a.e. araiza / arizona daily star

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CEO/President

Can you name the following company? It's among the nation's fastest-growing private firms, and it's also one of the city's best places to work.

The answer is simple — or rather, Simpleview Inc.

Launched with only three employees, the multimedia marketing and web-development company now employs roughly 40 and boasts a client retention rate of 99 percent.

Earlier this year, Inc. magazine named Simpleview one of the fastest-growing private companies, ranking it 856th overall and 66th among software enterprises.

There was barely enough time to hang the congratulatory plaque on the wall before the company was chosen as one of the best places to work by judges of Tucson's Wells Fargo Copper Cactus Awards.

The company's casual work environment harks back to the free-wheeling dot-com days of the late '90s, minus the excess that contributed to the era's doom.

There are no video games or plasma-screen TVs in the break room — there's not even really a break room — but employees do enjoy having a laid-back dress code and playing practical jokes on each other.

The origins of Simpleview began in 1991, when Ryan George, Scott Wood and Bill Simpson created 220solutions Inc. Later they merged with Calif.-based cvbTV, founded by Rich Reasons — currently Simpleview's president of marketing and sales.

Simpleview, the brand, was launched earlier this year, and George, Wood and Simpson now serve as chief executive officer, chief operations officer and chief technical officer, respectively.

"Everyone seemed happy to be here," said Alex Lucas, 25, a web developer at Simpleview who joined the company in June.

Elsewhere he had interviewed in Tucson, Lucas said, had offices that resembled nothing more than "a cubicle farm of people."

In 2004, Simpleview's culture had also impressed Ryan Nowak, 29, then an unemployed developer living in Portland, Ore.

"I liked the transparency of the owners. They seemed very grounded," Nowak said, recalling his first interview. Recently promoted to lead developer, he joked, "What they brought me in to do I failed at, but they found a place for me. It was part of their No Developer Left Behind."

At the outset, Wood said, "I didn't have the foresight to establish in my mind what it (the culture) was going to be. We were so busy getting things done, we weren't busy daydreaming and thinking of where we were going to be in five years."

From extended bios on the company's Web site to their participation in strategic planning sessions, employees frequently are the focus at Simpleview.

When 30-year-old Shannon Curtis, a web developer, had a flood in her home that required months of reconstruction and repair, she said both executives and fellow co-workers didn't hesitate finding her places to live and allowing her plenty of time off.

"I really think I work in the best place in Tucson," she said. "Everybody supported me."

Added Nowak, "They do a very good job of taking care of people."