What EnLab is Not

On December 9th, 2012 the business entity known as EnLab was born as an LLC. Our beginnings were inauspicious as any other startup or small business. I began this business without much of a clue of what I actually wanted to do other than knowing that I didn’t want to work for anyone else any more.

With that in mind, I began with web development and consulting as a “solo-preneur.” As fate would have it I would end up going down a long path that lead me here and that path was outlined in my previous post, Song of an Entrepreneur’s Soul.

Rather than explaining that path, I want to flash-forward to today. Our company has grown to just under under ten individuals, three of which are founders. The three of us are very proud to have made it this far and it is all due to the vision that we have for the future.

With that being said I have noticed that I find it difficult to share the vision when someone asks the question, “What is EnLab and what do you do?” This question is very direct, but also generalizing. Everyone that asks it follows up my statement with “Oh I get it you’re like X company or Z inc.” My response is always yeah but no. I leave it at that.

However, I’ve had enough of it because people then tend to make assumptions based on that association.

So here is my line in the sand. We won’t continue to be put in a box.

What EnLab is Not

• A Startup. Sure, in a general sense we are. However, we are more in the mold of Jason Fried and DHH’s Basecamp. We share the same vision of building a stable company with those two. EnLab is seen as a holding company in which to place many small bets and seek out investment in the companies we off-shoot from it.
• A SaaS company. While our first product, due to release soon, is web based and a service we will not be put in this box. We won’t be put in any box unless it’s a Tardis. Because that would be cool. We will be building solutions for many platforms. SaaS solutions are traditionally thought of as web services so I refuse to be labeled as such.
• An App Studio. I have often described EnLab as such because it’s easier to understand our model this way. However, we aren’t backed by someone with a lot of money. We are bootstrapped and hungry. Recently I’ve tried to “fork” this term into development studio, but while that’s a perfect fit in terminology it leads us to being put in our last box…
• A Web Development Studio/Company. This one was the last box we’ve been placed in due to the pivot in terminology that I did previously to development studio. While its understandable that someone would think this my reaction was always “*THAT’S WHAT THIS USED TO BE” *in my head. So with all of this going back in forth in description I decided it was better to just say who we are by our name. Even though it is more ambiguous, we are also not placed in one of these boxes. You may be wondering now though…

What is EnLab?

We are a distributed development lab. We have people all around the world working on products together. We are also a holding company for many future startups and products. We are also a place for aspiring entrepreneurs to come and see their ideas to fruition by leveraging our development talents in exchange for a little equity.

We believe that great ideas come from all areas and should be brought to light to change the world. With it being known that this is our direction, we will also not be put in a box on our model. We reserve the right to experiment and try new things. Our name is EnLab because I believe that life is about learning, assessing new data and acting accordingly. One could say life is spent in the lab…or EnLab.

Walt Spence on Twitter

I have a message for the the #startup world. People can keep their unicorns. This economy is driven by tiny empires. pic.twitter.com/2lkcI2rvtN

Do you have innovative ideas? EnLab is always looking. Say hey via email or hit me up on twitter.

A couple of footnotes: I have been seeing and hearing of a lot more talk on the hustle culture as of late and you should read my take on that here. Lastly, thanks to the folks at Basecamp again for being a voice of reason in the crazy and seemingly unsustainable world of startups (Jason Fried, DHH).