Name: From Firefighting to Strategy: How IT Leaders Thrive in High-Growth Environments
Uploaded: 2026-02-18T21:15:05.187Z
Duration: 40 min 30 s
Description: From Firefighting to Strategy: How IT Leaders Thrive in High-Growth Environments

Transcript for "From Firefighting to Strategy: How IT Leaders Thrive in High-Growth Environments": Hello. Hello. Thank you all for joining us. I just put this in the chat, but, and I see a couple of you are already hit to what we like to do to get things started here. But let us know where you're, calling in from. Old school radio style, but kinda nice to use these as a way to sort of connect the dots of the many IT professionals that are here today. So let us know where you're at. See if anybody else is near you, and we'll try to use that, and let us we'll let you know if we have any events going on in your neck of the woods because we're kinda ramping up that program with our dear friend James who some of you may know. But, without further ado, let's get into it. Today, we're gonna be talking with with Edgar Souseto. He is the head of IT at Notion. He is really great guy. I think some of you may be, familiar with him already. So thank you all for coming, but we're gonna kinda be gearing this around more of a career oriented discussion. It's a little more high level than some of the stuff we usually do around here. Bit of a change of pace, but Edgar has, like, such a wealth of knowledge and experience that I think you'll all really benefit from from what he has to say and kind of the the insights that he has to bring to bear on, like, the state of the field and where it's going, things that I think understandably induce a lot of anxiety in this profession today. So really hope you enjoy what he has to say. Before we get into that, though, I will just quickly cover a couple housekeeping items. Michael Hendricks, not me, asked this question in the chat. The answer is yes. The full recording will be shared with you later today, so look for that in your inbox. We'll we'll get it to you. I think Goldcast does that automatically, so that should be pretty quick. So just keep an eye out for that. You will be able to watch this again if there was any, like, great nuggets you wanted to return to or anything like that. So there's a q and a feature enabled today. You can also just use the chat, but either one works fine. Ask us your questions during the session. Anything that I don't get to, like, while we're going today, we will try and answer again, like, by email later. So we will get in touch. If you have something you want answered, it will not go unanswered. So don't be shy. Anything that comes to mind, let us know. We'll we'll get that over to you. And the last thing is there is also a little, there's a little tab for docs there that you can see in between chat and q and a, at least on my dashboard. And that's gonna have a ton of great stuff, that we've been pushing out that has guides, that has future webinars, some of which we'll we'll talk about at the tail end of today's session. And that's just, like, a list of resources that you guys can feel free to engage with while we're going today or preferably after so you can pay attention to all of what we're about to discuss. But I'm gonna go ahead and play with the interview with Edgar now. So you guys all buckle up, and I will be here throughout. So any questions while we're going, I will be attentive to those as we move our way through this. But cheers. Thanks all for being here, and, let's get it started. Well, Edgar, welcome. Very glad to have you today. Thank you for taking the time out. I warned you ahead of time. We're gonna be talking a lot about career advice today. And I think to do that, I think a helpful place to start would be to ask you about your career as we get going here. So, like, I and anyone else here could go and read your LinkedIn in the interest of getting maybe a more personalized account of your life and times at IT. Could I first ask you just to kinda give us all a sense of how you started out in IT? Speak to some of the stops you've had along the way. Sort of the classic interview question here. Like, tell me how you got to where you are today. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, how's how early you wanna start? Like, way like, during my childhood or, you said, like, my first official? Really? Wherever wherever the the spirit takes you. Was thinking more, you know, restricted professional experience. But of course, if you have, like, formative stuff that really made you brought you into this space, I think that's that's great for people to hear too. Yeah. No. I think thank you for the question. I think for for myself, I've always been interested in in computers, and I think, you know, breaking apart the the the family computer and, you know, just just going through it and and trying to identify what is what. And I think with that in mind, I think in over the years as I continue to you know, I went to school initially for for finance with emphasis in information systems, and I was interested in getting to IT audit. And on my I was doing an internship, and the team that I was working with, the the company IT team was very, very slow. And so they would come to me and and ask me help. And I think as that sort of turned into a curiosity of, you know, what more can I do with this? And I think IT audit was very exciting at the time, but I think for me, it was also very cyclical. There was a busy very bit you know, very busy periods, very slow periods. And I think for me, I wanted to get into something that was a little more chaotic, and I thought IT is the place to go. So I I went back to school. I I I graduated, went back to school for information systems, and that led me to an opportunity to work at Google. And I think that was very formative in the sense of just learning how to do IT at a very large company. And that then led on to opportunities to work at other companies such as Facebook and then at Dropbox, where it slowly transitioned from your typical help desk role to IT executive support to a a client platform engineering, which