Q. How did you get into your line of work?
I was literally born into it. There are some that interview to be a monster and still others that are monsters and don’t even know it -- those guys are fun -- but more often, its a family business and you don’t grow up knowing anything else. It is all I ever wanted to be. Plus, since I only have one eye, I was disqualified from being a pilot. I tried to tell them it was a LARGE eye but apparently perfect eyesight is correlated with having two functioning eyes.
Q. What have you learned through the school of hard knocks?
I actually went to the school of Things That Go Bump in the Night. The School of Hard Knocks seemed so Spartan to me. I switched careers after I graduated with a degree in Sacreology, due to the economy and a lack luster desire to truly scare people. I still needed to work so I examined options and realized Paper! There will always be paper, I can definitely cover people with it, make their lives miserable, often in stealth, but completely in ways they don’t even realize. First, I started by making big sloppy messes, but I realized people were on to me, and then there was the influx of heavy-duty shredders making my life miserable – you know those shredders that became really popular right before the big SEC crackdown. So I realized the big monster in the room, that people miss until its too late, is inefficiency. So I started wasting people’s time, having them run pieces of paper from desk to desk, sometimes losing them in the process. I made it hard for them to pay their bills and receive payments from customers. I was really good at this – may I say, legendary!
Q. What keeps you up at night?
Well, I don’t stay up at night too much anymore but every once in a while, I hide under a bed for fun. Just for old time’s sake, you know.
Q. How has Bill.com helped your business chase its dreams?
I am similar to a reformed computer hacker. Often, businesses hire them to learn how to protect themselves against online attacks. So when Bill.com approached me about coming over to the other side, I was intrigued. Once I met the people that worked there, I realized there’s a new breed starting to develop. These people aren’t afraid of paper, they welcome the challenge of taming it, making it valuable and accessible online, and so, I realized I had to change to meet the times. Despite my size, I am actually pretty flexible. I can see the writing on the wall, you know with the big eye, so I changed. I do carry interesting things in my briefcase to work every day to Bill.com, especially since I cannot have paper in there! But is not one of today’s question, so I think I will save it for a later surprise!
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Note: 4 Questions is a new feature on the Bill.com blog where we will ask the same 4 questions of a different Bill.com customer (except in the case above that features our Paperwork Monster). Given the tremendous passion and can-do attitude of small and mid-sized businesses, we believe these same four questions will result not in repeat answers, but in interesting insight into many different journeys. Want to be profiled? Tweet us at @billcom and let us know!
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