When I first met Kyle we had talked about adding a zip line to a treehouse he was building and how cool that would be – this was about 10 years ago during my interview to work with him at Dyn. They were about to move to a new office and what they were going to make it a place that people would want to go to work at every day in ways that were fun, purposeful, and meaningful to the employees. Unexpectedly (for Kyle) I actually had experience in installing zip lines in ropes course and our conversation went on from there.
We never built the zip line, but I did get the job. My experience prior to that point I would say was pretty non-traditional when it came to tech companies (though you could argue that most people who come to tech have pretty non-traditional backgrounds). I had run an environmental outdoor center in central Indiana. I had built ropes courses and facilitated groups on them. I was a summer camp director for 10 years. How was any of that going to translate into working at an internet infrastructure company?
People. Community. Culture.
It turns out that working with people and understanding their problems in an outdoor setting translates pretty well into an online environment. Sure there are a lot more acronyms that depending on who you talk to mean different things, but at the core, it’s helping people and being there for them. Being able to connect with people and understand their needs goes a long way in creating relationships, and is critical in sorting out how to help them. Having that relationship with your customers allows you to anticipate their needs proactively so they can focus their energy elsewhere.
It’s also the reason that I joined York IE. A good majority of the people here I have worked within some capacity over the past 10 years or so, and am excited for the work they (we) are doing. The passion to work with the companies we’ve invested in, the excitement in building out some deep functionality with the Fuel platform, the desire to make a huge impact in the space – this is the type of company and community I want to be a part of and help become something more.
I am excited to join York IE in my role as Customer Support and Documentation Analyst so that I can get to know our customers and what we can do to help them grow as companies, learn how they are looking to use the Fuel platform, and help them with it in their day to day. Building community is important to me, to be able to be a part of the one that is being built around York IE is very exciting, and can’t wait to see it grow.
