A few months ago we buried our second OTX (now Ipsos-OTX) engineer in less than 12 months. In general, I steer clear of posting any truly personal moments of my life (or those I love) online or via social media- there are some things that are too precious to share. But this funeral really brought home the loss of these incredible men- fathers, husbands, friends, and least importantly, brilliant engineers. It has left me and I think everyone at OTX, completely gutted.
Survey Magazine recently published their Technology Trendsetter issue and I was thrilled to see so many familiar faces. But it also illuminated the fact that there are too many unsung contributors who breathe life into the products we, as researchers or entrepreneurs, envision. These are the people that turn them from mere ideas to working solutions that in some cases revolutionize an industry. In truth, good engineers are hard to find and even harder to keep. Often founders don’t name engineers because they’re worried they’ll be spirited away by another startup with a more interesting offer. Sadly, in my case that is no longer a possibility. Founders stand in the spotlight but we are standing on the shoulders of engineers, programmers, project managers and a myriad of other contributors that make a business a success.