Company History

Company History (and Philosophy)

Moore Good Ideas has an unusual philosophy (aka mission) that is closely linked to the company history. MGI was founded after David was laid off of a LabVIEW consulting job that ended because the company he was working for had a pattern of friction with its customers that predated David’s hiring. David recognized that a consultant’s happiness depends more on having satisfied customers to work with than on squeezing every dollar out of each relationship. As a result, MGI has never been driven by desire for profit or growth, although those things have occurred naturally, but rather by the desire to have enjoyable long-term relationships with satisfied customers. MGI treats its customers and employees as fairly as it knows how, so let’s see where that has led.

After MGI started in 1999, David expected some initial slow going. That plan was put on hold when David landed a contract with Alliant Techsystems (ATK) to work on ground tests of their GEM-60 solid rocket booster, then under development (image at left). After months of long hours, and good results, the test system was finished, and THEN MGI got to have its slow start.

The light workload during 2000 gave David the opportunity to create FAVIs (Find All VIs), a now defunct public index of all free and commercial LabVIEW software. Included in the index was MGI’s own library of free VIs, which is definitely NOT defunct. Because of FAVIs and the free software library, MGI became reasonably well known throughout the LabVIEW community.

MGI continued as a sole proprietorship through 2001, 2002, and 2003. MGI’s biggest customer during this period was again ATK, but David was now working with the Non-Destructive Inspection (NDI) group on ultrasonic scanning systems.

Incorporating

By the end of 2003, MGI had about 20 clients, and more work than David could handle alone. He didn’t want to short change either his customers or his family, so in January of 2004 MGI incorporated and brought on Matthew Harrison. Matt was immediately able to tackle projects independently, with David just as an advisor, so the company took on some of the character of a partnership.

During 2005, 2006, and 2007, MGI kept growing steadily and added three more employees. Each of the three was hired away from National Instruments, creators of LabVIEW. We also opened the first MGI engineering office in 2006 and instituted a weekly “lab meeting” where MGI employees have a chance to hone their skills as we review each others projects and share our insights.

Business was steady for MGI for 2008, 2009, and 2010, despite the economic headwind of a significant recession. For most of that time, MGI had 6 engineers. The recession ended in dramatic fashion for MGI in 2011 as we’ve built up to 8 (so far). We’ve also moved to a new engineering office that can accomodate significant further growth.

Read Write Anything Information

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Powerpoint Presentation on MGI Experience





	Company History (and Philosophy) Moore Good Ideas has an unusual philosophy (aka mission) that is closely linked to the company history. MGI was founded after David was laid off of a LabVIEW consulting job that ended because the company he was working for had a pattern of friction with its customers that predated David’s hiring. David recognized that a consultant’s happiness depends more on having satisfied customers to work with than on squeezing every dollar out of each relationship. As a result, MGI has never been driven by desire for profit or growth, although those things have occurred naturally, but rather by the desire to have enjoyable long-term relationships with satisfied customers. MGI treats its customers and employees as fairly as it knows how, so let’s see where that has led. After MGI started in 1999, David expected some initial slow going. That plan was put on hold when David landed a contract with Alliant Techsystems (ATK) to work on ground tests of their GEM-60 solid rocket booster, then under development (image at left). After months of long hours, and good results, the test system was finished, and THEN MGI got to have its slow start. The light workload during 2000 gave David the opportunity to create FAVIs (Find All VIs), a now defunct public index of all free and commercial LabVIEW software. Included in the index was MGI’s own library of free VIs, which is definitely NOT defunct. Because of FAVIs and the free software library, MGI became reasonably well known throughout the LabVIEW community. MGI continued as a sole proprietorship through 2001, 2002, and 2003. MGI’s biggest customer during this period was again ATK, but David was now working with the Non-Destructive Inspection (NDI) group on ultrasonic scanning systems. Incorporating By the end of 2003, MGI had about 20 clients, and more work than David could handle alone. He didn’t want to short change either his customers or his family, so in January of 2004 MGI incorporated and brought on Matthew Harrison. Matt was immediately able to tackle projects independently, with David just as an advisor, so the company took on some of the character of a partnership. During 2005, 2006, and 2007, MGI kept growing steadily and added three more employees. Each of the three was hired away from National Instruments, creators of LabVIEW. We also opened the first MGI engineering office in 2006 and instituted a weekly “lab meeting” where MGI employees have a chance to hone their skills as we review each others projects and share our insights. Business was steady for MGI for 2008, 2009, and 2010, despite the economic headwind of a significant recession. For most of that time, MGI had 6 engineers. The recession ended in dramatic fashion for MGI in 2011 as we’ve built up to 8 (so far). We’ve also moved to a new engineering office that can accomodate significant further growth.