Electric is on a mission to make IT easy for small and medium sized businesses. Having recently taken up the position of CTO, I’ve been reflecting on the company’s journey so far, the opportunities that lie ahead, and my vision for this new role.
I first joined Electric in November 2019 as VP of Engineering. The role appealed to me because of the company’s promise and business mission, which I believed could impact every SMB in the U.S. There was – and still is – a huge need in the market for a tool that makes IT visible and accessible to organizations that aren’t ready to build or grow an internal IT team.
The strength of Electric’s executive team was another draw. The company culture was shaped by a forward-thinking mentality and an awareness of the human aspect of our work. I could tell from the outset that inclusion and employee happiness were important here.
At the time, the company was also growing extremely quickly. We were hiring new employees, onboarding new customers, and there was a strong need to build a mature operation that could scale at both the technology and process level. Delivering on those operational needs was work that I enjoyed, and the role was a natural fit.
Added Firepower and New Functionality
In just three years, my department grew from 20 to 120 people, including 85-90 engineers. What started as three small engineering pods is now 12 or 13. With this added firepower, we were able to add innovative functionality to our software across all pillars of IT: hardware and device management, application provisioning, security and compliance, and reporting.
In that time period, my role expanded to oversee Infosec and Internal IT. More recently, Product and Design have also come under my leadership. While this originally happened as a situational necessity, it quickly became part of the work that I found I thoroughly enjoyed. Being able to align Product and Engineering strategically, and work closely with product managers, designers, and researchers proved profound, valuable, and eye-opening. I have always been a product-minded engineer, so to lead both functions is immensely rewarding.
Building the team is something I’m very proud of. Scaling so quickly in a remote environment is a challenge, but we have managed to do so while cultivating a strong culture. In turn, this has fueled incredible technological advancements. Our software today is so much more powerful than it was just three years ago.
My Vision as CTO
My vision as CTO is to deliver IT software for SMBs that makes managing IT so easy, our customers can just about do it themselves. A software product that offers automation at every turn, that provides visibility and recommendations on how to use IT resources efficiently and securely, that allows the right changes to be made with a button click, and that reduces reliance on manual services.
Taking repetitive, busy work off the plates of IT managers allows them to focus on more important aspects of their jobs, and allows IT technicians to troubleshoot complex issues rather than spend their time repeating predictable steps in order to service mundane tasks and requests.
Finally, we plan to offer more insights based on the vast amounts of data we’ve accumulated on IT resource performance, problems and solutions, and risk-reducing infrastructure configuration. Such insights will lead our customers to a better, safer, and more cost-effective IT environment for their businesses.
To those customers, thank you for your trust and support on Electric’s journey so far. I look forward to sharing ongoing releases and updates with you as we continue to make IT easy for you and your team. Here’s to an exciting year ahead!
