Ellora's Cave is 12!

Ellora's Cave launched on November 28, 2000. We've had a dozen wildly successful years! In celebration, we asked our old timers-- those employees who've been with us for at least two-thirds of our "life"--for some memories of those early days.

Courtney Thomas, now our CFO, and Patty Marks, our CEO, share their recall of the beginning in our first office space. As Courtney explains:

I remember working with Patty at Commerce Drive with the construction workers building walls around us.  We had one computer with dial-up Internet. One extension cord that reached the length of the building so we would have electricity. We used an old credenza that was left in the building by the previous owners as a desk. Every year on my anniversary  (Nov. 17, 2003) I think back to the good days and feel blessed for every day thereafter :)

We've come a long way, baby!

Kendra Rumschlag says her early EC days were smooth. She handled print order and dealt with our printer, LSI.

But stories. My favorites would be when Crystal got her nose ring stuck and we had to help her pull it out. We found a snake in the front office once...and not Patty's snake that later offed himself in his water bowl. My favorite memory was a little after I started when we were separated between two different buildings. [We'd outgrown that original office, so Editorial moved into rented space across the street.] An author had sent Raelene personally a huge basket of chocolates. Well, it came to the main office and we never even looked at the name...just tore into it and ate it. A couple of days later Raelene came over looking for it and we were all so stunned and guilt-ridden that Patty ordered a basket of Godvia for you guys at the other office to apologize.

Patty has her own favorite memories.

We'd get silly. One day, Kendra started typing naughty words into an online dictionary, with the pronunciation help turned on. The words would come out of the computer speaker, and we laughed hysterically--way back then, they seemed a lot more shocking.

I remember when Rich climbed up in the rafters to hide the fart machine above the bathroom.

{Continued on Wednesday and Friday.}