Building Websites for 5 years in Winter Park

As we prepare to move our team to Altamonte Springs in about 45 days, I wanted to quickly reflect on Caxiam’s first office space. It’s been 5 years since we toured & eventually moved into this quaint space on beautiful South Park Avenue. Our young company was growing rapidly in early 2005, and it was simply time to find office space to accommodate our team & the collaborative environment we were searching for.

This  office will certainly remain in our hearts as our company takes another step in growth. I can’t even begin to explain the foundation we built, technology we established, clients obtained, team members hired & overall process we formulated behind these closed doors. If our company was Nike, the time spent in this office would be like the release of the first Jordan’s back in 1985.

Groundbreaking and forever memorable.

Back in 2005, checking out the space for the 1st time…

What would we have done without Will? What a handyman! He personally put together all of our desk furniture – which was no easy task. Like I’ve always said, our team has mad skillz.

Believe it or not, moving 3 employees into a new office space takes a lot of time. Especially when you pass up professional movers – whatever it took to save a few dollars back then.

The first white board (maybe the most under-appreciated tool at CG) is mounted in the conference room, and the Caxiam dream starts to become a reality…

I think my fondest memory of our first conference room had to come back in 2006. We were kicking off our initial strategy & planning for the Bahamas Electricity Corporation website (www.my-bec.com), and welcomed 7 BEC employees to our office for 2 days of marathon meetings.

As you can see below, the conference room seats comfortably about 4-5 people. 7 BEC members + 3 Caxiam members = lots of body heat. We even had to make a special trip to Office Depot to purchase a couple extra chairs! I can remember distinctly having people sitting in the halfway, onlooking the meeting from over 10 feet away. Ah, fun times!

In this particular case, bigger would have been better, but our meetings were still very productive, project objectives were met and site eventually launched with success!

I remember how proud I felt when these simple vinyl letters were applied to the front door. Maybe you’ve seen this door when walking Park Avenue?

And who could forget the random Culligan jug explosion? That thing fell right off the tank dispenser and 5 gallons of water went everywhere. I mean, everywhere.

Like I said, SO random that is just fell off like that. I mean, there’s really no logical explanation for it.

Or is there…

The Caxiam team back in 2005, shortly after move in. Mike (short-term contractor at the time), Ethan, myself & Will. The dedication and perseverance of this three man crew was the reason we succeeded early on.

Thank you Winter Park for all the great memories these last 5 years! All 7 employees thank you for your hospitality.

Here are some other nods while we’re traveling memory lane:

• Barnies’ 2-for-1 happy hour (Joe & Will started the habit, 2E enthusiastically followed)
• The convenience of having our bank within 100 feet (time saver!)
• Egg Sandwich & Tuna on Pita at Powerhouse Cafe (quick & yum lunch)
• Working & delivering over 75+ websites/applications/internal tools for our clients
• Having the best seat in the house for Winter Park’s Christmas Tree lighting
• The Half-Life gaming (The years where Ethan slipped, Will excelled, newcomer Joe gained respect, Jim continued to hop,  Dave plateaued & Maverick, well, he continued to dominate)
• Having Art Festivals right outside our front door (mmm, funnel cake)
• The 1,697 times we put a client on MUTE while a freight train barrels through the train station
• Outmaneuvering the 3 hour curb parking police (yes, our strategy exceeds the Web)
• The inception of “Salsa Friday”
• …and hiring the best Web team in Central Florida!