Letter From Kenny Tomlin, CEO
Wow, time flies! Since our last newsletter we passed our third anniversary and
I can’t believe how quickly those three years have flown by. I remember sitting in
a coffee shop working on a small website the day after leaving my previous job to
begin the process of what has now become Rockfish Interactive. I took a picture that
day that serves as a great reminder of how far we’ve come in just three short years.
About six months after launching Rockfish I delivered a three-point presentation
titled “The Evolution of a Great Company” to our small team outlining what I believed it
would take for us to build Rockfish into the type of company we could all be proud to
work for. With three years of history now, it’s interesting to read back through some
of those early thoughts. We still have a long way to go, but as you can see from the
following I am very optimistic about our progress in such a short period of time.
The Evolution of a Great Company
Good Genetics - Rockfish will be filled with great people
I cannot even begin to tell you how important it has been for our success that we
hired some amazing people so early in our company’s development. Not only did they help
establish the foundation of our success, but also great people attract other great people.
We have grown at an amazing rate and today we have 45 very talented members of the Rockfish team. Occasionally we’ll
make a hiring mistake, but when we do we fix the problem quickly. Our commitment to hiring
self-motivated enthusiasts who love what they do and are always striving to improve has
been the single greatest contributor to our success.
Ability to Adapt - Rockfish will be adaptable and open to change
We understand that technology and marketing is a competitive landscape that rapidly evolves
and changes. From day one we chose to embrace change as a competitive advantage. When Rockfish
started the iPhone was only a rumor, Facebook was basically for college students, and Twitter
was the simple yet brilliant idea yet to be discovered. Today all three of those represent
active parts of our business, along with many other technologies and services that we have
added as core competencies. In addition, we’ve incubated and launched half a dozen new businesses
within Rockfish that continue to challenge and stretch us in new directions.
Survival of the Fittest - Rockfish will never settle for "good enough"
Jim Collins wrote in Good to Great, "The vast majority of companies never become great precisely
because they become quite good." There are many things at Rockfish that we have become very good
at, but if you spend much time around our office I think you’ll quickly realize that we always
believe there’s tons of room for improvement. There’s a healthy sense of restlessness and a
feeling that we remain just one mistake away from catastrophe. The awareness of that keeps us focused and alert
for ways to better serve our customers and improve Rockfish.
There you have it, a very brief glimpse into the DNA of our company and growth over the past
three years. Frankly, I have no idea what Rockfish will look like three years from now. I do know,
however, that when you build an amazing group of driven people that are willing to do whatever it
takes and are never content with the status quo then you create an unstoppable force.
The only downside I’ve discovered in being a part of such a dynamic group is that you blink and three
years have already passed!
Cheers,
Kenny Tomlin, Founder and CEO