Finding Packet - Episode 035 - Jacob Smith

07/08/19 • 84 min

Jacob and I are aligned on a mission to bring sexy back to the infrastructure that runs the brave new digital world we live in. Our conversation covers how he evolved from a 2nd Bassoon in the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia to the CMO and cofounder of a transformational cloud service provider to what it's like running a company with your twin brother to how software is, as he says, "eating the world". Dig in, learn something new, and enjoy! I sure did!

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Episode 034 - Paul Croteau - Stories from an Early Racker

You know those moments when numerous people tell you that you "NEEEED" to talk to someone because they think you'll instantly get along, and then you finally meet the person and, in fact, you discover they were spot on? Well, this episode was one of those moments. Paul is a fascinating character with experience in marketing, sales, sales engineering and... traveling the world creating and playing music for world dignitaries. We cover what it was like watching Rackspace evolve from just a few dozen employees to a few thousand while honing in on the customer first culture that has helped the company scale so fast over the past twenty plus years. I also address Rackspace's shift to adopting a managed public cloud service offering, acquiring Datapipe, and the strategic decision made years ago to focus on Open Stack. Listen and learn folks. Listen. and. Learn.

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Your Data is Getting Safer... Sort of - Episode 036 - Aaron Hughes

Aaron Hughes has spent decades architecting, building and managing various components that make up the internet we all use today. Ever heard of PeeringDB.com? Yeah, that was one of his many "side projects" that was put together in a matter of days because it simply needed to be done and he saw no one else doing it. Since I met the man, he has been a role model of productivity, successfully juggling multiple roles and wearing multiple hats at the same time. His Linkedin Profile says it all to this extent. Thankfully for me, we both worked together when I first started in the industry and we also happened to live just a few minutes down the road from one another in Santa Cruz, CA. Aaron quickly became one of my favorite people to sit back and talk shop with because I always walked away learning something new and, at some point, laughing until I cried. I am blessed to have had so many opportunities to learn, laugh and cry with Aaron and his equally bright and fun loving wife Stacy. I hope you enjoy listening in on our wide ranging conversation. I'll give you a teaser with 2 of my favorite quotes that came out of it; "Yes, there is hope, but this hope is predicated on education." '"Embrace Automation" is the new "Work with your brain and not with your back"' Enjoy!