That’s a lot of clients, projects, technologies, ideas, ups, downs, and everything inbetween. It’s pretty crazy how much the web and our industry has changed in that time.
We decided to highlight some of the bigger moments year-by-year, including events related to the web that changed how we operate as a company.
So, journey back in time with us and don’t forget to sign the guestbook! (remember those?)
Kevin Menzie thought it a good day to incorporate. The government disagreed. One does not incorporate a business on a national holiday. Enlightened, Kevin returned to his quaint apartment in Boulder, Colorado and patiently waited for Tuesday to arrive. This was a fairly long wait because in 2001 there was no Facebook or Twitter. Cell phones had virtually no interface, and they certainly did not open web pages and run apps like today (Although Kevin had plans for this).
On February 17, 2001 Slice of Lime officially became a company.
Kevin celebrated by quietly working late into the night on designs for the company’s first client, Veripost, which later merged with Return Path.
Slice of Lime’s first office is a corner of Kevin’s apartment right outside his kitchen. Client meetings are held at the Starbucks down the block.
Kevin gets some business cards and starts attending “First Tuesday.” Little does he know, but this is the first of many events he’ll attend (and eventually sponsor) that bring entrepreneurs and venture capitalists together.
It was time to move out of the corner of the apartment.
After watching every episode of Wings while working from home, Kevin decides to open a real office in Golden, Colorado. He worries that the greasy spoon, “The Old Capitol Grill”, below the office will eventually burn the place down (it eventually does).
Slice of Lime circa 2002. The company was originally focused on mobile app development.
Kevin ventures to the cutting-edge and creates Slice’s first mobile application, You’ve Got Snow, five years before the iPhone was even announced. The app runs on WAP cell phones, Palm Pilots, and Pocket PCs and delivers snow reports and alerts to ski bums.
For some reason, AOL’s You’ve Got Mail lawyers don’t appreciate the name very much. Kevin considers digging in his heels for almost a minute, then decides “Mobile Snow” is a pretty good name too.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5 stars.
Palm’s review of Mobile Snow
from Kevin’s client meeting notes
After the last office burned down, Kevin thought it a good time to move. He lucks into VC firm and incubator, Mobius Venture Capital’s offices in Superior, Colorado. Now he can focus on doing work for Slice’s biggest client, Return Path, who also shares space in the building.
Kevin meets Brad and Daniel Feld at Mobius Venture Capital. Little do they know, but they will both play major roles at Slice of Lime one day.
With the speed at which Slice of Lime is able to churn out quality work, Kevin realizes that there is a nice synergy between his company and the other fast-paced startup companies funded by Mobius Venture Capital. Slice of Lime finally hits its stride and begins to grow.
With the arrival of 2004, Slice of Lime has so much work that it’s becoming difficult to both create websites and to sell the company’s services. Kevin meets up with his buddy, Jeff Rodanski, and over pancakes at Le Peep in Boulder, they shake hands and agree to be business partners. Jeff puts on his Creative Director hat, fires up Photoshop, and begins to kick some serious ass.
Slice lands a project with a small, three person company called Newsgator and learns what this RSS thing is. Newsgator helps solidify its popularity, and the company eventually grows to 99 employees, becoming one of the top technology companies in Colorado.
Slice of Lime wins the Mercury 100 Award for being the 4th Fastest Growing Company in Boulder County with 227% growth. This is a huge accomplishment – little do Jeff and Kevin know, but they will continue to win this award every year.
Companies aren’t looking for brochureware, but a lead generation tool.
Kevin Menzie interviewed in the Boulder Country Business Report in 2004.
Slice of Lime outgrows their “pod” at the Mobius Venture Capital shared office environment. Jeff and Kevin decide to move their office upstream to Boulder. They touchdown at West End Suites, knock down a wall or two, and open the first official Boulder office for Slice of Lime (if you don’t count Kevin’s kitchen in 2001).
Slice of Lime creates the logo and builds the Jibbitz website, which sells little pieces of jewelry that fit in the holes of Crocs. Little do they know it, but in less than a year, Jibbitz will sell over one million Jibbitz, the founders will be featured on Oprah, and Jibbitz will be sold to Crocs for $20MM!
