I’ve decided to move all full time staff to a 4 day week until 8/31, following the example set by
@dhh
. These are not normal times and my staff need appropriate rest so they can focus more fully. I encourage other
#tech
leaders to do the same.
#shopify
#bigcommerce
#magento
When this pandemic is over I’m going to hold the ‘ecommerce' party of all parties in Austin.
It’s going to be a multi-platform multi-day event, trust me you will want to come across for it. No sales pitches. Just hugs, craft beer, champagne, live music and lots of BBQ!
Don’t ever lie down.
Never.
Today is a good day. We finally did it.
Bootstrapped, proud, and with integrity - we care about our customers, and they in turn care about us. Build a great product and people do come.
I stand tall as a female in tech.
Feed me no favors.
I may not have your accent, your upbringing, or your connections.
But I am more than capable. Never underestimate me.
So I’ve decided to cut back significantly on conferences next year. After 10 years of heavy travel I would like to spend more time with my teenage kids before this window closes. And more time on the biz, staff, & indeed myself.
My apologies in advance, I hope people understand.
Roles I’m hiring for…………
- Head of Partnerships
- Head of CS
- Junior Marketing
- Senior Marketing
- Dev Lead
- 1 or 2x Engineers
- Senior Partnerships
- 2x CS
- Onboarding Engineer
- 2x Sales
Help required……..
We just had our US permanent residency issued.
Its a great day.
Moving to the US was primarily about allowing me to spend more time with my children in the evenings/weekends & thankfully that has been (largely) achieved.
I’ll still be supporting England in the footy tho!
My son is starting at
@ShipperHQ
- he has taken a gap year to come work as an engineering intern.
It’s scary. He was 3 when I started this business.
Wish me luck. And him! Grateful to my engineering team for taking him under their wing.
I’m not sure people realise this:
- 99% of the magento ecosystem isn’t on twitter
- 99% of them don’t attend events
- Of those on twitter 0.1% are tweeting.
I deal with the magento ecosystem. The people with biggest voices today don’t represent the ecosystem. Not even me tbh.
The real owner of our award -
@chelrieton
- head of our Customer Service team and also was running company this last week whilst we were at
#MagentoImagine
- this one is for your desk Chelsea and your team - well done!!
#onwards
Just want to give a huge thanks to everyone but especially
@brittanycarnes
and her events team - woman you rocked it, great event organisation.
If you don’t know Brittany let me just say one of the most genuine people in this ecosystem. Take care.
#MagentoImagine
I developed my first
#ecommerce
app back in 2008 and gave it away for free.
My kids were 1&3 and I still had a full time job in London. I now live in Austin, TX and run what I believe is the largest
#bootstrapped
and zero financed
#saas
solve (even from me) in the space.
As part of our commitment to the future of
#Magento
and
#AdobeCommerce
and this ecosystem we are donating 25k to the
#MagentoAssociation
with the specific request it is used to build a landing site for Magento and provide educational resources for merchants.
Separately we are
Well last night was fun.
I’d say that party was as good, if not better than any
#magentoImagine
legendary parties. What a venue, what a band!
Thanks to the Magento events team, you are awesome!
#mleu
Monday advice to
@magento
community - Go follow 3 women from the ecosystem. You might be surprised what you learn.
If you are a female dev/techy and agree like this tweet and guys can find you. Lets move the needle people.
#magento
#realmagento
#whocaresmagento
I felt this
#magentoImagine
- more than any other - that people were just that, people. Very little cliques going on, much more ‘cross-polenation’, wonderful share of both ideas and personalities. Beautiful inclusive community.
Back in 2013 we decided to move from UK to the USA to further the business and build
@ShipperHQ
. It took me 2 years to persuade my husband to do this, he did not want to move.
The reason for move? 50% of my business was in the states and I was left holding it when the UK staff
I honestly don’t know how
@benmarks
manages to do so much travel. Kudos to him for all his efforts in this ecosystem, I know that above all he has the community’s best interest in his heart always. Thanks for being there for us Ben.
This is an 86 year old woman whose primary goal here is to make us all think about how to be fair, how to accept people of all walks of life,genders & ages, they all have something to offer. If only we listen, and listen hard to her words of wisdom born from a long career
#MLEU
Not sure why the need for some
#ecommerce
folks to be so anti each other literally just because of platform choices. All on the same team here people, time to turn down the toxic BS and work for merchants. Together IMO we are stronger.
