Número nueve: A visit from Brian Forth

Brian forth was our final guest speaker. He is the CEO of side crafting inc. They specialize in web development. This is a 180 from his first profession. Brian started out as an elementary school teacher and was among the youngest teachers there. He later goes into software and saw a gap in the market for his idea which is a company that specializes in offering web development expertise to a plethora of clients from many different markets. With this diverse group of clients and his strict rule of no more than 15% of the company’s cash flow coming from one client, he and his team have been able to keep their company afloat and profitable for 20 years in a very competitive market.  During the pandemic, his split between the office and remote and his company barely took a hit because the diverse clientele like hospitals, banks, zoos, cities, etc. kept the company from going bankrupt or cutting costs like others had too. In fact, they are getting ready to expand in Tacoma to a bigger office or renovate the one they are currently in. One aspect of Brian’s company that stood out to me is that he is the only salesperson in the whole company. As the CEO he has taken it upon himself to market and advocate for his company to different clients and a system like this allows him to be more flexible when giving proposals to clients and lets him control every part of the process. With his teaching career, Brian liked teaching his students how to code and about the web. His classes were cool, and he even taught some of the parents. Overall, Brian was a really cool guest speaker, and I enjoyed his “ted talk” :)