About
Our Mission
It is our vision to connect and empower the world through innovative technologies that provide engaging, fun and rewarding social connections, e-commerce and business promotion tools.
Our Story
The founders of ICG started out their humble beginnings as small, local business owners facing many of the cost-prohibitive hurdles and sales and marketing challenges that most small businesses deal with daily. While contemplating the many costly marketing, advertising and web design options, the dream to create a fun and socially engaging platform for individuals and small businesses to connect in a more targeted, cost-effective and meaningful way was born.
Growing the company with like-minded partners is part of our 20/20 vision that we view as one of our essential keys to success. These members are aligned through a common vision: to help start-up companies and small business accelerate their success by providing the most essential support tools at the lowest cost, while providing a fun, creative and socially interactive environment that benefits the world.
Culture
Creating a fun and meaningful work environment that embraces creativity and encourages exploration and innovation is paramount to this company and crucial for attracting and retaining great talent. There is a need for change in the standard business model and ICG is striving to be that change. We are future-focused and see the need in the workplace to bring about more excitement, creativity, and unique individual contribution. The mobile and virtual workspace age is allowing people to make their contributions through unique sources to be liberated from on-site management, punch clocks, set work schedules, commuting and compromising health and family. We want to be the model company that can demonstrate the power of using these new methods of communication to work through.
The attributes that highlight this company’s culture are as follows:
- Streamlined, efficient and smart business processes
- A strong product pipeline to create a self sustaining business
- Encouraging and supporting creativity and innovation
- Having fun, doing meaningful work, and feeling a part of a larger mission
- Individual goals and values are aligned with the company’s goals and values
- Focused on creating high value products and services
“A 2010 study of 1,500 CEOs indicated that leaders rank creativity as the No. 1 leadership attribute needed for prosperity. It’s the one thing that can’t be outsourced; the one thing that’s the lifeblood of sustainable competitive advantage.” – Inc. Magazine, June 2011
Company Growth Strategy
ICG has a number of software products and web design concepts that are currently at different stages of completion. To successfully complete and launch these products and services will require the expertise, drive and dedication of a select group of people that are highly motivated to achieve the same objectives, and desire to be a part of a larger global community building program. This team will be consistently challenged to push through the envelope of what is possible. Through the creation of a partnership based company and designing a fun and rewarding culture, the stage is set to inspire great possibilities that have the potential of being revolutionary as well as highly useful and meaningful.
It is the goal of this company to utilize the lean model in order to be self sustainable and utilize raised funding only as needed to scale the company to advance further development and innovation. A year of pre-development thought and planning has gone into the Gather Quest product to insure we had a solid business and revenue model and could monetize the site immediately upon release.
Innovation
Some of the ways we are striving to promote innovation:
- Proper recognition for novel and value added contributions: rewarding through new opportunities, payment increases, perks, bonuses and/or promotion
- Embracing unique self-expression and inspiring confidence through acceptance
- Providing a supportive and safe environment for encouraging creative risk
- Encouraging truth and honesty and openness to feedback
- Understanding that failures and mistakes are a part of the journey
- Always open to learning and exploring new approaches (working to get unstuck)
- Creating a supportive environment, which encourages professional and personal development
- Embracing diversity and a sense of global community to inspire the searching out of new ideas and opportunities globally
- Working for a greater cause than purely our self interests
Strategic Partnerships
Strategic partnering will be an essential step for supporting key products from development to market with lowered cost and risk, expedite the process, utilize seasoned professionals in the field, and obtain high quality and marketability of ICG products and services. This will be accomplished by identifying key partners that have the web development and Internet marketing skills required to meet this company’s goals. This may also be accomplished through partnering with companies that have an established reach to ICG key markets, strong brand recognition and are open to co-marketing.
Management
ICG is a member-managed company that is currently planning to fill a number of key positions. These positions were identified based on the initial most imperative start-up needs. The needs are: strong website development, graphic design elements, gaming functions, database building, e-commerce solutions, mobile applications, and website marketing. ICG is a member-managed company and offers ownership interests for investors and individual contributors.
The current active members of the company are as follows:
CEO & Lead Architect – Bryan Banta
Chief Strategy Officer – Rich Asay
Business Analyst & Creative Designer – Eric Miller
Lead Game Designer- Trevor Hood
The current open positions are as follows:
Senior Web Application Developer – open position
Front End Developer – open position
Mobile Device Specialist – open position
