Hi Duane:
You are really wanting me to come clean aren't you
)
Short background about how we met....my ex died and I became a single parent...loads (and I mean loads) of legal expenses in keeping custody of kids away from a couple of members of her family as we weren't together at the time (they were after the estate more than wanting the kids - even went so far as to producing a fake will), plus many, many other expenses in the transition. As a result I was selling off rights to a couple of products to raise money.
My future partner bought one of the rights which meant quite a bit of communication.
It so happened at the time B Myers had recently sold off the software we were using to power our sites and the new owner was throwing the screws to us.
We talked about it and in the conversation we joked we should get our own script done to power just our own sites. And out of that we decided to do it.
When it was partially done I showed it to another person who had been using the same software we had been using to power the sites....he loved it and said we should not keep it to ourselves.
We talked it over and showed it to a couple of more people and they had the same response...and from there it went from development for personal use to development for commercial use.
As I previously said there was a synergy and we both brought to the table complimentary skills. We had discussed what we would need to do the task and it worked out that where one was weak the other was strong.
Here is a kicker for you....our developers....we have never spoken person to person, or met our developers either. They understand English and read and write it proficiently, but as they don't speak it well they requested not to talk in person....so this relationship has endured also for just about 11 years.
Why has it lasted so long? Hmmmm.....
Mutual respect....courtesy....open communication....all things discussed with open minds (no one is ever right or wrong)....willingness to bend if the other has a better way of doing something....pretty much a 50/50 give and take situation.
Pep talks when needed, etc.. We (including developers) have pretty much become an extended family...we know when our kids are having problems or we are having personal problems...we know when the developers family is experiencing upheavals, or illness, or loss....as I said just like an extended family.
As an example of the 50/50....say if a client needs a mod to the software to accomplish something specifically related to their needs.....whomever the request came to initially that person would look at it and decide if and how it could be done from their point of view...then that input would be passed to the other with the other inputting his ideas of how and if it could be implemented...a couple of emails back and forth and if needed a voice to voice discussion of it.
Then, because as you know we aren't coders.....we would send off to the developers what was needed, our ideas on how it should / could be implemented, and asking for their input and ideas regarding the mod needed. I can't remember one time where the developers came back with a no we can't do it.....must comment here that our ideas of how it could work don't always fly but the developers have always found a way to implement it.
Has it been completely smooth sailing ...no...and I hate to admit it but it was me who lost their cool on 3 occasions....but all was worked out within a couple of hours if not minutes.
That's about it in a nutshell.
Cornell