The end of 2011 means that the fifth anniversary of Subvert is on the horizon. It's hard to believe that this company is already almost half a decade old. What started as a part-time "hobby" in our spare bedroom has grown into a full-time business that employs two staff and is soon to be supporting another person.

With this milestone in mind, I've put together a walk down memory lane. To make it extra fun, I went through our historical archives and grabbed screenshots from the various Subvert websites that have represented us over the years.

2006

Subvert officially became a company in February 2007, but I registered and started using the domain name subvert.ca in 2006. At the time, I was doing a little bit of consulting on the side while I was working at Aasman, but it was mostly home to just my blog.

2007

When Subvert actually became a real business, I really had no idea of what I wanted the company to become. As a solution, I just threw myself out there. My offer to do anything helped me to figure out what people thought my best skills were and how I could help their organizations. By far, the biggest draw was usability testing and user experience research, something we still do in a major way today.

Here's a photo of my spare bedroom office at the time.

2008 (first year)

This was the year that I got really busy. In between personal websites like Urban Yukon and client websites like Whitehorse Star, I also managed to do a fair amount of work outside the territory for companies in B.C. and Alberta. In doing this, I realized how out of touch I felt with the rest of my industry - being located in Canada's far north will do that to a fella - so I started up a series of blog interviews with agencies and solo developers. This resulted in me making some great contacts and friends.

2009 (second year)

The third year of Subvert saw a lot of huge changes.

On January 1, 2009, I moved from our spare bedroom to an office. I looked a lot of places before I settled on this spot, located right across the street from the Yukon River in downtown Whitehorse. The building was old, but the other tenants and location were great.

At this time, I also chose to switch from using Apple Mac OS X to Microsoft Windows. More and more, I was working with other companies and contractors building Windows or Java-based applications, and OS X was causing too many issues.

In March 2009, my wife and I went to MIX, a Microsoft-sponsored conference aimed at user experience designers and developers. It was at this conference that I decided I didn't want to run Subvert by myself anymore. Not only was I burned out from working too much, but I felt like if I was going to stay interested, I needed to find myself a business partner. Someone who could help move Subvert from just designing applications, software and websites to actually building them.

Well, from the first time that I met him, I knew I'd found him. That person was Mike. We'd worked together on some other projects and we got along great, so we started talking. In October 2009, it became official.

2010 (third year)

In 2010, Mike and I had the privilege of working with some amazing clients, from all over North America, on projects that have really stretched us to learn new things and utilize cutting-edge technologies. From GIS web mapping applications to WPF software and mobile apps to enterprise software, we've been lucky to have designed and built some pretty cool stuff.

Yukono was a website I had dreamed about for years and in February 2010, we made it happen. I'd say that Yukono is what put us on the map, at least locally, when it came to awareness of our company. Now, almost two years later, the website is still going strong and has a vibrant user community behind it.

In October 2010, we moved to our current office; a brand new space atop another Whitehorse historical landmark.

The work and products that we delivered in 2010 started to put us on a new path: bigger, more complex systems with more demanding requirements and features. As such, we tuned up and documented our processes, while also getting more serious in our approach. That didn't mean we lost focus of who we were and where we came from; just that we looked at our world and our clients a little differently.

We also worked on a lot more software and applications than websites during 2010, a pattern that would continue in a greater capacity during 2011.

2011 (fourth year)

This past year has been a transitional one for Subvert. We moved from mostly working for others to making and selling more stuff ourselves. With some help from Yukon College, we built and shipped Flik, our first-ever commercial software product.

Our second software product, this time for Windows Phone, is due to be released in February 2012. I did some initial design work to enter a Microsoft-sponsored contest and we won, so now it's on us to get the app to market in less than two months. Good thing Mike is as brilliant as he is.

In addition to our own products, we also built a few more GIS web mapping applications, some enterprise software and a number of awesome websites. We also helped organize a very successful Yukon Technology conference and delivered a number of WPF applications for clients. We continue to be blessed with great customers and challenging projects.

2012

The past five years has been a wild ride filled with plenty of ups and downs, but such is business (and life, for that matter). To anyone out there looking to start their own company, all I can is this: don't give up. Building something of significance takes time, commitment and, once in a while, brute force, but it will happen if you stick with it.

Looking forward, Mike and I are extremely excited about 2012. Excited about what we'll create, what we'll ship and what we'll learn. From Windows Phone apps and ASP.NET systems to Windows 8 software and ArcGIS applications, we're lining up some cool new stuff. I have a feeling that this year will be our biggest and best yet.

Here's to a great 2012!