Meet the Resellers: Iceland
By: OpenSRS Team on October 24th, 2008
Posted in: Partners and Resellers
Tags: Meet the Resellers
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Inspired in part by RoadBurn, the road trip taken by three of the guys from Freshbooks this past spring, I decided to combine pleasure with business by dropping in to see some of our resellers while on vacation in Iceland. The nice part about Iceland is that, with a population of just over 300,000, it was easy to gather all of our Icelandic resellers around one table. We met up at Hressingarskálinn, a cozy Reykjavik café that transforms itself each night into a hip bar.
Co-founder of Vortex Internet, one of Iceland’s oldest ISPs, Sigurdur is responsible for data acquisition and quality for Teris, a financial software company. He also works as an independent Java developer and is the IT consultant and CFO for Thumalina, a children’s clothing store owned by him and his wife. All this is in addition to his responsibilities running Darval Solutions Ltd., a provider of “organic technology solutions” to companies in Iceland and the UK.
Founders of IO, a web development company whose clients have included many of Iceland’s most prestigious corporations, Fannar and Jón Dal use the latest in open source web technologies to build robust e-commerce web sites. IO has grown quickly and is now looking to expand its reach into the international market.
Meeting Siggi, Fannar and Jón Dal reminded me of a few great truths about working in the Internet business. First, that no matter where you go in the world, geeks all speak the same language. Second, and perhaps with more meaning, the Internet has connected us in a way that no other technology has been able to do, enabling anyone, from the freelance Java developer to the two-man web development shop, to do business all around the world, just like the big transnational corporations.
Iceland has been in the news recently because of the collapse of its banks, and the resulting economic mayhem is hitting small businesses like Siggi, Fannar and Jón Dal’s particularly hard. Being able to do business beyond their own borders is a lifeline in times like these.
I truly enjoyed meeting Siggi, Fannar and Jón Dal and gaining some insights into their business. I can’t wait to meet more of our resellers. Now, I’m off to talk to the boss about paying for some flights to far flung places. The Bahamas might be a nice break from our Canadian winters.