You’ve heard of Go Daddy, right? The multi-billion dollar domain registrar and hosting provider. The company that promotes risky commercials during the super bowl. Bob Parsons, Danica Patrick and the infamous Go Daddy girls. That’s the Go Daddy you probably know. The 3,000 employees that built the company on their blood, sweat and tears know a different story.

Go Daddy Family

I’m proud of you. Yes, you. While job hopping is the new norm you dedicated somewhere between 5 – 7+yrs of your life to a company’s vision. You believe and live that mission every single day. You grew up in the company, were always willing to take on a new challenge and stayed enthusiastic through every obstacle. We learned early on the only constant is change and successfully adapted. We contributed to a small mom and pop that grew into a multi-billion dollar tech company right before our eyes.

You facilitate trust and lend authority to the Go Daddy brand by fielding the front lines. When a customer is in a dark and lonely place in the rough waters of the experience curve they call you to receive expert advice. That advice isn’t fed to you via a script or through formal training. That’s time and money you’ve invested before and after work to learn an entire industry so you can add value.

When a client is having a family emergency you stop what you’re doing to send them a card,  talk through difficult times and really take an interest in their life. You share your clients dreams and try your best to help them achieve their goals. That’s not normal, that’s not good, that’s fuckin’ great (Jim Collins would be proud). That’s called world class. I’ve never experienced anything quite like it and for that you should be proud of yourself.

You are “Go Daddy’s secret sauce” and coincidentally the most undervalued asset in the domain industry.

Go Daddy Executive Accounts

I shared some of the best years of my life with you. As you know I departed Go Daddy on 01/15/13 and since then a number of executive account representatives have departed as well. I’d like to take a moment to recognize you for the hard work, dedication and value you added to the company, to your colleagues, clients and to the domain industry:

Kim Darwin Zadroga: Hearing your conversations with clients put a smile on my face for nearly 4yrs. You always had your clients best interest at heart. Thanks for keeping it real and hope to see you on the ranch.

Jon Grant: You were always willing to jump in when I had a wordpress or design related question. Thank you for keeping the internal tools working after Justin Finkelstein departed. I’ll miss our conversations about sports cars. For some reason speaking with you always made me want to spend money.

Justin Finkelstein: You gave selflessly to the team. Every morning you’d come in with a smile asking how each of us was doing. You took our internal domain tools to the next level and really made our jobs easier by automating brainless tasks to allow us to focus on what’s important: consulting with clients. You add meaning to the term mensch.

Jared Sherwood: We were promoted into Executive Accounts in the same round of hires. We share the same work ethic, intellect and desire for greatness. I’ll never forget the conversations, frustrations and victories we shared. Or the two bottles of Johnnie Walker Blue Label we finished at your New Years party.

Russ Dailey: My office neighbor and confidant. You were always a breath of fresh air when it came to logic and process. It was fun brother. Scotch sesh soon.

Ryan Reely: I’ll miss our lunch break walks and blue zone talks. I’ll see you in SoCal!

Savin Gatchalian: I know it’s been awhile since you worked at Go Daddy, but congrats on departing your full time career at Limelight Networks to also pursue entrepreneurship. See you tonight to celebrate!

There’s a new movement that’s picking up momentum in the valley of the sun. I’m proud of each of you and know the next time we all get together it’ll be to toast to our individual and group successes.

What was your favorite memory or experience? One of my favs was the group EAI events. Specifically the military tightrope obstacle course. How fun-ny was that!?

Disclaimer: I am no longer employed by Go Daddy, LLC. These are my personal thoughts and experiences not to be confused with any third party.