Mindshare is inspired by the past

Not many companies — particularly tech companies — compare their corporate culture to feudal England.

But that's how Richard Hanks and John Sperry think of the ethic they've built at Mindshare Technologies, a Salt Lake-based provider of Web-based customer feedback.

Hanks and Sperry like the medieval analogy of kings, serfs and lords. Kings, they say, are like business people born into money and power through no effort of their own. Serfs, on one hand, are like workers who spend their lives unaware of the value they create for their companies. Lords, on the other hand, were leaders and soldiers in feudal England who received land and a title for their service. At Mindshare, that translates into a culture that expects great commitment from employees but handsomely rewards that commitment.

This culture was put to the test after the company's 2002 founding. Simply put, Mindshare ran out of money. Outside investors might have helped, but Hanks and Sperry were business veterans who had been burned by nervous, post-9/11 investors pulling out of their previous firm.

Instead, Sperry sat down with the 10 employees and asked them to go without pay until Mindshare could get on more solid footing. They agreed, and Mindshare signed deals with a few key clients and took on short-term angel investors.

Putting its faith in its client-neutral software, which is completely Web-based and automated, Mindshare developed clients in a multitude of industries — and eventually paid back the employees and the investors.