sort of led to eventually to management positions as well over the last few years. Yeah. No. Very cool. I I kinda wanna zoom back a little on sort of your earlier stops along the way just to sort of tug on that thread a little more because I I think it's very interesting for obviously, as you progress in your career, you take on increasing amounts of responsibility, and now you're in really in more of a leadership position. But everyone, for the most part, starts at more of that practitioner level, and I'm I'm really curious, especially, like, working at these, you know, some of the these are some of the biggest companies in the world that that you are learning the the trade at by doing. Any any lessons from, you know, Google, Facebook, whatever, that that have kind of shaped your leadership principles now? Like, any particular moments that come to mind? It's like, yeah. That really does still impact how I look at how I do my job today. I'm sure there there must be something. I I think the the early lessons from that, it's a great question, I think, is the importance of of asking why. Oftentimes, especially in IT, it could be an ambiguous situation. It's an ambiguous reason for why something isn't working. And I think that really started to spur my my curiosity, not again, not not just beyond IT support, support, but but other other systems systems and how they all interact with each other. So I think that's the biggest key or the biggest takeaway from early early early lessons. And that's something that carried on into a more technical role behind cloud platform engineering and even to management. And I think that's something that it's not just as simple as troubleshooting the the an issue, but then he's trying to say, well, why is this not working? Is it because of something else? Is it something that was a a system wide adjustment? And and I think it's that curiosity, I think, is what's been really, really critical for me. And and and also for think the other thing was was also being a little more empathetic, you know, I think towards folks. It it's you do have you know, I think IT often has that reputation of you know, there's a lot of shows, IT crowd. There's other shows I always mention, you know, where we regretfully support you, but I think it's it's having that that bedside manner and having the empathy and saying, hey. I I'm here for you. You know, you often catch people at at at a very frustrating moment. So you're trying to learn how to meet folks where they are, empathize with them, and find a solution. And I think it was it was that curiosity coupled with that bedside manners would really really help me along over the years. Yeah. It's it's very interesting. We talk about that a lot around here, as you would imagine. It's kind of, you know, an an unfairly malign Yeah. D more often can be. It's a it has the unfortunate distinction of having some very famous, like, cultural stereotypes associated with them, whether it's, like, Fallon on SNL or, you know, what what have you. That that kind of thing. So with kind of with that in mind, I I wanna ask you something you mentioned there. That's part of your your background a little earlier on in your career, but, you know, of the human element of IT. Some specific humans, you had a couple stops along the way that have chiefly chiefly involved supporting executives. And I would hazard a guess that those were also pretty formative experiences for how you think about IT's role in the org and how you, you know, much of the room it is enabling employees, some of which happen to be the the c suite. So could I Yeah. Could I ask you to expound a little bit on on that piece of your experience specifically? Lessons learned there, that sort of thing. The the executive support in a nutshell is not for the faint of heart. I think there's a lot a lot that you have to anticipate, and and it it goes beyond you know, I think it it's it's not only anticipating, but even learning how to react quickly, but also anticipating what could come from the next thing. And I think it it you initially especially when I first joined the the team, you initially think, okay. Well, it's just some you know, it's just more an escalated elevated support system. There's just so much more than that. And when when you're supporting the executive staff, you you really you understand fairly quickly how technology enables or blocks them. And it's not just, again, not as simple as their computers aren't working, but it's how does it impact the the next meeting? How does it impact their travel? And especially when you're dealing with public companies, it could be that they are even considered, you know, security risks and and high value targets in that sense. So you have to think about their travel family, how that engages back to the company. And you start, I think, a very we we had a very supportive manager who started to think the bigger picture. It wasn't, again, just typical IT support, but how does IT fit into security? How does IT possibly even fit with marketing and another another ventures? I think executive support allows you to think outside the box. And and with a as I mentioned, with a supportive manager, you really start to think beyond that. I think it's very, very helpful. Yeah. I I love that answer in part because I think well, it speaks to a broader reality that goes beyond IT. I think, like, the best version of most teams in an org is one that understands, you know, how how it can best, like, coalesce with the other parts of the org. Like, you you want like, you really want, like, cross functional being, like, a funny buzzword kind of. But it's also it's also quite relevant to the functioning of an organization, one that is healthy and and running as well as it can. So, like, especially as you have grown in your career, you've taken on more leadership responsibilities. Anything like, anything you should learned about, like, a kind of a just broader business impact and, like, business strategy almost just by the as sort of the osmosis of being nearer to those, like, high level decision makers. Like, I'm I'm