Brad Feld, a fairly well known venture capitalist, reminded me of a post he wrote back in 2004 titled, “We Suck Less.” Back in the day (1992), Brad ran a computer consulting company somewhat like Architel, called Feld Technologies. You should read the entire post, but his inspiration was interesting and applicable to Architel:

Inspired – I called a 9 AM company meeting and announced our new motto – “We Suck Less.” I explained to my bewildered team that computer consulting (well – actualy – anything having to do with computers) is difficult, most people suck at it, and we can succeed simply by sucking less than everyone else. This was a lot more palatable, interesting, and achievable then some idealistic and corny mission like “We’ll be the best computer consulting firm on planet earth.” (C’mon – there is no such thing.) Over the next few years, we often set our prospects back on their heals when we told them “Our goal in working with you is to suck less than the last guy that was here” – but after we explained it, had a collective laugh, and re-affirmed that we intended to do our best for them, we often won their business while setting a much more achievable goal and tone.