Ten years ago today I decided to quit my job.
I remember November 5, 2000 as a day I saw Pearl Jam play Key Arena and decided to quit my job. Right out of college I was a sales rep for what would become Ameriprise Financial.  I realized quickly financial sales was not my calling in life.  The entrepreneurial structure of the business had drawn me in with the opportunity to build my own book of work.  The day to day of the job though especially the cold calls started to do me in.  At some point, probably to avoid picking up the phone, I started thinking about how the business was run. Everything about the job was very manual and completely paper driven.  I began to spend a great deal of time thinking about ways technology could help the organization operate more efficiently.  I’d been obsessed with computers since I was a little kid, but never really linked the interest to career.  I walked into work the next day and quit.  Technology was my passion.

The last 10 years has taken me through software and consulting companies both small and large.  There are pluses and minuses to each but all eventually limited what I wanted to do in one form or another because what I want is to run my own business.

Why Collistic, Why Now
Why not now can be one of the greatest obstacles you can face in life.  In the short time since starting Collistic in the spring the company has grown to include a brand, initial service offerings, a small band of collaborators, and yes clients!

A lot of organizations are challenged by how to build successful technology programs that really add value to customers and employees.  These challenges occur both in product planning and roll-out.  There are many services companies focused in the middle on project execution.  We have expertise there too, but our main focus is helping clients build technology programs that stand the best chance of being widely adopted and successful.

Next Steps
Something is changing about how people want to work.  Namely with the amount of focus work takes in our lives people want more.  Most organizations are struggling as this concept of “more” is individualistic and isn’t static.  The growth of Collistic will be tied to this direction.  Nothing would make me happier than building new partnerships anywhere in the world and never buying central office space or servers. Collistic (collective + holistic) as a company name was chosen with the hope that other unique people would join the organization and shape its path. Collistic may not see the fastest growth as a result, but unique growth is the goal.

I hope you’ll follow us as this story unfolds.

Brook Buchanan
Founder, Collistic