A high school buddy and I started Tightrope when I was 19, about 20 years ago. We bootstrapped the company and started out writing whatever software was needed to solve our customers’ problems. Now, Tightrope Media Systems is an industry leader for media delivery systems for Digital Broadcast, Digital Signage and Instant Replay. We never had formal training in running a business which was OK when smaller, but not as the company grew to over 20 employees. With growth, the company struggled with managing both the people and product and to be profitable. We needed help to navigate strategy and to get aligned.

The challenge was to successfully migrate from a “lifestyle company” to be a larger, sustaining and profitable business. MESA gave perspective… both in praise for our growth to-date and insight on our next challenges. Put another way, what likely “stress cracks” would form and how to best address them. MESA did a good job of re-framing issues allowing us to arrive at our own conclusions.

Being paired with a specific mentor whereby the relationship can grow. The mentoring discussions were held in a casual environment with the mentor not telling us what to do but focused on asking the right questions so we could get to the right answers ourselves. This was not like working with a consultant but more like working with an advocate and friend.

The experienced MESA mentors do a great job of challenging your thinking through questioning not telling.

Personal. Actionable. Professional.

I highly recommend other software entrepreneurs work with MESA. It’s really good in helping both you and your business grow.