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 We hate that glassy-eyed look people get when they use poorly designed software. You shouldn't need a Dummies book to use software. You're no dummy, and you are not the problem. The problem is poorly designed software. So we decided to change that. Software should be simple, obvious, and easy to use. CircleDog is just that. Missionomics is a new part of Mission Research, a software company with just 32 people dedicated to building intuitive, powerful, high-quality, and highly functional software specially for small businesses and nonprofits. Our mission is to support your mission. EMPLOYEES MATTER MOST--MORE THAN CUSTOMERS We're a different kind of company, and it starts in our own offices with people. We believe our employees should all have ownership in our success, so we have a healthy stock option plan. But more important than that, we should all be safe from the fear of financial difficulty created by lack of health insurance, so we pay 100% of employee health insurance, and 90% for their families. As you can imagine, we have a low turnover rate and a high level of employee loyalty. The customer comes first, yes, in theory, and in practice a lot of the time. But if an employee has a crisis at home and there's a customer on the phone with a need, we'll send the employee home and try to help the customer differently. That's good for customers--the better we take care of our employees, the better they can care for customers. CUSTOMERS REALLY MATTER A TON We exist for you and because of you. We put long hours into designing and building software so you don't have to call support. When you do call support, we get you the answers you need. If the software isn't designed well in some parts, we work to improve that. The better the software design, the happier you will be. We pay attention to you and your concerns. If we ever don't, please let us know. We'll try to address the issue the best we can. Because you really do matter--this is your software too. DEDICATION TO POSITIVE SOCIAL IMPACT Two of our founders donated 10% of their stock to what's called a donor-advised fund at a foundation. Our CEO donated 30%. Yeah. Nuts. But from the beginning we've wanted to create something special not just for ourselves, but for our community. We believe in our community. The founding team moved home to Lancaster, PA from Seattle after launching the successful startup ChiliSoft, which sold for $70 million back in 2000. Lancaster is where are friends and families are, so we committed to keeping the company in town where we can be a part of helping the city grow. Family is important to us, and living and working here gives us a chance to stick to our values while building compelling software that helps people. The 5-minute commute is pretty sweet for those of us in the city. The 15-minute commute for those who don't isn't bad either. GROWING GiftWorks Fundraising Software was released in 2004 and now has over 7,000 customers and 700 consultant partners. CircleDog was released in August and is growing fast. CircleDog will soon be on the shelves of major retailers across the country, including J&R, Fry's Electronics, MicroCenter, and the office supply chains. CircleDog is currently sold right here and on over 40 online sites like eBay, Buy.com, and Amazon.com. OUR CUSTOMERS Both of our products serve the little guy, the small business trying to make ends meet. We wanted you to be able to focus more on your work and less on technology, and have some money left over to promote and build your business. We have all kinds of customers--realtors, hotel operators, consultants, even a medical supplier. We ask them why they use CircleDog, and most say these things: it's uncomplicated, easy to use, and affordable. INNOVATION We're working on some advances for the software industry. Our Hybrid Web platform enables desktop to web "mashups" that greatly extend the functionality of the software. For instance, the CircleDog team integrated Facebook profiles with contact records in a simple prototype we'll make available this winter. The GiftWorks team is releasing a new approach to integrated online donations in 2009. USABILITY Sections are on the top. Things you can do for each section are on the left. Help is on the right and follows you where you go--it's context sensitive. Screens are free from clutter and unnecessary icons. You see what you need to see at any given time, instead of all things all the time. Our usability mission: eliminate that glassy-eyed look people get when they use poorly designed software. |
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