11/26/24 | Jose Mercado
In 2014, I worked at a startup, and we were in the middle of getting our first real office. Up until that point, we found an existing space, settled in there, worked until we outgrew it, and then scrambled to find another space. For this first real office, I needed help with IT stuff, getting the network dealt with, interacting with a low-voltage vendor, planning wireless, and all the stuff that, frankly, up until that point, a couple of us at the startup just sort of did. But doing those things for 20 people versus 120 or 200 people is quite different, especially in San Francisco, where you have to worry about things like network conflicts with wireless and pipes and old buildings. You really want to make sure you find somebody who kind of knows what they’re doing.
I asked around to try and find vendors, and one of the vendors that came up on the list was EverOps. I had meetings with a lot of the vendors, and I think right away, I was struck by just a sense that the folks at EverOps not only knew what they were doing but had done it before. In the meeting, a couple of my questions were kind of anticipated, and it just gave me a sense that they knew what was ahead. They definitely thought of things that I thought of, and that mademe more comfortable knowing that they would think of things that maybe I didn’t think of myself. I remember feeling very comfortable with them.
Unfortunately, the timing didn’t work out. We had gone back and forth a couple of times, and I think the timing between when we needed to move to the new space and when they had availability just didn’t line up. I mean, I think I probably talked to EverOps on a Tuesday, and a part of me wanted them to show up that following Monday, which was a pretty extreme time crunch, especially if you don’t have an existing relationship with a vendor. So, we ended up going with a different vendor, which was also fine at the time.
The other vendor set up the network, the wireless, and everything was handled professionally with no issues. But as time went on, as a growing company, we had other stuff come up, more than just the day-to-day, run-the-business type stuff. We were thinking of opening another office, and our user base was growing, our product was growing, and the company as a whole was growing. We needed to make sure that we weren’t just doing the run-the-business stuff but also uplifting or evolving our infrastructure to meet our needs. Preferably, we wanted to make sure that the infrastructure was actually leading us where we needed to be. That’s where I noticed some shortcomings in the vendor we originally went with.
I felt that for the future-facing stuff, the other vendor needed more spoon-feeding. I really needed to drive things for stuff to get done, and that started to make me more and more concerned. Given that I was asking for help in domains that I wasn’t necessarily super familiar with, it kind of started making me concerned that not only would they not have ownership, but that they might not point out hurdles or potentially prevent us from going down wrong paths because I was kind of leading them in that area. In contrast, when I reached out to EverOps again, they really made me very comfortable. They indicated that some of the folks there had similar experiences in their previous roles. One of the things they wanted to make sure EverOps provided us with was the same quality of service when it comes to day-to-day operations as well as a future roadmap and growth with the company, making sure they were one step ahead of where their customers needed to be.
I think one of the things that can happen when you’re talking to technical vendors is that you can generally tell if somebody has really done something. It’s pretty clear. You don’t necessarily need to dig super deep on everything. I think the way that people talk about things, the kind of experiences they bring up, and the way they choose to talk about the domain gives you a pretty good sense of whether or not they have done it before and whether they’re up to the task of what you have in front of them. EverOps gave me that impression and continued to do so in that meeting. So, I decided to move forward with them and replace the current vendor we had.
Fortunately, all of my intuition, the little things that I picked up on in the meeting, and my discussions with them, even when I talked to them the first time, turned out to be true. They took over from the other vendor, were very professional in the transition, and took over the day-to-day operations on the IT side pretty seamlessly. It was really a night and day difference between who I had been working with previously and EverOps, especially when it came to the road mapping and future-facing stuff. EverOps showed that they had a good sense of ownership. They asked a lot of questions, were able to anticipate what I might ask or what I might be concerned with, and came up with a plan and a roadmap to solve those things.
Probably about a year after starting to work with EverOps, it was clear that we needed to reimagine and refresh our release infrastructure. A lot of the stuff we were using at that point to develop and promote our releases through pre-staging, pre-production, staging, QA, and then on to production was kind of just enhancements of what had been put together by somebody, maybe in one night. It had worked pretty well, but clearly, the product was getting more sophisticated. We had a data science team with more and more components they wanted in production, so their footprint was increasing. We needed more help there and were hiring for that, but we really weren’t getting the kind of candidates that we wanted. So, having such a positive experience with EverOps, I asked them if they did that kind of work as well, and they had been doing that work. We decided to engage with them in a second contract to help us out there.
The experience with EverOps on the release infrastructure project was very similar to the previous engagement, although the domain was obviously different. The sense of ownership that they took was clear right away. These folks had clearly done this before and were thinking about the problem space. They wanted to be good at it, which is something that I look for when I hire engineers. It went pretty well right off the bat, and things went well from there. EverOps was with that company not only while I was there but even after I had moved on.
I had a medical situation come up and needed major surgery. I spent several months at my last company trying to replace myself basically. I had a VP of Engineering working under me, and together, we worked on a plan to make sure that when I was out for a substantial period of time, everything was taken care of. I also worked with other folks on the leadership team to take on some of my responsibilities there as well. Then, I had my surgery and was out for a substantial period of time. When I came back, I really thought about what I would do and how I would contribute. I realized that I had fallen out of sync with the company. I had been there for a long time since it started with 15 or 17 people, and at that point, it was almost 200. It was quite a different place, and during the time that I was gone, I didn’t feel in step with them anymore. That naturally leads you to think of what else you might want to do and what your options are.
Given the rapport that I had developed with EverOps, I reached out to Chris, one of the founders and owners of EverOps. She had a lot of connections, so I reached out to her, laying out my situation and asking if she knew of any positions. She did help me and made some introductions, which went well. However she also indicated that she was looking for a technology leader at EverOps. The type of DevOps work they were doing for me, which I had hired them for about two years prior, was increasing, but they weren’t getting the traction that they wanted. There was also some discomfort on their side because it wasn’t really their wheelhouse. They had sort of taken advantage of some opportunities and got some contracts, and they did well, but they were having trouble with a vision and really thinking about how they could scale that part of the business because it wasn’t a domain that any of them had firsthand experience with. So, I thought I might be a good fit in helping them achieve some of their goals while also helping achieve my own.
The opportunity at EverOps sounded interesting to me. It was an area that I had thought a lot about in my then-current role and previous roles as well. I realized that in thinking about what I was looking for, I tend to look for teams that are passionate about what they do, that have a strong sense of ownership, and that really want to be better and do well at their discipline of choice. That was everyone that I had met at EverOps, not just the leadership team or the folks I had dealt with in an account management context, but everyone really had those attributes, and that led me to join, first, as a consultant.
When I joined EverOps as a consultant, two things happened. I wasn’t necessarily sure where I wanted to land, and I also wasn’t necessarily sure of my capabilities after my surgery recovery. So, I was somewhat of a consultant at first., I did some work with them, joined the team, got to know everyone, and then just decided to stay. I’ve been here since then.
My experience as an EverOps customer has given me firsthand knowledge of what it’s like to be in the customer’s shoes. I deeply understand our customers’ challenges and expectations, and I strive to ensure that our services continue to exceed those expectations. By leveraging my unique perspective, I can drive initiatives that enhance our offerings and deliver even greater value to our customers.
I believe EverOps is well-positioned to be a long-term strategic partner for businesses navigating the ever-changing IT landscape. Our focus on proactive support, strategic guidance, and continuous innovation enables us to stay ahead of the curve and provide our customers with the solutions they need to thrive. By investing in our talent and technology, we aim to be the go-to partner for businesses seeking to optimize their IT infrastructure and drive growth. I’m excited to be part of a company that truly values customer success and has a proven track record of delivering results.