The first Jibbitz website
On top of the startup work, Slice of Lime also starts to pick up work for bigger brands such as Ultimate Electronics, BlueCross BlueShield, and UFC. Jeff and Kevin look at each other and say, “It’s time to hire some more people.”
The team expands to include talented programmer and gamer, Mike Byrd. Mike will eventually grow into a senior member of the Slice team, providing cutting edge front-end experiences for our clients using Flash, JavaScript, and HTML 5. More importantly, Mike provides a constant soundtrack of 80s song excerpts and random comedy quotes from bad movies and SNL skits.
Jeff and Kevin are interviewed about their use of AJAX, a new coding technique that allows for a more fluid experience for the end-user. Just a few short years later, User Interface Design and User Experience (UI/UX) for web applications will become a huge focus for the company.
Slice of Lime builds the SketchUp website, which sells 3D software that is easy enough for anyone to use. Online sales increase by 22%. SketchUp is acquired by Google in the following year.
Slice of Lime takes on an ambitious project called IPY: International Polar Year. The project unifies thousands of scientists throughout over 60 nations as they research the Arctic and Antarctic for two years. The project will be a humongous success and one heck of a way for Slice of Lime to cut their teeth on organizing feature rich, community driven blogs.
We’re leaving together
But still it’s farewell
And maybe we'll come back
To earth, who can tell?
I guess there is no one to blame
We’re leaving ground
Will things ever be the same again?
It’s the final countdown
The final countdown
Six years in, Slice of Lime is collecting a nice portfolio of technology startup companies, many of which the members of the new VC firm, Foundry Group, have also been involved in. The Foundry Group members make an investment in Slice of Lime. Kevin and Jeff do high-fives, put on their best button-up shirts with vertical pinstripes, and dance all night at The Church, knowing they are now directly connected to some of the smartest dudes in the business.
The Foundry Group
If you know me, you know why we made this investment. Kevin and Jeff have been running a nice, small, cash flow positive business. They have been in the good position of having too much demand for their services. They also have built some great frameworks that allow them to do stuff very economically.
After much searching, Slice finds another Mike to hire. The talented designer, Mike Miller is brought on board and will eventually become the Senior Designer at Slice of Lime. His expertise in usability, design, and front-end programming will embody what Slice of Lime is all about.
With all of the work coming in, Jeff and Kevin make sure that everyone is having a blast fulfilling it. Ultimate Frisbee, Rockies games, big holiday parties, and rafting trips get added to the agenda.
A year at Slice of Lime wouldn’t feel quite right without moving offices. Everyone tosses their equipment on office chairs and crosses Broadway to the new office on 1216 Pearl St. The views of the walking mall are nice, the street performers – magical.
Slice of Lime begins to host meet ups for “Boulder Creative Commons”, bringing people together to talk about creativity and the web.
Slice of Lime sponsors a little get together in the rocky mountains called Venture Capital in the Rockies (VCIR) that brings Venture Capitalists and entrepreneurs together to pitch and fund great ideas. The new Venture Capital in the Rockies website and collateral that Slice of Lime produces brings in record attendance. VCIR will continue to outperform itself every year as Slice of Lime stays on as a sponsor.
With a flurry of business in 2008, including large B2B projects for Rally Software and Gold Systems, Kevin and Jeff realize they need more than some scribbles in their notebooks to keep track of projects. After passing a scribble test, the magnificent Lindsay Ternes is hired as Project Manager. After a week, the rest of the company wonders how they were surviving without her.
Continuing their close involvement with the startup scene, Slice gets involved with a brand new idea called “TechStars.” The program will fund 10 companies in Boulder for a summer and give them plenty of advice and support from experienced mentors. TechStars will grow to be the number one startup accelerator in the country with multiple locations and affiliates throughout the world.
