Getting Started at Blues: A Message from Our New CEO, Ian Small
I’m Ian Small, and as you may have read in this press release, I’ve recently come aboard Blues as CEO. So, this is a great opportunity to start engaging directly with you – our customers and prospective customers – about what’s happening in the market, the journey you’re on, and how we’re working to help you go even further and even faster.
Ray Ozzie and I were first introduced a couple of years ago by one of Blues’ investors. Since then, we’ve spent a lot of time talking about Ray’s vision for Blues and discussing how our customers are building connected products, embedded intelligence and smart technology. We’ve also spent a lot of time aligning on how advances in AI are going to further enable Blues and our customers to transform their businesses. The stars aligned following Blues’ most recent funding round, and I’m absolutely delighted to be joining Ray and the whole crew as the newest member of the Blues team.
In my first getting-to-know-you meeting at Blues, I was asked what motivates me. Throughout my time in Silicon Valley, it’s been the chance to invent the future. But at Blues, inspired by Ray’s vision, we’re doing something even more meaningful: we are partnering with our customers to invent their future. In early reference calls with customers before I joined (hello again to those I spoke with!), I heard how Blues had helped them overcome challenges in cloud-connecting their products, but what really set the hook for me was finding out how they were creating intelligent new services to change their businesses, and their P&Ls using the data previously trapped in their products.
From the outside, Blues may look like a technology company. But in reality, Blues is a transformation machine. Each customer is using Blues to transform their product category, their line of business, perhaps their entire industry. Tapping our knowledge to develop new services. Integrating our technology to accelerate their future. Leveraging our expertise to navigate their path to production. And ultimately, delivering real, measurable business results.
As I look to the months ahead:
- I see many customers bringing Blues-equipped products to market for the first time, completing their transformation journey from idea to impact. I look forward to working with each of you to make sure your product rollout is successful.
- I see those of you working from prototype stage to production pilot, advancing your transformation journey from hypothesis to proof point. I look forward to working with each of you to ensure your pilot is delivering the value that you expect, and to help you navigate that next big step to product launch.
- And I see some of you just starting your journey. Blues is here to help you get your ideas off the whiteboard and into the market, faster and more cost-effectively than you think possible. Whether you’re a developer, a product owner, or a business leader, please feel free to contact us for a fresh perspective.
“Complexity kills,” Ray reminded himself years ago as he grappled with the challenges of bringing widespread radiation monitoring online near Fukushima – the project that ultimately inspired the founding of Blues. So, he set about eradicating that complexity. Today, Blues delivers an easy-to-implement, flexible, reliable, and secure solution that helps each of you create new business value by augmenting your physical products with new intelligent services.
I think back to my first job in Silicon Valley at Apple, where one of the rallying cries was “Changing the world – one person at a time.” Now that I’m here at Blues, I’m certainly happy to still be changing the world. More than that, I’m incredibly energized by the opportunity to work with you all to help you transform your products, develop new intelligent services, disrupt your industries, and together, change the world – one product at a time.