Nine Years of Team Tito

Doc and I received the certificate of incorporation for Team Tito Limited on the 11th August 2015, a few months before moving in to a new office, and four and a half years after I wrote the first line of code.

That’s 1/3 of my life working on this product.

Ireland’s companies office has a quirk where generic names like "Tito Limited" are tricky to register. Doc had been watching the Tour de France that summer and I had overheard repeated references to "Team Sky", referring I guess to one of the cycling teams. "Team Tito" had a nice ring to it, and so it came to be.

The incorporation led to a number of practical benefits to us in terms of being perceived as serious, but it actually marked a more significant milestone: we were earning enough through fees to cover (modest) full-time salaries for the whole team. Before that, we were doing a mix of contracting work to fill in the gaps. In 2016, we were able to wind down work on everything other than Tito.

A lot has happened since, and we’ve tried this, that and the other approaches, but the primary goal hasn’t really changed: to build a healthy, sustainable, profitable company.

We’re doing pretty well with those goals.

I can’t imagine a more healthy working relationship than the one we’ve found. We’ve figured out a delicate balance of being able to ship quality work on a regular rhythm without burnout. If one of us needs a bit of time to deal with the push and pull of life, we support each other and keep things running.

In terms of sustainability, as we enter our tenth year of incorporation, things are looking good. Apart from during Covid (where usage didn't drop, but fees did, by a lot), our revenues have grown every year since incorporation. We’re an ambitious team and always want to do better, but so far, so good.

Finally, in 2023, we made a profit. Achievement unlocked.

So: what’s next? Fundamentally, it’s to continue serving our values: integrity, excellence, and delight. We’re continuing to improve our core product all the time. Vito didn’t become the massive hit that we had hoped it would, but we’re still proud of what we built, and have some ideas on how to refine it. And last year we started a new project: IO, specifically for invitation-only events.

There’s lots going on: setting us up for a fine 10 year anniversary next year.