What's With Your Company's Name?
As with most great stories, Inflammo’s began long before what would appear to most as the beginning. (Happy early Birthday to us!)
Through hundreds of coffee cups, networking events, and swapping of business cards, the one thing I continue to hear time and time again is: “So tell me about this ‘Inflammo’ – where does that come from?”
What ends up being overly difficult to articulate in this Fido moment I will attempt to now, but in a nutshell, it all started with the “why.”
Approximately 18 months ago I was offered a career opportunity that on paper checked all the boxes: high-growth company, focused on acquisitions, great compensation, a board full of friendly faces from past tenures, high degree of responsibility, etc. There was quite literally (nearly) zero reason not to accept the opportunity. Yet when it came down to making a decision, there was this pause.
This pause befriended me late at night and woke me early in the morning. Not being able to figure it out, this pause was on its way to driving me crazy…until I finally started asking, “Why?” Why am I struggling to say yes to an opportunity that makes so much sense? Why am I even looking for new opportunities to begin with?
Around the same time that this rather intense (and likely long overdue) soul searching took over, I came across some words of wisdom originally spoken by former President Woodrow Wilson:
“You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope & achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.”
Just like that, the previously muddled “why” became clear. And with that, Inflammo was born.
Latin for the word torch, Inflammo is the word from which we derive flammable. While I can’t take credit for finding the name (special shout-out and thanks to the gentleman who can), it was chosen simply for the ability to leverage the Torchbearer’s Creed – “Shadowing thyself to provide light for others.”
Inflammo is nothing more than a mindset. A mindset built on advancing the mission, advancing the ideas, advancing the dreams of others. A mindset built on investing our time, our talent, our treasure to help you in advancing yours. A mindset dedicated to doing what we do well, with people we enjoy doing it with. A mindset that carries the conviction that our commitment to it drives reality toward our vision – a vision of Empowered Partners, building Enriched Communities.
It has been nine months since Inflammo was launched. That’s nine months already defined by the wins, the losses, the ups, the downs, the good days, the bad, feelings of invincibility, and feelings of doubt. While the emotions range and the business model pivots, the “why” remains constant. The why remains Inflammo.
Inflammo provides outsourced accounting and finance solutions to the startup and emerging growth communities. With end-to-end strategic finance offerings, Inflammo is the preferred provider of CFO consulting and back-office accounting services delivered with integrity and sophistication.