Last month I signed a milestone agreement for us at Strety (and for me personally). We signed a licensing agreement with EOS Worldwide that grants us the ability / freedom to use their trademarked terms and processes inside our product and in our marketing efforts. Why is this such a milestone? Well, for starters, we became just 1 of 2 organizations who have this agreement (previously, just one organization had an exclusive license for over a year). And if you know any of the history of EOSW & software platforms, you know it’s been a little bit of a roller coaster and now very hard to get a license.
\n","post_body":"Last month I signed a milestone agreement for us at Strety (and for me personally). We signed a licensing agreement with EOS Worldwide that grants us the ability / freedom to use their trademarked terms and processes inside our product and in our marketing efforts. Why is this such a milestone? Well, for starters, we became just 1 of 2 organizations who have this agreement (previously, just one organization had an exclusive license for over a year). And if you know any of the history of EOSW & software platforms, you know it’s been a little bit of a roller coaster and now very hard to get a license.
\nSo…. that's a pretty cool accomplishment itself but not the real reason this was an epic milestone for us. If you keep reading you’ll get to hear about the more emotional journey of mine from being introduced to EOS and becoming a massive fan to now having a company representing the brand as an EOS licensee. This is a 9 year journey of starts, stops, a sold software company, a new software company, good friends, legal actions, and tons of hard work.
\nBrightGauge 2016 - 2019
\nI was first introduced to the Entrepreneurial Operating System® (EOS®) like everyone else because I read the book Traction (back in 2016). I was 6 years into my own software startup (BrightGauge Software) that was gaining serious momentum (dare I say traction). I was 34 years old, so fairly new at the CEO game, and many of our customers were becoming fanatical that EOS was THE WAY to run a small business.
\nAfter a quick read, I instantly fell in love with the concepts, the tools, and especially the simplicity. And like many others after reading the book, I helped “self implement” EOS in a very mediocre way at our growing company. However, even with that mediocre self-implementation, the system brought tremendous calmness, clarity, and confidence to me and our young team. It became a game changer for us internally and how we continued to grow exponentially with calmness.
\nBut of course being a software guy, I thought there should be software for the EOS Model®. So if you were (or are) a BrightGauge customer, you’ve probably seen the goals features and probably even used it a bit. Well that was inspired purely by EOS and me wanting to automate scorecards since we had all the data (we were a dashboard company). But after we shipped that feature in 2017, I knew we hit the limit of where we could take EOS functionality inside of BrightGauge. We just couldn’t shoehorn a bunch of business productivity features into an analytics product; it didn't fit for the user experience.
\nAround 2018 we (including Larry who was our Chief Revenue Officer at BrightGauge) started working on an internal product code named “Strety” (I can’t remember why the name, I blame him). But Strety was to be our internal operating system software for how we ran our business and EOS was the guiding light to help shape its feature sets. Off we went but...
\nIn a twist that even I didn’t expect, Strety barely got off the ground (certainly not commericialized) because my brother and I agreed to sell BrightGauge to Continuum in late 2018, early 2019. Luckily, as part of the deal and a fear of being bored post BrightGauge, we carved out that code base of Strety from the deal itself and we figured we'd make a go at a new startup called “Strety.”
\n2020 - 2023: The Lost Years & Reboot!
\nAfter a year of tinkering with Strety as a standalone company, we all know what happened next. COVID hit and the world shut down. We had just had a monster victory in selling BrightGauge and now the world was now shutting down before we could even launch a commercialized version of Strety. Essentially, the universe was telling me to enjoy post-sale life on the beach (or in the mountains) since we had to wait until the pandemic was over to launch. Larry, who had made the move back to Strety with me around COVID, was going to keep the lights on searching for a plan.
\nFast forward 18 months and Larry Garcia and I were having our usual catch up dinner (he's one of my best friends). And over some wine he said “Hey, I think the market is ready for Strety.” A few bottles of wine later and he convinced me to get back in the game with him and rebuild the original vision: an EOS® inspired software platform built by true software builders and operators, integrated into every day systems.
\nAnd finally in October 2023, after 9 months of work with a stud developer, we officially shipped Strety to the world (well, our world of old BrightGauge customers). Knowing we didn’t have rights to use any EOS terms legally, I reached out to EOSW Visionary/CEO, Mark O’Donnell, to ask if we could get a license. Mark was very kind but also very clear we were not to use any trademarked terms… and that they were under exclusive contract with just one software vendor for the foreseeable future. Understandable too, we were nobodies who hadn’t even launched yet.
\nSo we went to market anyway with a product that was “compatible with EOS®”, had already gotten feature parity with our 7 year old competitors, but just not officially licensed. Market validation was quick but we were fighting a headwind of not being licensed. We forged ahead, winning many customers over and even impressed another Business Operating System (Pinnacle Business Guides) who agreed to partner with us. Off we went… until….
