Our Story

The Terrapin Networks Story

Terrapin Networks was founded in the summer of 1990 by Timothy Gillen, our current CEO and President.

Tim had a business in the 1980s, and he was an “early adopter” to the computer world in business – in 1985 he purchased his first computer system, an AT&T 6300, which was a “turbo XT” (yes, your cell phone has significantly more processing power!). At some point, Tim had computer problems: his hard drive – a whopping 10MB – failed and needed repair. Tim took the whole kit and kaboodle to the local computer repair place for some help.

Like many of us, this experience didn’t go well. The folks fixing the computer didn’t seem too worked up about it, but to Tim this was major catastrophe: Everything was on the computer, and he couldn’t even run his business. But no matter – he was told (Tim remembers it clearly) “Buddy, we all got problems” and to wait his turn – they’d get it fixed soon enough.

It wasn’t so much the time it took but the obvious fact these computer repair folks just didn’t “get it”, what was involved in needing a computer to run a business. So an idea was started in Tim’s head: If you could take a business mindset to business technology support that could really have some appeal.

Within 18 months that’s just what Tim did: he started Terrapin Computer Company in the summer of 1990. While that may not have made too much sense (at the time he opened Terrapin Tim had never fixed a computer for pay), he did have a genuine knack for computers and he was raised in a family of small business folks, so he got that pretty darn well, too. And…here we are 20 years later. Terrapin Networks has built a loyal and dedicated clientele that just keeps growing.

For further information on our unique way of providing business technology support, please visit our “Why Use Terrapin Networks” page