on the prod­uct with a team of very tal­ented design­ers. It feels great. I have great mem­o­ries of mop­ping the floor to Bron­ski Beat, mon­strous spread­sheets, events, par­ties, learn­ing every day at work, doing great releases. Ulti­mately, I’m pas­sion­ate about the prod­uct. I’m thrilled to be able to take it to the next level with this team.

It hap­pens in small incre­ments but I went from com­ing into work being happy to be sit­ting with the boys, know­ing that today we would again be work­ing like crazy, putting prod­uct out there, accom­plish­ing, learn­ing, fight­ing with a smile on our faces … to be com­ing into a big­ger office full of peo­ple I love, know­ing that more cor­ners of the busi­ness was cov­ered. And that we could con­tinue to raise the bar because every­one cared and believed. Hav­ing peo­ple around you that you trust and love makes me happy. Sim­ple as that.

So thank you. To every­one that crossed Podio’s path so far and encour­aged us to keep work­ing, to the mother of my son that put up with more than you could expect from any­one and inspired me more than she knows, to friends and fam­ily for being there. And to the team that I’ll con­tinue to work with. Thanks for believing.

And remem­ber: You ain’t seen noth­ing yet.

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One Response to Thank you

  1. Froda says:

    Thanks Pol­las — THIS is Mega Pol­las! More than 5 years ago we set out on this amaz­ing voy­age and I have enjoyed (almost) all legs of it. I guess few peo­ple know what it means not to get paid for years, while strug­gling to con­vince peo­ple that you got some­thing spe­cial cook­ing, some­thing that is rad­i­cally dif­fer­ent than sta­tus quo. You never got side­tracked and kept your focus and we man­aged to keep the boat on course in those early days, stick­ing to the orig­i­nal vision. I am look­ing for­ward to shap­ing the future of work with you. Upwards and Onwards!