By mid-2008, old friend Shane DeRolf had a hit PBS TV Show on his hands called Big Green Rabbit. The show — teaching children about the health and well-being of themselves and the planet with funny cartoons, songs, and dancing — needed a site with interactive games, animation, live action video, sing-a-longs, and dance lessons just like on the show. It was a hit with kids and parents alike, and would go on to be a Webby and Parent’s Choice Award winner, loved by thousands of kids every week.
Slice of Lime begins work on the first of what will eventually be many exhibit websites for The Denver Art Museum. The museum’s willingness to experiment leads to some of Slice of Lime’s finest work including the Embrace! Exhibit (capturing 13 artists working in real time) and The Collective (an artistic social network for local creatives).
Going into 2009 Jeff and Kevin recognize that Slice’s success has been mostly due to long hours and great relationships with local organizations and the community. Future growth will require someone with a strong head for business. They quickly turn to Daniel Feld, who joins the team as partner and COO, ready to streamline operations and fine tune sales initiatives.
Kevin and Jeff stare blankly as Daniel flips open his PC, opens Excel, and starts talking about “projections.”
Meanwhile, culture has taken on a life of its own as employees dash around the office on scooters, battle each other on a magnetic chalkboard, and recognize each other’s hard work using a home-grown “virtual lime giving” web app.
Slice of Lime continues its tradition of sponsoring organizations and speaking at events. In 2009 sponsorships include Wish for Wheels, Podcamp Boulder, WordCamp Denver, TechStars, and Venture Capital in the Rockies. Kevin speaks on the design panel at WordCamp and joins the zombies in the Thriller dance at Podcamp.
Slice of Lime pulls an all-nighter, putting together a pitch for an up and coming probiotic fruit drink company called GoodBelly. They win the business and within a year Slice of Lime has reinvented their website and online campaigns, including The Talking Bellygram in which a bellybutton speaks whatever it hears through your computer’s microphone. GoodBelly’s consumer response is off the charts.
Slice of Lime lands a wonderful project with Etsy, redesigning the user interface for their “Community” section. Kevin, Jeff, and Daniel look at the steady rise of user interface design work they’ve been doing for their client’s web applications and wonder if this will be a trend for the company.
Now a mature company consistently listed as one of the fastest growing and top 10 in the Boulder area, Slice of Lime has a solid business with a proven process. Slice begins expanding to take on bigger and more complicated projects with larger brands like GetSatisfaction, Etsy, International Delight, DISH Network, and King Tut, while steadily increasing skills in web and mobile app development.
Slice of Lime reinvents major consumer messaging and design for DISH Network, clearly distinguishing DISH Network as the better option when compared to their competitors. Slice also works on expanding their brand presence for TV Everywhere, a new way for customers to watch TV on their laptops and mobile devices.
Despite steady growth, the company makes sure to stay connected to the community. Slice of Lime sponsors Startup Weekend Denver and creates the Four Mile Heroes website pro-bono to help raise money for firefighter families the damage done during the devastating wildfires in Colorado.
Slice of Lime teams up with the City of Denver to create the website for the wildly popular King Tut exhibit. The website and exhibit brings in a huge amount of business to both The Denver Art Museum as well as the city’s hotels and restaurants.
With a decade under its belt, Slice of Lime has witnessed gigantic shifts in what it means to create engaging online experiences. With the rise of content management systems, social marketing, search engine optimization, and web apps and mobile apps, the landscape is completely different from what it was 10 years ago in Kevin’s apartment.
Slice of Lime officially introduces a new service for web app and mobile app design, bringing UX and design expertise to projects for GoogleTV, Troy Aikman Fantasy QB, Prediculous, BlipSnips, Envysion, Orbotix, Front & Center, and Aventura.
In early 2011, Kevin is recognized as one of 40 successful CEOs under 40 by the Boulder County Business Report. Not bad for a company that started as a one man operation, working out of a kitchen and local Starbucks in 2001.
We’ve been fortunate to work with such amazing clients, talented employees, steadfast supporters and mentors these past 10 years. We’d like to thank all of you for your business, mentorship, hard work, inspiration and help – it’s been an honor working with each of you and we hope to continue it for the next 10 years!
