3 Austin CEOs talk about their all-time favorite days at work

by Kelly O'Halloran
January 26, 2017

Life in the tech world moves fast. It’s easy to forget what day it is, when the last time you ate was, and where you parked your car. Amid the occasional chaos and madness of our industry, we asked three tech CEOs to share what they consider their most memorable days at the office. 

 

David Cantu and Ray Pawlikowski co-founded HotSchedules 18 years ago. Their restaurant management software has simplified employee scheduling and labor management for a host of clients, including Ruby Tuesday, Jimmy John’s and Pinkberry. Cantu reflected on his many years leading the biz and shared some of the highlights with us. 

What was your best day of work?

When we started supporting Brinker International Restaurants — the company that owns Chili's Grill & Bar and Maggiano's Little Italy — that was a huge milestone for us. In addition, Brinker International has awarded us vendor of the year for technology. We celebrated by praising and acknowledging those who helped us get there.

And every holiday party. To see it grow from 12 to 500 people who attend the party or dinner — we just have to pinch ourselves to see how we’ve scaled and grown and are responsible for so many families.

What are you most proud of?

When Ray and I started this, we didn’t have any private equity. These are proud moments when we reflect on where we started and how we bootstrapped the business, scaled and grown it. 

Another proud moment was when we built our app back in 2009. Our customer advisory board was against this decision. They didn’t want us to build apps. Instead, they wanted us to resolve reporting in the software. Now, our app is usually first or second in the most downloaded business apps on iTunes. That is something we’re proud of. Sometimes you don’t have to listen to your customer. Sometimes you have to go against what they’re thinking. 

 

 

Jan Goetgeluk founded Virtuix in 2013. He and his team developed the first natural motion VR platform, called the Omni, which allows users to physically walk and run through VR worlds. They began sales of their active VR system in 2015, selling over 5,000 units. Goetgeluk reflected on his best day with the startup, which occurred just over a month ago. 

What’s been your best day at Virtuix? 

My best day at Virtuix happened recently. It was December 22, the Thursday before the Christmas break. On that day, we signed a global distribution deal for our product, the Omni virtual reality treadmill, with a major worldwide player in our industry. The execution of the agreement marked the culmination of a long and stressful negotiation process and the coordination of our teams both in the US and China. 

On the same day, we held our Christmas party with our entire team and their spouses. We had a lovely night, celebrating the successes of our team and the accomplishments of our company in 2016. 

How'd you feel during all this?

It was the perfect closure of the year, a year in which we completed our Series A round, started mass production of the Omni, and closed various partnerships that are setting us up for a successful 2017. I left the night feeling proud of our team and at peace going into a well-deserved Christmas break.

 

 

Bill Daniel joined All Web Leads as the startup’s president and CEO in 2008, following its 2005 launch. The company, which produces an online sales lead generation software for insurance reps, is now valued at over $100 million. Daniel highlighted how his employees make every day great. 

Can you tell us about your best day at All Web Leads so far — and why? 

Yesterday. I am thankful each and every day that I get to lead the 500-plus fabulous employees at AWL.

It provided me another reminder of how fortunate I am when a brand new employee asked me what I like the most about our company.

"The people," I answered.

As a technology company, our assets are our people. They walk out the door every night and, hopefully, they come back the next day. But they keep coming back only if they love working at the company.

 

 

Responses have been edited for clarity and length.

Images provided by feature companies and Shutterstock.
 
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