What We Stand For

Access

In 1997 when we were brainstorming Blue Collar, we talked about the "Microsoft Mom" which referred to the notion of a woman who had kids and was out of the workforce for a while. She then wanted to come back, was smart as hell, but couldn't make a full time commitment and wanted to be able to work in a flexible way (not always in the office). Back then we recognized that with the low cost of telecommunications, and emerging technology tools, with excellence in decentralized management, we could make that "Microsoft mom" a valuable Blue Collar contributor and help her to minimize the work/quality of life compromise. Another example that we dreamed of was granting access to talented humans who may have a disability which hampers their mobility. Having a decentralized environment and management discipline we could provide access to the disabled in win/win fashion: leveraging the talent where it exists, and allowing the individual to maximize their comfort. Furthermore, we realized that companies that figured out how to succeed with this new workplace early would have an edge in the search for talented individuals, it would be a competitive edge.

The point is that our passion about Blue Collar is not just about writing software programs (products or services), providing networking expertise or any other money-making activity. Our passion is in building an environment which enables talented, hardworking individuals to be successful, in a way that makes sense for their situation and the client (where possible win work that enables individuals to work from home, especially when there is a childcare or disability need). We are passionate about building products that will embody the notion of access from a geographic perspective (ASP model) and be insanely simple to use (make powerful applications accessible to small businesses at an affordable price point) and embody designs to make them accessible to the disabled. When we contribute to charities or volunteer in the community we want our focus to be on giving access to those who may normally be overlooked or may have obstacles not faced by the more fortunate.

The common theme in all of this is that we leverage our technology and management expertise, as well as byproducts of our "Flattening world", to increase access to those looking for employment, to those looking for low cost, powerful products, and to those with disabilities.