I have been fortunate enough to have spent my entire career with a product and domain that I care strongly about. While still a student, I started developing a software which could help businesses offer good customer service. Having worked part-time in the support department for an ISP, I had some thoughts on what such a system should offer. Together with some former colleagues we started the company eJournal AS in 1998 and started selling the software under the same name. We ate pasta and lived cheap, and after a few months we sold our first copy in exchange for a used desktop computer.
By the change of the millennium we had grown to approximately 10 people and had a small but growing business. By 2005 we were 20 people and enjoyed solid profit margins. In 2007 eJournal AS was acquired by SuperOffice ASA, the maker of SuperOffice CRM. We have afterwards merged our two solutions to become a complete CRM platform, managing Marketing, Sales and Customer Service processes. Today, I am proud to say that tens of thousands of users are using our software to offer their customers better service.
My position has always been deeply involved with the product and its users. As the product manager and a developer, I get to meet with partners, prospects and customers, get input on challenges and possibilities, discuss technical solutions with my colleagues, implement functionality in our software, and see it work.
In January 2019, Stian and I started Kodesentralen AS. We offer custom software development and integrations, mostly related to SuperOffice CRM.