My Visit To The Audentio Team’s Office In Rockford Illinois

Infopro

Active member
While on a 6,000 mile trip around the country recently, I was planned to pass near Chicago and contacted @Mike Creuzer with 24 hours notice to ask if I could drop in, unannounced. :)

I didn't have any open business with Audentio although we have done business together in the past. I've purchased multiple add-ons and styles from them for my forum, and, we worked together on the cPanel forums project a while back too. I've been running my own forums, and have hosted and managed many others as well since 2001 and have been truly impressed with this company and what they're doing.

After having seen, as we all have by now I suppose, photos of the Audentio Team and their new offices, and the timing being just right, I wanted to drop by and take a closer look if I could. I've used the services of many forum related companies over the years and have never witnessed one as successful as Audentio before, I needed to meet this team myself.

The first thing I learned was that they're not actually in Chicago, they're in Rockford, an hour outside of Chicago. I've never been there before, so, didn't let the extra hour of drive time get in the way and off we went.

The second thing I learned was that Audentio has what most any brick and mortar business would be proud to have, location, location, location! They're located at the corners of Main and State streets in Rockford with the address, 2222, on the 2nd floor. How can you do any better than that? The building they're located in is a really nice building too, with plenty of parking!

Third, the Audentio Team are all taller than me (and I'm 5'11").

audentioteam.webp

They've got really nice offices at Audentio, including a game room and a great area to chill with several couches! All work desks are sporting multiple, very large monitors connected to Mac computers and staff share a nice view out the large windows all around the office. I think just about anyone would be happy and proud to work in a place like that.

Starting out like many web-based businesses in a basement somewhere (with no windows, as Mike tells me), this team has gone far and accomplished quite a bit in the time they've been in business.

After meeting each of the team at the office that day (not all staff was there as they've also got multiple remote employees as well) I asked Mike if he had anything that the public has not seen yet that he could show me. He did, I did, and you'll see it soon enough too, I'm sure.

While I can't talk about what I was shown, I can tell you that there's a lot of great new things coming down the pipe from Audentio. This team is very talented and creative, and it shows in everything they do.

The Audentio Team is also very friendly to visitors! I came in on a Friday, late afternoon, and they stuck around to chat with me for a bit when they probably had better things to do. I mean, Rockford, right? ;)

We even shared a nice bottle of wine and a veggie pizza!

Speaking of Rockford, if you ever get there, and you should go at least once, make sure you stop by the bar on State St. with the martini glass on the sign out front, called "On State". I took the sign to mean they had a good martini ("Martinis - On State"), they didn't. And only had 2 martini glasses in the whole bar! I shared my fav martini recipe with them and the manager tells me he's putting it on the drink menu, and getting more martini glasses. They could really use a new sign/logo from Audentio.

Tell 'em Infopro sent you.:p


I've been around forums a long time. And, I've visited some of the vendors I've dealt with online over the years as well. For example, my servers are at Softlayer, and I've visited them. I use cPanel (I also work for cPanel, 7 years, remote) and have visited them in Houston many times. I've never had the chance to visit a forum related company like Audentio before though.

Most of us do business with forum related companies all the time that are most likely home based businesses. IMO, most forum related services/companies don't rise to the level that Audentio has. Thinking about it just now, I can't actually come up with another company name similar that's come so far and done so well, that I can name here. Audentio is a real company with real people and real assets. They're also a really nice, talented group of people that I was happy to meet with. I'm proud to call them my friends.

They're not only doing it right, they're doing right, exceedingly well.

If you're ever in the area of Rockford Illinois, you should drop in and visit them yourself. As far as I know, I'm the very first to drop in on them like this. With that in mind, I wanted to post back to this forum about my experience as many users on this forum are also Audentio customers, like me.

Keep doing what you do, Audentio!

I trust and believe in Audentio and hope to be doing business with them for years to come.
 
Chuck,

As usual, you are too good to us. It was a pleasure speaking and visiting with you and your lovely wife. I don't think I can say I've talked to someone who has been as integrated into the inner-workings of the forum world as yourself. Not just from a commercial perspective, but also as someone who legitimately enjoys using, creating, and building forums with a sincere interest in helping people -- which is what forums are there for!

We are extremely grateful you took that extra hour (whats an extra hour when you've been driving for many days, as your wife says :P) to come visit us. We are quite secluded since we don't work much in the Rockford area, having focused on forums since our conception many years ago. So it was awesome to actually have you come down, definitely the first from the forum world.

Visit us again any time, Chuck. Next time if you're in the area, we'll go to the hidden gems in the area!
 
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