I feel like I should start this blog out with some insightful quote or anecdote about how today I woke up to take on the world. The fact is, that sort of marketing buzz-wordy nonsense isn't me. I'm real me all the time. For instance, right now I'm holed up in Starbucks clutching my still almost-warm tall drip, I'm a little bit chilly, and I think my pants might be a bit too tight these days. So, try and take me at my word as I change subjects.
Mershon Enterprises is a Bakersfield, California software startup. It was founded as a reaction to the business culture in the San Joaquin Valley. When I say that, I'm not just talking about my previous employer; it's hearsay, but I have friends who worked at many other firms and they all share the same stories. Businesses here tend to survive with a persistent mindset of anti-competitive lock-in, fire-fighting as a way of life, and (what I'll kindly coin) "legacy business methodologies" which drive the creative minds to the nearest competitor in a hurry. The engineering firms in particular are have a lot of employee swapping back-and-forth, the technical servicing firms are all struggling to keep up with the ever-changing demands of the larger corporations (Aera, Chevron, Grimmway, and Paramount Farms).
Technology (particularly software) is built on rules of efficiency, order, and transparency. Agile and Scrum are all-the-rage in the tech world, and create great conflict when placed in direct conflict with these "legacy business methodologies". Core concepts like "sprint" become a verb, as in "just sprint through this task so we can handle this other thing that just came up this morning." The role of the Scrum Master gets contested, then slowly eroded away until the Product Owner subsumes the role, and turns the holy trifecta of the daily standup ("What did you do yesterday / What are you doing today / Are you blocked by anything") into a twice-daily hour long pep-talk on the merits of just make it through today and we'll start planning tomorrow how things will be better. The people behind Mershon Enterprises are ready to move on forward from legacy business, and I'm willing to show you how we plan to do that, through this blog (and probably the next).
Mershon Enterprises is not a service company (at least, not in a traditional sense). Service companies traditionally aim to integrate and entangle themselves into your business, and get you comfortable with the idea that you need them but they will always be there to support you. It's a successful business strategy short-term for certain, but the caveat to this approach is it makes their business fully susceptible to the rules of your business. Given time, they are made to follow an amalgamation of all the policies of the larger companies which feed them (yours and your competitor's), until their business model closely resembles a Frankenstein's Monster of all their clients combined. This isn't sustainable beyond a few years, which may explain why some of the business owners of companies like this tend to sell or re-incorporate every 5-10 years.
So how are we different? Mershon Enterprises doesn't want to be entangled with your business; we want to write great, maintainable software, and then get out of your way. True, we chiefly do custom software development in Bakersfield (and surrounding areas) right now. We're doing this to learn the needs of our market first, so we can eventually pivot into building software products. We employ skilled software professionals who understand that the future of business is automation, consolidation, downsizing, and solving the technological problems while leaving the social ones firmly in the hands of capable individuals.
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