Spiceworks

Spiceworks is blazing trails by delivering the world's first and only social business app to connect IT pros with each other and the tech vendors who they buy from.

Founded 2006
201-500 employees
  • Enterprise Software
  • How the IT workday went spicy.

    Over 5 million IT pros. 3,000 tech advertisers… all getting their jobs done in one place. What started in 2006 as “the free IT” revolution has turned into a way of life for many in the IT world. How? Spiceworks is the first place people go to share and find info on all-things-IT… so much so that some tech products are now even built in Spiceworks!

    Every day IT pros and tech vendors use Spiceworks to do their jobs in a truly social way: IT pros manage their networks while interacting directly with other IT pros and tech vendors to decide what to buy. IT pros trust the people, info and brands they meet in Spiceworks. And find Spiceworks more convenient than having to visit multiple media or vendor websites.

    Meanwhile, tech vendors connect with IT buyers where and when their tech offerings are most relevant. And get to build the relationships that buzz and new business are made of. Making it no surprise that Spiceworks is the most well loved vertical IT network among IT pros and marketers alike!. Here’s how we did it.

    The Spark

    They went, they listened… they brought 'em coffee to boot! After in-person visits to often unsung IT pros in Austin, our co-founders had a vision: build an easy-to-use software app to simplify the lives of IT pros - kinda like an “iTunes for IT.” Oh, and make it free. After all, if it worked for Google in the consumer world, why not give it a go in the business world?

    The Name

    In 2006, when we asked IT pros what their favorite IT utility was. They gave us a blank stare (blink-blink)…then complained that IT products were painful to use and that most IT vendors were a bit "blah." Clearly, it was time for someone to spice IT up! We took that inspiration, combined it with our mission to deliver an app that "just works," threw in the notion of people working together to get their jobs done… and voilà – the name “Spiceworks” was born!

    The Momentum

    Spiceworks beta went live in July 2006. Six months later, an IT pro in every country of the world had installed it. Fast forward to today, and over 2000+ new IT pros join Spiceworks each day… connect with over 3,000 tech vendors including Microsoft, Google, Dell and Rackspace…and decide what IT products to buy - during their workday. Talk about relevant product placement, huh? Just one reason why Forbes called us "the future of media." And why so many companies are using Spiceworks as their launch pad.

    The Soul

    Part of why Spiceworks became all the IT rage? It’s what “social” was meant to be: real people interacting with each other…but in a community specific to their job. IT pros get answers (even a few laughs!) from fellow IT pros. And get info from vendors on everything from tech specs to pricing. Vendors get 1:1 feedback and build relationships. And it all happens in one handy place. A place with a soul - where IT pros trust the marketers they meet. And marketers approach IT pros like people, not leads.

    The coolest thing? The free-flow of info in Spiceworks has inspired many small start-ups to use us as a launch pad for new products. Pretty cool, huh?!

    The Tattoo

    Ahhh love. The Beatles and Black Eyed Peas sang about it…but we get showered with it every day! IT pros rave about everything from how we help them do their jobs to how our free-wheelin' style makes ‘em smile. How deep is their love? Deep enough that they proudly refer to themselves as "SpiceHeads"…crowd-sourced an orange T-Rex affectionately known as SpiceRex to represent their might and moxie with tech vendors….have started unofficial Spiceworks blogs and even TATTOOED their bodies in salute to Spiceworks (seriously, we couldn't make this stuff up!).

    But don't take our word for it, see for yourself why SpiceHeads (heart) us. »

    Meet SpiceRex – and see how he saves the IT day in 'Zombie Apocalypse'… and then again in Live and Let Spice (he’s a busy T-Rex). »

    The Team

    So, who makes the spice work? We do! No one joins us just because they want a job. They join because they want to work at Spiceworks. They want to wake up every day inspired to know that what they do – and the unique way they do it – makes a difference. How? By simplifying the way IT pros and marketers gets their work done. And making them smile along the way. It may sound hokie, but it’s what makes our team tick… and inspires us to keep on spicin’ IT up on the daily!

    The Future

    With 1 in 3 of the world’s IT pros, over 3,000 IT brands already in Spiceworks, and new tech products being born in Spiceworks each month… where do we go from here? We keep on keepin’ on. Keep on simplifying the workday for IT pros and marketers everywhere. Keep on delivering new ways to help them do their jobs and exchange info on IT products and services… and keep on doing it in a way that keeps the “soul” of IT going strong. Translation? We keep on spicin’ IT up!

    Tech stack

    Ruby, PhantomJS, Jasmine, SQlite, PostgreSQL, Javascript