Neolab is a software development company, based in Ljubljana, Slovenia. We are a startup, currently employing 5 people. The story started in high school, when Samo Jakše showed me the World Wide Web. As we were a bit technology freaks and knew a bit about programming, we got the idea that doing web pages could mean money. It was garage stuff, which meant we both kept our day jobs and did a few projects on the side.
The idea of having a regular jobs was getting more and more frustrating, and that was also the opinion of Matic Smolkovič, my school friend. After a few drinking sessions we decided we should go for it, and we registered a company. Later on we were joined by Blaž Jelenec, who still didn't graduate because of it (but will!), and the soup was getting warmer and warmer. All we missed was Klemen Tomše, a young student, who blended perfectly with the team, to become one of the smallest and best software companies in this part of Europe.
We do all sorts of software, from Project Management to Customer Relationship Management, from Strategic Planning to Portals and Web. Because we had no godfathers, we didn't have a choice but to go for different projects that came around. This is now turning into one of our greatest competitive advantages.
As we did different projects for different business environments and market segments, we were able to get a good overview of how different companies work. This resulted in a master framework we are developing right now. It is kind of an ERP system, but focused mainly on people, cooperation, team work and other "soft" elements of corporations.
By doing web pages and portals we also got the chance to develop AMS - Application Management System, which is a hard core version of a normal CMS, built to serve complex software with different accesses policies. The second generation is already implemented, and working like a charm.
Looking for other useful features we could use for our software, we intuitively went towards Web 2.0. I like to think that we got a rain check, because we were too young to be a part of the first web bubble business, and the second 2.0 revolution. As it turned out, we are just the right age to understand the old school business, but still get the implications of the newly invented social situation. Covering the gap between Generations X and Y, in technology.
In contrast with Enterprise 2.0, which uses separate Web 2.0 services in corporate context, we build it right into our system, and called it IT 2.0. It looks promising, and hopefully someday somebody big will notice and find use for the huge value add it could represent in large corporations.
In the long term, if we succeed, we will hopefully become something between SAP (business oriented modular software), Google (complexity of logical algorithms) and Apple (user experience gods). That is if we don't kill each other because of our egos and too many ideas, which is simultaneously the best and the worst thing that happened to us. Nevertheless, you should know: Neolab rocks.