\nSlap on the wrist by my favorite business operating system!
\nThough we were trying our best to be clear that we were just “compatible with EOS®”, we had some unclear language in some ads we were running. The EOSW legal team, rightfully so, sent us a Cease & Desist in mid July of last year. They had every right to and we rectified that language quickly and they agreed we had so all was settled quickly. But that was my low point in this journey. :) Because I’m an EOS fanatic, and didn’t want to seem untrustworthy to them or the community… or misrepresentative in any way. Luckily it was a quick resolution and didn’t slow down our own customer acquisition. But I just didn’t enjoy being on the outside looking in.
\nThe universe rewards those hard workers and good people!
\nWe kept our heads down like always and kept building great features and winning over customers. Even some EOS Implementers™ became raving fans (though we were not official).
\nJust 4 months after that C&D, after 12 months of being live, after 100s (1,000s now) of customers believing in Strety, I got a beautiful email from Mark saying “We’re ready to license to Strety”.
\nWhat an awesome moment!
\nIt took a few months to work out the details but in early January 2025 we signed the agreement and now have an officially licensed version of Strety dedicated to the EOS® community. We can now engage with all EOS Implementers more directly and best of all, we can happily sponsor the EOSW Conference™ in April… one that I am now speaking at.
\nAgain, if you know the EOS software world, you know this license has been a source of difficulty over the years. Some of their software partners went rogue, some died off, and some have started their own coaching services to compete with EOS Worldwide. I don’t blame EOSW for being extra restrictive and protective of their brand though as it shows they are making sure the right people are representing them now. And with this license, I am so happy and proud that they recognized us as ready to represent the brand and help spread the word of how EOS can change businesses and lives for the better.
\nWhat a journey right? It’s awesome. I very much appreciate Larry who brought me back and egged us both on to do what we do best…. building beautiful software, with an amazing group of friends, and helping our customers grow by using EOS (and now EOS® + Strety). It was a 9 year journey to get here and the next 9 will be awesome (and hopefully less tumultuous).
\nThanks for reading!
","rss_summary":"Last month I signed a milestone agreement for us at Strety (and for me personally). We signed a licensing agreement with EOS Worldwide that grants us the ability / freedom to use their trademarked terms and processes inside our product and in our marketing efforts. Why is this such a milestone? Well, for starters, we became just 1 of 2 organizations who have this agreement (previously, just one organization had an exclusive license for over a year). And if you know any of the history of EOSW & software platforms, you know it’s been a little bit of a roller coaster and now very hard to get a license.
\n","tag_ids":[22874361619,26529472054,167738716966],"topic_ids":[22874361619,26529472054,167738716966],"blog_post_schedule_task_uid":null,"blog_publish_to_social_media_task":"DONE_NOT_SENT","blog_publish_instant_email_task_uid":null,"blog_publish_instant_email_campaign_id":null,"blog_publish_instant_email_retry_count":0,"rss_body":"Last month I signed a milestone agreement for us at Strety (and for me personally). We signed a licensing agreement with EOS Worldwide that grants us the ability / freedom to use their trademarked terms and processes inside our product and in our marketing efforts. Why is this such a milestone? Well, for starters, we became just 1 of 2 organizations who have this agreement (previously, just one organization had an exclusive license for over a year). And if you know any of the history of EOSW & software platforms, you know it’s been a little bit of a roller coaster and now very hard to get a license.
\nSo…. that's a pretty cool accomplishment itself but not the real reason this was an epic milestone for us. If you keep reading you’ll get to hear about the more emotional journey of mine from being introduced to EOS and becoming a massive fan to now having a company representing the brand as an EOS licensee. This is a 9 year journey of starts, stops, a sold software company, a new software company, good friends, legal actions, and tons of hard work.
\nBrightGauge 2016 - 2019
\nI was first introduced to the Entrepreneurial Operating System® (EOS®) like everyone else because I read the book Traction (back in 2016). I was 6 years into my own software startup (BrightGauge Software) that was gaining serious momentum (dare I say traction). I was 34 years old, so fairly new at the CEO game, and many of our customers were becoming fanatical that EOS was THE WAY to run a small business.
\nAfter a quick read, I instantly fell in love with the concepts, the tools, and especially the simplicity. And like many others after reading the book, I helped “self implement” EOS in a very mediocre way at our growing company. However, even with that mediocre self-implementation, the system brought tremendous calmness, clarity, and confidence to me and our young team. It became a game changer for us internally and how we continued to grow exponentially with calmness.