Life isn’t always as easy as we pretend or perceive on social media.
For those who have experienced challenges in 2017 my best wishes go out to you.
I hope 2018 brings peace, joy and good fortune.
The rest can carry on with your smug attitudes!
Just introduced 8-1pm Friday working at
@ShipperHQ
company wide - will review end April see if it’s working.
People don’t want happy hours on zoom calls, they want downtime with family. Leaders these are still not normal times, please react accordingly.
There are (sometimes) many good aspects of being a
#ceo
/sole founder of a
#bootstrapped
company.
But trust me true downtime doesn’t exist. And ‘fame’ will not fuel you.
You live, you breathe, you lead, you work. This is business. Always. And it’s damn painful.
We now have 159 ecommerce people helping from across
#bigcommerce
#magento
#Shopify
ecosystems to get a site going for tomorrow.
I am missing leaders and PMs, marketing and PR people - please can you DM me and I will add you
It’s hard being a single founder CEO of a bootstrapped company, and secretly sometimes I think I can’t do it alone.
I’ve learned this week I’m not alone at all, my team is walking right next to me and in many cases in front.
#humbled
#team
#thankYou
Okay unfollowed/muted on twitter:
- 95% news accounts
- overachievers
- investor talk
- serious people
- stuff & people no longer into
- stuff thought should be into but arent
- anything remotely depressing
- web3 debates
Looking good. Quiet. Lol.
Had 2 CEO merchants talking to me personally today (on a weekend) about their ecommerce platform choices, asking for advice. Anyone who doesn’t think tech partners are involved in platform decisions is incorrectly informed big time.
As an older female at this conference I feel obliged to remind all people to politely:
- Stay professional
- Appreciate this is not a nightclub
- Realise your ‘harmless’ banter re/to women are actually making women feel unsafe and insecure
#magentoImagine
Today I was a:
- CEO (biz meeting London)
- tech architect (cab/cafe)
- friend (twickenham)
- peer (whatsapp ceo chat)
- mentor (client covent garden)
- boss (slack)
- wife and mother
Oh and I was annoying on twitter.
#dayInTheLife
If you are a
#womenInTech
I have single piece of advice.
Never under estimate yourself, and walk away from those that under estimate you.
Always.
#onwards
I believe
@ShipperHQ
is the largest independently owned non-financed app provider in the
@Shopify
@Magento
and
@BigCommerce
ecosystem.
Tell me I’m wrong. Would love to find others.
It’s time to celebrate independent companies more, and their staff. I’m here to blow that trumpet
I told my 14 year son this yesterday. Just be you. You is good. Get over people liking/disliking, it’s better to live and love, it’s better to win and lose than never play at all. Toss those dice, step up, play, be here and now. Relish you, the issues the struggles. Be present.
Submitted a talk proposal for my favorite Magento developer conference
@MageTitans
I hope to be back yet again!
However, I would understand if they decide it's time to give the old timer some rest and give another speaker the slot.
When I moved to America 5 years back one of my ‘life goals’ was to buy a 5th Wheeler.
Today we picked it up, my husband is prob going to kill me tonight as I think its a little stressful driving :)
#workLifeBalance
#dreams
A few weeks back I asked for this video to be made.
Not to look to the past. But to share a story that hopefully leads us to the future. A future that is connected not by tech, but by people.
#magento
#magentoImagine
#ecommerce
#adobeCommerce
I find if I stand still at a conf evening event I get people telling me their stories, their dreams, their worries their joys, and all in between. It’s extremely humbling to listen to, I’m very privileged to do the job I do. Thanks for taking the time to talk to me.
Yesterdays job - test driving my now bought car.
Todays job - improving caching on
@ShipperHQ
- time to unwrap my coding mind.
Here is the beauty I bought - 55 Montclair - I’m readying for my Route 66 drive in 2023. Just gotta decide truck or car for journey.
The German
#magento
community wraps you up and gives you a big hug like no other ecosystem in the world. It’s hard to explain, you have to experience it, it’s diversity and inclusivity at its very best
#mageUC18
#gladToBeBack
#realmagento
This
#ecommerce
ecosystem is AWESOME.
