Pivots of a Growing Company

Happy Birthday Sospes!

Sospes turned seven years old last week.  I find birthdays and anniversaries to be good times for reflection – where have we come from, where we are going, how has the journey been.  Starting a company is like having kids – if you really understood what you are getting into, you likely wouldn’t do it.  Only ignorance assures the perpetuation of the human race.

The Beginning and the Pivot

When we first began, we imagined that Sospes would be a huge success with little companies as we automated regulatory reporting and eased many compliance tasks.  That got us a collective “ehmph – so what” from the little companies we talked to.  The eminent philosopher Mike Tyson said it best: “Everybody’s got a plan until they get hit in the mouth.” So we pivoted when we found that large companies were very interested in an easy software platform that standardized communication across their employees and locations and eliminated delays in reporting.

Gaining Momentum

Just as we were gaining momentum and in danger of losing our humility, along came an oil price collapse and global pandemic.  One door closes and another opens – virtual work became a thing and hosted EHS software is a great solution when many in-person interactions are restricted.  We managed through the challenges of lockdowns, continuing to learn from our customers and continuing to grow.

And then one day, as if after a long, cold, dark winter, the masks dropped, lockdowns ended, and we all began getting back to something resembling normal work.  We just wrapped up our participation in the Region VI VPPPA annual conference in San Antonio – our first fully live, in-person trade show in nearly three years that actually felt like a fully pre-Covid experience.  It was excellent in all respects!

The Future

From the chaos of the last seven years, Sospes has grown into a responsible adult.  We live our five values of Humility, Commitment, Integrity, Execution Excellence and Continuous Improvement each day.  We treasure our customers and our team members, and most of all we seek to forge meaningful and productive relationships based on shared goals and mutual respect.

We are excited about the next seven years and looking forward to delivering each day on our pledge: Let’s Get Better Together!