The Making of Cinch Web Services

Our Story

by Bryan Hoffman

2004 – 2006

We should just do this ourselves.

Sometime in the fall of 2006, I was working on a new website for a Studio 2 client. Chris and I had been building sites for a couple of years and though it wasn't the earliest days of the web, design and development was significantly different than what we have today. Most sites were static HTML, but we'd begun dabbling in Flash, PHP and database-driven websites.

On this particular day, I'd been on numerous calls with the customers' web host with a simple request to set up a database with a particular name and password. This host didn't have a control panel that allowed management of the account, so we were forced to call in for any change we'd need. After hanging up yet another unsuccessful interaction, I'd had it. Turning to Chris I had an epiphany.
We should just do this ourselves.

Hosting was Pretty Bad in 2007

Today we're blessed with many great options to host a website. Most of our customers were with what I term 'legacy' hosts — companies that offered hosting from the very beginning of the web. They were big, clunky and expensive. The servers were generally old and slow, but that didn't stop them from charging $300+ a month to host a website.

The other options were companies like GoDaddy, who started offering extremely cheap packages with unlimited everything. This sounded great until you got a site live and observed the poor performance. Slow, laggy and prone to time out. There had to be a better way.

2007

Cinch Was Born

As 2007 rolled around, I was a contract employee of Studio2 but Chris and I decided this new venture warranted its own entity. And so, purely out of frustration with the current hosting options, Cinch was born. We purchased our first server from (then awesome) Media Temple and started hosting websites for the clients we worked with. Cinch was created as a way for us to provide high-quality hosting for our clients, yes — but more importantly — it gave us the power over the technology we provided. We'd never have to call a legacy host to set up a database or an email account again.

That first year provided us with a steep but quick learning curve about the intricacies of setting up and managing a server. Neither one of us had system administration experience, so it was very much a trial by fire and learning on the job. Thankfully the techs at Media Temple were patient and willing to help with any and every question and concern we had. The servers were solid, the support was great and we ran into very few issues those first few years. Little did I know this was only the beginning of our journey...

Once I found WordPress I never looked back.

Hello,WordPress

Since we began building websites together, Chris and I have tried nearly every technology and Content Management System out there (not true - there are too many). After our initial static HTML websites, we tried simple PHP sites, Open Cart, Joomla and at least one too many Expression Engine sites. I had started dabbling in a newer (to me) CMS called WordPress. After some initial hiccups, it quickly became clear that it was a well thought out system and was easy to design and develop for. Once I truly understood the power of WordPress, I never looked back. To this day, I still believe that WordPress is the most powerful and easy to use CMS on the planet.

Since those early days with WordPress we've been pretty much all in, and have learned an absolute ton about it. We've worked with so many different themes and plugins, and have essentially taken a course in PHP development through WordPress. It's this experience that makes Cinch an absolutely invaluable partner for our customers. These years of experience have allowed us to solve nearly every problem thrown our way.

A Move West, Still Together

The fall of 2007 was a busy time for me outside of work. My wife Kari and I had a 9-month-old baby, and we'd come to the conclusion that the mountains were calling. She and I had met skiing in Colorado and our life in Minnesota was never meant to be permanent.

In September, we made the leap and moved our young family to beautiful Park City, Utah. I started my own web design agency, Spigot, and began the satisfying journey of building my own business. And while this was the end of my time with Studio 2, Chris and I would remain a team with Cinch. Over the years as Spigot and Studio 2 have grown, so has Cinch, and we're more diverse than ever with two offices. Our Park City office is affectionately known as Cinch West.

2008 - 2013

The Wonder Years

As the late aughts turned into the early 2010's both Spigot and Studio 2 continued to grow and add new websites to the Cinch servers. Our service remained reliable and a solid value for our customers and they rarely left us. In the competitive web hosting business, this is practically unheard of. Our servers with Media Temple were rock solid and the support remained fantastic. I thought it would never end.

We added more and more clients to our servers and continued to learn and grow with Media Temple. Then in October of 2013 we learned that GoDaddy had aquired Media Temple in order to increase its reputation with web developers. Media Temple enjoyed an extreme amount of trust amongst developers because of the fantastic support and quality servers. GoDaddy has never enjoyed such trust...

Should we be worried?

Given GoDaddy's track record we were rightfully nervous that MT's excellent support would end. Executives at MT assured us all that nothing would change except the ownership. Over the next year, however, that turned out to be an unfortunate exaggeration. We have since moved on to greener pastures to continue to provide our customers with the best WordPress experience available.

Named one of

“10 Best WordPress Support Services Available”

2016, by Elegant Themes

Founders / Leadership Team

Bryan Hoffman

The Supreme leader

Bryan has been around since DOS... just kidding. He has been working with WordPress since the very beginning and was one of the leaders in the movement toward responsive websites.

Chris Opsahl

The guru

Chris is one of those unicorns whose left brain and right brain exist in perfect balance: he's an artist with serious business chops. Chris our well-rounded partner in crime, so to speak.

Kari Moe-Hoffman

The Conductor

Kari keeps the trains on the tracks and running on time – a feat that few others could do with such grace. She handles the day-to-day details so the rest of the team can focus on you.

Utah Foster Care has trusted our Mission-critical sites to Cinch for years. Their personal and professional service is extraordinary.
Christian HarrisonMarketing & Social Media Coordinator

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