In Internet years,
The Foundation is practically an institution by now.
Founded in 1999, the Minneapolis-based company began as a managed IT firm for printers, graphic designers, and architects, and even after 14 years, the focus still remains on creative professionals. In the past decade, the company has blended in other services like project implementation and remote network monitoring, but its laser focus on one industry has made The Foundation a go-to IT resource for creatives.
"The difficulty in that particular industry is that they're increasingly reliant on technology, but many of them don't have time to learn about the technical side," says Matt Woestehoff, Director of Business Development and Operations at The Foundation. "We help them get back to work quickly when a problem comes up."
The company's 14 employees tend to come from creative fields--Woestehoff jokes that he's a "failed designer"--and are passionate about supporting the creative community. In addition to getting clients back on track, The Foundation has also seen an uptick in implementation requests. For example, a creative agency might want to deploy 1,000 iPads in retail stores and set up a dedicated help desk for the effort. Not only can The Foundation take on that task easily, but it can also set up relevant apps and handle technology updates.
Mobile technology efforts like that are driving big growth at the company, which looks forward to adding at least five people to its employee roster over the next year. But even if the firm didn't get a major boost from mobile, there would still be contentment with its founding mission, Woestehoff believes: "We have a purpose, and we can see how our work affects the bigger creative community."
Source: Matt Woestehoff, The Foundation
Writer: Elizabeth Millard