Our Startup Story
	One thing I learned in 22 years of doing GIS software was that the people who manage small towns wear a lot of hats and they don't have time to become GIS experts. So at the end of 2015 I set out to develop a new GIS system on the bet that there was a large audience of people just looking for something simple.
	Initial development was slow at only one day a week while still having to do consulting to pay the bills. At that rate I estimated it was going to take forever to build this new service and I feared I would lose my excitement. But then an unexpected event interupted my consulting work for several weeks leaving me with no choice but to put all of my time into Diamond Maps for a steady month. The result was version one ready for the first customer.
	Three Good Decisions Out Of The Gate The first key to this new venture was the decision to use Google Maps as our backdrop. Prior to this, my peers and I in the GIS industry had dismissed Google Maps and all its popularity as a toy. But as we were in denial, Google Maps grew more accurate, more current, and more familiar to millions of people. Partnering with Google to provide our customers with a rich and familiar starting point was the best decision we made.
	A second key to this venture, from the beginning, was the decision to focus solely on one industry. GIS has all kinds of application and I knew what it was like to be pulled in many directions. This time around the goal was to do just one thing and do it well. In my case, that one thing was to serve the mapping needs of the sewer and water industry.
	A final key to our venture was not planned at all but rather stumbled upon. And that was our adoption by "Rural Water". The first few months of the launch were scary wondering if anyone would believe in our idea. Our validation came when state rural water associations across the county started recommending us to their members. I have come to love the people at these state associations and never dreamed I would find a group that shared my desire to serve small communities.
	2017 Fast forward to the end of 2017 and we had 150 customers with a steady growth of 10% per month. As hoped for, many of these were first time GIS users who were using their new-found skills to map their systems. But undexpectedly, many of these customers were already established GIS users who were switching to Diamond Maps. As it turned out, they wanted something simpler also. But more than the growth, the most satisfying thing is to see how engaged the customers are with the software as they use it every day.
	2018 My chief personal goal for this business is to bring glory to God by treating everyone the way I would want to be treated in every situation. The software-as-a-service business model suits my desire to serve because it requires us to constantly re-earn each customer's business if we hope to make money in the long run. For the near term, we just received $100,000 from investors which should pave the way for more growth and added features in 2018.
	- Ben Hill, founder of DiamondMaps.com
	Story Continued 2020 In 2020 we reached the 500 customer mark with 1,000 active monthly users. We were now in 28 states and got our first Canadian customer. I hired Zach Elliott as full time employee #1 and for the first time ever we had a profitable year.
	2022 In 2022 we passed the 1,000 customer milestone which was suprisingly less eventful than the earlier milestone because the first 500 were ten times harder to get. We were starting to build a brand. With profitability behind us and no pressure from investors to grow at all costs, we decided that it would be much more enjoyable to continue to grow slowly and build a legacy within our niche. One result of that decision was reducing our price to nearly zero for tiny-communities.