Coming together, over 1100 people before we had to lock slack for sanity.
Take a look - - free packages to get business owners online.
We are the little guys. We did this. Celebrate and push out to your communities!
Somewhat delayed but we got there. As I officially lost the bet I’ll donate $1000 to
@BenMarks
charity of choice.
Oh and hallo
#AdobeCommerce
. Welcome. Let’s go.
Not how I wanted to leave this office. Lease expires eoy, and we have outgrown it.
I’m relieved & pleased the office now lives online and functions well, things could have been very different.
One day team we will be back together in person. In a great space.
#onwards
Sometimes I feel like people think I’m not technical.
I’m not sure if this is personal insecurities/being female/or otherwise.
Anyhow please treat me as an engineer until you learn otherwise. I do actually know some stuff.
#justSaying
#womenInTech
#diversity
You just have to believe.
All the platforms. All the people globally in
#ecommerce
.
Coming together as one to help merchants keep retail going.
We have many challenges. One day at a time we are going to eat the elephant.
#shopify
#magento
#bigcommerce
@Grady_Booch
As someone who has been a professional ‘coder’ in various guises for over 25 years across US/UK I can confirm it does exist.
It is not everywhere, I think it is improving.
But such is it that I know merely posting this will result in abuse. This is why many woman stay quiet.
Thanks
@AdobeCommerce
- nice to know we don’t have access to releases pre GA so can update our code to support your customers.
Good job. Good way to shoot your product in the head.
What can I say...
People rock
Language is no barrier
Humanity always wins
Old friends are truest friends
Colleagues hold up CEOs
I’m lucky to have such beautiful diverse people in my life.
People don’t realise sometimes when they are supporting others. Thank you for being there.
Gotta say this
#magento
community is great. Never change people, never change. Spikey, honest, ruthless, compassionate, reasonable, unreasonable, tech, non-tech, merchants, we have it all. Bloody brilliant.
Had a lot of travel lately and def taken its toll on me. Just want to shout out to
@Quentalto
who is one of the loveliest hard working colleagues (and friends) you could ever wish to have. Thanks for being you boy, safe travels home and enjoy that tailgate!
#MM19NYC
The emotional side of this job is crazy. Being a CEO isn’t mainly about being a figurehead, or architecting or even strategizing, sometimes is just about damn caring about people and their lives.
Need HR, ASAP.
I was talking to
@ecommerceguy
last week and I realised something really fundamental.
I’m not being ambitious enough.
I know I can disrupt the shipping space, yet I’ve held back from committing 100% to my plan.
No more. I’m ready.
#womenInTech
#justDoIt
@noCeilings
#watchMe
The
#magento
community is without doubt truly amazing. I feel a much deeper sense of all of pride, responsibility, fulfillment, privilege and hope. It’s a great space to work and we need to all act to preserve the ecosystem in all its forms
#mageUC18
Things that are really hard to do at conferences:
- avoid alcohol
- think
- prep for meetings
- talk to colleagues
- chilax
- schedule wisely
- anything involving google drive
- sleep
I will be attending
#mm20in
and I’m going to sponsor a
#womenintech
from
#india
to join me there as my guest. Because it is my belief your voice should be heard.
I hope also to get a speaking slot to allow you to talk. To tell your story.
#magento
#commerce
#moreSoon
Arguably the most important person in our ecosystem right now. This imo is our
#ecosystem
leader. And rightly so. One of the most genuine individuals you could ever wish to meet.
#mm19sg
So proud to see the
@ShipperHQ
marketplace launch. This is part of a wider vision that I have that I think is going to change
#merchant
lives for the better. Step 2 ✅
Now, more than ever the
#ecommerce
tech ecosystem needs to pull together to aide
#merchant
needs. We will be announcing some plans soon, please rivalry around tech stacks aside, egos aside and let’s work together and up our game
#magento
#Shopify
#bigcommerce
#sfcc
My conclusion on
#magento
Europe - there is a passion here I’ve not seen for a while. And a sincerity. It has reminded me of what it’s like to be part of a community. And how we are not alone on our journey.
#mm21pl
You know a lot is often made about
#womenInTech
but I’ve also spoken to a number of young men at this conference who impress me massively with their politeness, conversation, integrity and inquisitive nature. If this is the future it looks great
#mleu