Timeline
2000
Dave Miller is handed a letter of employment termination and a cardboard box. He vows, “never again,” and starts a website design business. Together with his wife, Sandy, the couple begin building websites in their den that looks out over the back forty. This view gives the company its name.
2001
Back40 Design lands their first big project. Dave and Sandy are contracted to redesign the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. The project is a success and the museum wins an award for Best Website at the Governor’s Council on Tourism.
2002
Dave and Sandy move their business to nearby Shawnee, OK. They hire their first full-time employees and expand their services to include logo and print design for local businesses.
2003
Back40 Design expands into magazine publishing. Local web and print clients underwrite the first issue of the Shawnee Shopper (which eventually is renamed the Shawnee Outlook). Website projects continue to increase as the company’s first full-time PHP programmer is hired.
2004
Trips from Shawnee, OK to Oklahoma City to meet with new website clients increase as do the number Back40 hosted of web projects. Back40 Design’s staff now numbers 6 full-time employees. Dave and Sandy finally take a real vacation.
2005
Back40 Design opens an office in Edmond, OK (just north of Oklahoma City, OK). Dave and Sandy start a second monthly magazine called Edmond Outlook. Back40’s first official project manager is hired on. Work begins on what is to become the proprietary hosted content management system, Javelin CMS.
2006
Back40 Design closes their Shawnee office and moves all operations to the Edmond, OK office. The growing company leases additional office space and hires additional web staff to meet the growing demand for web services. The web team continues work on their proprietary content management system, Javelin CMS.
2007
Dave and Sandy sell the Shawnee Outlook magazine (Shawnee Outlook is still published monthly). An early version of Javelin CMS is released to their clients.
2008
An increase in the number of clients; Back40 wins awards and publishes magazines. Also marking this year is the release of a full version of JavelinCMS.
2009
Back40 moves to new offices in North OKC. They now have a conference room that doesn’t face a restroom. They hire their first dedicated account executive for the web department. The company finally purchases an official “Back40 Design” sign and real office furniture. They migrate their growing hosting services to an off-site data center in Texas. Website hosting clients top 200.
2010
Back40 Design continues to gain local and regional web development clients. They continue streaming improvements to JavelinCMS as website hosting clients top 300. A re-launch of an improved support website for Javelin CMS also occurs this year.
2011
Back40 Design adds a second full-time web designer, project manager, and programmer to the production team. Website hosting clients top 400. The Edmond Outlook magazine enters it 7th year as a second full-time advertising account executive is added.
2012
A new website is launched and some Addy’s are won. So far, so good.