Hey mom, I got a job!
How a butler was born.
Well folks, 2010 has been quite a year. Three of my close friends got married, my lil’sis is getting married next month, my best friend is having a baby, and I have decided to leave SabreTech and take a job at OrderedList.
Woh! Wait a second Jon, aren’t you part owner in SabreTech? Indeed I am, but with the news of my departure my business partners have decided to buy me out.
So how did I get to where I’m at now?
First I’d like to take a quick look back. I bought SabreTech in 2005 with Brad Cochran and together we turned it into a profitable and growing business. In 2007 Sam Sallows joined the team and we made him a partner in a little over a year. SabreTech has been growing since we bought it, but the addition of Sam really made things go crazy. SabreTech has grown 400% in 5 years and the rate of growth is increasing.
After my wife and I moved to Indiana in 2007 with the hopes of expanding SabreTech, it quickly became apparent that the economy in Elkhart couldn’t support a second store. To make up for my down time in Indiana I started to really apply myself at software development, learning everything I could. That love of programming took me to a little group that met monthly at Notre Dame to talk about programming (specifically about using Ruby and Rails). At that meeting I met Steve Smith andJohn Nunemaker.
Steve had left Notre Dame to start OrderedList and shortly after I met them John left Notre Dame to join Steve. Over the past couple of years we started to hang out more during work hours (meeting in coffee shops and eventually at their office) and after hours (Notre Dame tailgates, the Super Bowl).
Apparently John and Steve saw something in me that they liked, because they offered me a job, and yesterday my wife and I decided to take it.
That brings us to today, two weeks and one day before my last day of work at SabreTech. I start at OrderedList on December 6th! I’ll be handling customer support for their product Harmony, as well as programming on various projects from SpeakerDeck to client work.
This will be the first time in 10 years that I haven’t been a business owner and have an actual boss (already practicing my “yes boss”). I’m sure it will be an adjustment, but I honestly look forward to having less stress, better hours, and a 20 minute commute (as opposed to 90).
I’m crazy excited to be working with Steve and John, they are two of the smartest people I know, and both love to teach and push their peers to the limit. I’m going to be in an environment where constantly learning new things is a necessity, not just an aspiration.
So yeah, mom, I went and got a job ;)