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OUR COMPANY
Seven years ago, Gretchen and I began the journey we call Speakeasy. We had been married only one year when we incorporated the company and were joined in its founding and opening by my brother Tyler. Together and with several of our close friends and two units of two by fours, the Speakeasy Cafe was born in June of 1995. Since that time, we have grown into a nationwide company, employing nearly 150 incredibly dedicated and talented individuals. Many of you know us now as Speakeasy Network or 'Speakeasy.NET' (emphasis on NET since we don't own the speakeasy.com domain!), the nationwide provider of Internet services to thousands of residential customers and business clients.
Indeed, we have come a long way since beginning the Cafe in June of 1995. We believe however that without the foundation of the Cafe and the incredible support from individuals such as you, we could never have accomplished what we have in the past two years as Speakeasy Network. The cafe gave us the business training (we grew without outside funding for the first five years), personal growth and of course technical and customer service experience critical to creating the company we know today.
The Speakeasy Cafe was important to our friends, business partners, artists, neighbors and customers, each of you have been so generous with your kind and heartfelt comments. I can't tell you how powerful and meaningful your messages were to us.
Gretchen, Tyler and I have read each of the hundreds of emails from the great Speakeasy community. We hadn't really stopped to realize how large this community had become until the overwhelmingly supportive and sensitive emails began pouring in just hours after the fire. Thank you for giving us a reason to stop, look back and recognize why we are able and how we get the energy to keep growing Speakeasy.
Your wonderful messages have made a tremendous impression on us. Reading them has been not only emotional and cathartic, more importantly reinforces our desire to remain intimately involved with the physical community in which we live. Certainly, your emails are a testimony to the incredible power of the online community we also wish to foster and service through our network.
Speakeasy Cafe was a labor of love we will continue to cherish the incredible memories. We have hope, as many of you do, that we will perhaps find a way to rebuild the Cafe. We are still sorting through the enormous complexity of insurance and numerous agendas of the wide variety of stakeholders involved in this event. As we do, please be assured that your encouragement and warm wishes for the next Speakeasy Cafe will be held closely and remembered fondly by Gretchen, Tyler and myself.
Thank you so, so much.
Sincerely Yours,
Michael, Gretchen and Tyler
P.S. Many of the emails we received are posted (names withheld in most cases for your privacy) at www.speakeasy.net/about/cafe/firemail.php — they are incredible and if you have the time and interest I encourage you to take a minute to read through some of them.
Michael Apgar / President CEO
Gretchen Apgar / Director of Marketing and Design
Tyler Apgar / VP Facilities and Systems
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