\nBut of course being a software guy, I thought there should be software for the EOS Model®. So if you were (or are) a BrightGauge customer, you’ve probably seen the goals features and probably even used it a bit. Well that was inspired purely by EOS and me wanting to automate scorecards since we had all the data (we were a dashboard company). But after we shipped that feature in 2017, I knew we hit the limit of where we could take EOS functionality inside of BrightGauge. We just couldn’t shoehorn a bunch of business productivity features into an analytics product; it didn't fit for the user experience.
\nAround 2018 we (including Larry who was our Chief Revenue Officer at BrightGauge) started working on an internal product code named “Strety” (I can’t remember why the name, I blame him). But Strety was to be our internal operating system software for how we ran our business and EOS was the guiding light to help shape its feature sets. Off we went but...
\nIn a twist that even I didn’t expect, Strety barely got off the ground (certainly not commericialized) because my brother and I agreed to sell BrightGauge to Continuum in late 2018, early 2019. Luckily, as part of the deal and a fear of being bored post BrightGauge, we carved out that code base of Strety from the deal itself and we figured we'd make a go at a new startup called “Strety.”
\n2020 - 2023: The Lost Years & Reboot!
\nAfter a year of tinkering with Strety as a standalone company, we all know what happened next. COVID hit and the world shut down. We had just had a monster victory in selling BrightGauge and now the world was now shutting down before we could even launch a commercialized version of Strety. Essentially, the universe was telling me to enjoy post-sale life on the beach (or in the mountains) since we had to wait until the pandemic was over to launch. Larry, who had made the move back to Strety with me around COVID, was going to keep the lights on searching for a plan.
\nFast forward 18 months and Larry Garcia and I were having our usual catch up dinner (he's one of my best friends). And over some wine he said “Hey, I think the market is ready for Strety.” A few bottles of wine later and he convinced me to get back in the game with him and rebuild the original vision: an EOS® inspired software platform built by true software builders and operators, integrated into every day systems.
\nAnd finally in October 2023, after 9 months of work with a stud developer, we officially shipped Strety to the world (well, our world of old BrightGauge customers). Knowing we didn’t have rights to use any EOS terms legally, I reached out to EOSW Visionary/CEO, Mark O’Donnell, to ask if we could get a license. Mark was very kind but also very clear we were not to use any trademarked terms… and that they were under exclusive contract with just one software vendor for the foreseeable future. Understandable too, we were nobodies who hadn’t even launched yet.
\nSo we went to market anyway with a product that was “compatible with EOS®”, had already gotten feature parity with our 7 year old competitors, but just not officially licensed. Market validation was quick but we were fighting a headwind of not being licensed. We forged ahead, winning many customers over and even impressed another Business Operating System (Pinnacle Business Guides) who agreed to partner with us. Off we went… until….
\nSlap on the wrist by my favorite business operating system!
\nThough we were trying our best to be clear that we were just “compatible with EOS®”, we had some unclear language in some ads we were running. The EOSW legal team, rightfully so, sent us a Cease & Desist in mid July of last year. They had every right to and we rectified that language quickly and they agreed we had so all was settled quickly. But that was my low point in this journey. :) Because I’m an EOS fanatic, and didn’t want to seem untrustworthy to them or the community… or misrepresentative in any way. Luckily it was a quick resolution and didn’t slow down our own customer acquisition. But I just didn’t enjoy being on the outside looking in.
\nThe universe rewards those hard workers and good people!
\nWe kept our heads down like always and kept building great features and winning over customers. Even some EOS Implementers™ became raving fans (though we were not official).
\nJust 4 months after that C&D, after 12 months of being live, after 100s (1,000s now) of customers believing in Strety, I got a beautiful email from Mark saying “We’re ready to license to Strety”.
\nWhat an awesome moment!
\nIt took a few months to work out the details but in early January 2025 we signed the agreement and now have an officially licensed version of Strety dedicated to the EOS® community. We can now engage with all EOS Implementers more directly and best of all, we can happily sponsor the EOSW Conference™ in April… one that I am now speaking at.
\nAgain, if you know the EOS software world, you know this license has been a source of difficulty over the years. Some of their software partners went rogue, some died off, and some have started their own coaching services to compete with EOS Worldwide. I don’t blame EOSW for being extra restrictive and protective of their brand though as it shows they are making sure the right people are representing them now. And with this license, I am so happy and proud that they recognized us as ready to represent the brand and help spread the word of how EOS can change businesses and lives for the better.
\nWhat a journey right? It’s awesome. I very much appreciate Larry who brought me back and egged us both on to do what we do best…. building beautiful software, with an amazing group of friends, and helping our customers grow by using EOS (and now EOS® + Strety). It was a 9 year journey to get here and the next 9 will be awesome (and hopefully less tumultuous).
\nThanks for reading!
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