A Brief History of Our Time

Taylor: We detected several things right away. First, there was a real energetic response from the advertising community--because we were sensing things that they were onto themselves. And also people within big companies--change agents. We'd go out to talk to companies, and we found that the younger, more aggressive people were extremely excited about these ideas--and that the term "fast company" itself was gaining traction.

Webber: We didn't know what was going to happen, and to our credit, we thought we had to run scared for the first two or three years. We didn't think we had solved the puzzle of the universe. But when we did the Mort Meyerson issue on leadership, "The Brand Called You," and "Free Agent Nation," we began to develop reactions from the audience.

Taylor: It was a trip. It felt like everyone was interested in what we had to say.

Novicki: I called down to Al Green's church to see if he would play at RealTime, our reader conference. I thought that if I called Al Green to sing, he would come. That was the thing: We thought we could do whatever we set our minds to.

Webber: But we still were convinced we didn't know what we were doing.

Novicki: Al Green didn't come.

Fast Company published one issue in 1995 and five the following year. It went monthly in 1998. In 1999, it won the National Magazine Award for General Excellence.