Mission’s 5th Birthday

Mission turned five this November, and as we enter the holidays, I wanted to reflect on and express gratefulness for our journey as a team to this anniversary. 

In 2016, after exiting my role as CEO of DreamHost, I was studying the public cloud ecosystem, honing in on the emerging need for a new managed services provider that would help companies migrate to the cloud and then continuously manage and optimize their cloud environment. Several companies were already doing this, but I felt their general approach was to offer services based on managing 20th-century IT, not the cloud. So I went out to my investor network and found Great Hill Partners, who were excited by the thesis and agreed to back me as Entrepreneur-in-Residence to refine and validate the vision. After eight months, we incorporated a new company Cloud Platform, Inc. (which became Mission), on November 13, 2017.

Reliam, Stratalux, and G2 had become a part of Mission within six months. We recruited the leadership team, and with a CRO and CMO in place, we created the Mission brand collaboratively. Our vision was to design differentiated cloud management, optimization, and consulting services as agile, flexible, and fast-to-benefit for customers as the cloud itself. Over the next 18 months, we focused on hiring talented cloud engineers and consultants while refining our Managed Cloud and Managed DevOps services. In addition, we focused on building out our sales, marketing, and customer success teams to engage with prospects and customers and guide them to the best services for their needs. 

In 2020 we launched our Mission Cloud One and Cloud Foundation service and became an AWS Premier Partner and the #1 in their Startup and SMB segments in the US. We also achieved the AWS Migration Competency, our sixth AWS Competency designation, further recognizing our proven end-to-end expertise in optimizing AWS migration planning, cost efficiency, security, availability, and performance. We completed the Service Organization Control (SOC) 2 Type II audit, earning the company SOC 2 Type II certification and further proving our effective handling of security availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy of our customers’ data in AWS environments. 

Mission began being regularly recognized and awarded for our thriving workplace culture in 2020. We were named by Built In LA on their 2020 ‘Best Places to Work List’ and selected as one of the Best Places to Work in Los Angeles in the best overall category, best midsize companies to work for, and companies with the best benefits. We continued growing as a company, ending 2020 with nearly 110 employees. 

In 2021, we launched our Mission Cloud Elevate service and were #1 in Partner Originated Opportunities for AWS in the US. To further build out our dedicated data science and engineering practice, we officially launched our Data, Analytics, & Machine Learning Practice for businesses on AWS. We were eager to continue successfully delivering AWS services to customers, achieving AWS Level 1 Managed Security Service Provider Competency Status and the AWS Service Delivery Designation for Amazon Redshift. We also achieved ISO 27001:2013 Certification in 2021, verifying our ongoing information security management system compliance for AWS customers. We continued providing top-tier collaboration, support, and service to our customers, earning a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 80+ for consecutive years. 

As our services and customer base grew, so did our team. We invested in Learning and Professional Development and our Internship Program in late 2021, continuing our commitments to cloud literacy and our core value of being inclusive. Our efforts continued to be recognized, earning us workplace awards such as ranking as the #1 Mid-Sized Company in Los Angeles Business Journal’s 100 Best Places to Work in Los Angeles and the Best Employer by Channel Partner Insight in the 2021 MSP Innovation Awards. Others seemed to agree and were looking to join the Mission team as we ended 2021 with over 200 employees, having started hiring in the Philippines and continuing to grow our team in North and South America. 

Mission continued to earn accolades for our employee experience with Fortune and Great Place to Work, ranking Mission as one of the 2022 Best Medium Workplaces. We continued and expanded partnerships with California State University Channel Islands, Grand Canyon University, and the Metropolitan State University of Denver for our Cloud Literacy Commitment. Since 2021, Mission has sponsored 25 students for cloud upskilling, including training materials and vouchers for the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner certification.

We remain committed to bridging the gap between the demand for cloud skills and certified personnel through our Cloud Literacy Commitment and Cloud Engineering Internship program. In 2022, we hired ten interns, providing opportunities for AWS certification and a viable path to full-time careers in the cloud. 

This year, I had the great honor of being named an Entrepreneur of the Year 2022 Greater Los Angeles Award winner by Ernst & Young and recognized as one of the Most Exceptional Entrepreneurs of 2022 at the Goldman Sachs Builders and Innovators Summit. I am incredibly proud of what we’ve built and how we are continuing to pioneer cloud managed services, and be a leading innovator and partner to AWS. 

2022 has been another strong year of growth while continuously adapting to economic challenges and providing the best for our customers and employees. In May, we expanded our AWS Software Application Development Services by acquiring Dozen Software. 

Throughout the past five years, our team strengthened our culture and the six core values we live by: Focused on Their Mission, Accountability and Action, Strive for Excellence, Be Inclusive, Continuous Growth, and Embrace Life. Mission now has over 300 employees in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil, and the Philippines dedicated to helping over 400 US companies transform their businesses with the power of the cloud. Cheers to all we have accomplished and all that the future holds as we celebrate Mission’s fifth birthday!