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Flatfile News & Culture
Sheila Lahar
Published 9/10/2020
Flatfile is thrilled to welcome new teammate Roby Hyde, Senior Sales Engineer, to the team. In this role Roby assists the sales team by helping to resolve any technical challenges for our customers.
Let’s dive in and learn more about Roby!
Q: Why Flatfile? (And what does a typical day look like for you?)
A: At Flatfile, I get to work closely with customers and help them solve all sorts of technology problems. I also get to use my skills and experience to help Flatfile continue on our massive growth trajectory. Those are key drivers for me and I’m excited that I get to do both here.
I’m focused on helping our sales team with any technical questions that a customer might have as they’re learning more about Flatfile. On a typical day I meet with customers, answer their questions, create personalized demos to show how Flatfile addresses their specific needs, put together proof-of-concepts for customers, and generally get to meet a lot of people from different industries and companies throughout my day. No two days are ever the same which is really fun.
Q: You’ve held technical roles throughout your career. What inspired you to get involved in technology?
A: Since I was first introduced to computers, I’ve been fascinated with them. I was a geek growing up. I love the challenge of getting the computer to automate a task and the logic exercise involved with doing so. In my spare time, I try to instill that same wonder of technology in high school students by mentoring a local robotics team.
Q: You spent time at Apple which is one of the most admired companies in the world. What are some lessons you learned during your time there?
A: I learned that you can put passion into products. You can create solutions to problems that go beyond just solving the problem--you can bring surprise and delight to users. It takes a lot of hard work to reduce complexity and add value to the product but it’s so worth it when you watch customers enjoy using it.
Q: Talk about a tough technical problem or challenge you’ve had to solve in the past, how did you overcome it?
A: By relying on people smarter than me. :-) While I love to learn and solve problems, I’ve also learned how to grow a smart team. I try to hire people who are smarter than me and I try to work with teams that have smart people on them. Solutions to problems are much easier and faster to find in that environment.
Q: If you could have dinner with anyone famous - dead or alive - who would it be?
A: There are a few people that seem to function at a different level than the rest of us. I like to imagine that an alien race has dropped these people into our society to help us advance faster. I’m pretty sure Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, and Elon Musk are some of those aliens. I’d love to have dinner with Elon Musk as I think I’d get along with him well and he’d probably confirm that he actually is an alien.
Want to join Roby? We’re hiring! Learn more about Flatfile and our open roles.
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