Introduction

Welcome to the OpzGuy blog, a place for me to share my passion for the Operations Role in Internet Startups. For my first -post, I thought it might make sense to start off with a little about my background. I have done Operations for 5 different tech companies in the last 11 years, 4 of which were internet startups. Though my title hasn't always been officially Operations, my roles have always been very operations-related. So far my time has been split between working in Fort Worth, Texas and Salt Lake City, Utah, where I currently reside. Here's a quick run down of my experience, in chronological order:

• 2 years as a Technical Support rep for what was then the largest web hosting company in the world. Not a startup and this job was while I was still in school, but it gave me a good technical start to my career. At the end of my time I was a Level II Tech on Unix web servers.
• 4 years as General Manager for the Asia Pacific markets for a mobile software startup company.
• 2 years founding and running my own online cell-phone store. I started this company with while working for the above company with three friends and family members and in our second year in business we did $700K in sales, with no outside capital or funding. We also won the Fort Worth Chamber Small Business of the Year Award, which was one of my proudest moments.
• 1 year as Lead Generation Campaign Manager for an inventory management startup.
• 3 years with my current company. We started as part of a larger organization, and I was the first official hire for this startup. Within our first year, we were spun out to be our own entitry. We have now been in business for just over three years and just recently broke into the Top 10 Companies on the Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum Top 25 Companies Under 5 Years Old.

In most of my jobs I have been the jack-of-all-trades, which may not have always been the best thing for my career. I've found that being responsible for a lot of different roles may make you irreplaceable, but that doesn't mean you are irreplaceable or guarantee that your contributions are as valued as they should be. However, I believe that my broad experience in so many different areas is now my biggest strength in the Operations role. As an example, in my current position as VP of Operations, I have the opportunity to work in the following areas:

• Business Development
• Partner Management
• Product Development
• Project Management
• Accounting and Finance
• Sales Engineering
• Implementation

In addition to sharing my thoughts on the Operations role, I will also have posts by some guest writers, links to other relevant articles, and even some posts on other topics of interest to me. Please feel free to introduce yourself and join the conversation. I look forward to hearing from you.