curious if that has impacted your perspective now that you, you know, have more of a leadership responsibility yourself. Yeah. It's a great question. I I I felt that I think you're able to see executives are are just like you. And I think it's all about, you know, pro people that are just solving hard problems with sometimes incomplete information. So I think even now that I look back in the decisions I sometimes have to make at my level, I think it it's just less intimidation. And you realize just collaboration is so critical. And it's, again, not just coming from the top down, but also asking and inquiring from input from everyone, the who is at the table, who's in this meeting that that that sometimes you're a part of. And I think it's it's that that tie in to others that are able to help build and make a more informed decision. And I think early on, it is especially when you're there, you're just starting to try to capture all, then you realize just how important it is, but it's something that you think about it now. And it's like, yeah, makes sense, but sometimes you really have to be there and realize, like, wow, at this level, it's just as it's just as as important to down to a level of where I am in terms of of the scope of grander scheme of things, but I think that's it's pretty awesome to see. Yeah. No. I'm sure it it very much kinda runs the gamut as it were. Switching gears just a little bit here, but it like, one of the main themes or maybe a secondary theme we talked about when we first started talking about the conversation we wanted to to have today has to do with, you know, the two letters you just can't go very long without hearing these days, and those obviously are a and I. I think the career advice tie in here is fairly intuitive to me. I don't need to tell anyone in this room that the increasing pace of adoption of that technology is it it is a source of real anxiety for a lot of people working in in IT today and many many more fields over. So just kinda to start us off on that rather large of topics, what is your what would you tell someone who is feeling that anxiety themselves right now? Well, first off, I would say it's okay to to feel the anxiety. I think it it's definitely shared across across all industries. And I think for me in particular, I I I would say that it's it's about reshaping our jobs and our priorities. And, you know, you can say and and there's a lot to be said from this. You know? The roles of the future will demand, hopefully, as we've seen early on in terms of some of the benefits, you know, few repetitive tasks and and and things that would take you take your priorities away from trying to come up with an email or or or response or strategies. Those little things are now be being whittled away with the help of of AI. So I think there there will be more oversight, more integration, and hopefully, a great outcomes from that. And I think from from from a leader in particular, I I think it's it's a reminder that we need to adopt a a a growth mindset as soon as possible. I think we need to really identify, and we owe it to ourselves and even to our peers and then and future folks that would join join our respective teams. We need to identify which skills we need to cultivate and just really to better prepare our teams for that constant change. I think if anything, AI, it is an unknown. It it naturally brings that anxiety. But I think we have to prepare for that constant change, and and things will hopefully you know, there will be that ebb and flow, and hopefully, things will make sense in the end. But I think for us, it's really an opportunity to reframe that AI in the present moment. It's a tool that hopefully augmented enhances that capability, and and I'm all for it. You know? And in that respect, I'm really excited about it because if anything, it it allows us to rethink how we're how we're doing our job now, What are what processes are working, what processes are not, how can we be adaptable. And sometimes, good things will come out of that. And I think in this case, it definitely will. Yeah. I I think and I'm sure you can relate to this to some extent. Like, I I think when I think about this question, and I am painting with something of a broad brush here, but I I do think a lot of that anxiety naturally falls on those who are less experienced. Some of the younger folks who are newer in their careers and those just without a ton of years in the business weren't weren't in any business. People who are fresh out of school were kinda just getting started. You know, like, I will I will will jokingly refer to this as something of your commencement speech question here. But what what is your advice to that younger cohort who's kinda they're, like, they're entering sort of a brave new frontier here, and it's it's hard to forecast with any degree of certainty, like, really what this looks like even a a few years down the line. Yeah. So what do you say to that to that crowd who's who's just getting started? You know, I think in over the I mean, this is how I got into IT. I think it was a matter of if you do your years of manual grind, if you do your years of help desk, it'll lead to great opportunities. And I think with AI, it will help to augment. It will help you to to grow that skill set if you choose to. So I I will encourage all of you that are interested in IT at this moment is to continue to stay curious. You know, the the specific technologies will always change. But I think the the ability to learn and adapt well. So that that is a very important skill to to maintain and to uphold. And really, I would say don't underestimate soft skills. As I mentioned, I think in one earlier questions about empathy and then that bedside manner and and helping folks, communication, empathy, cross functional collaboration, those are all critical points. And, you know, it'll only become more valuable as as I mentioned, IT will start to or AI will start to handle those routine tasks. That integration and collaboration with you and and and others will be just far more invaluable. So I think with that, I also recommend that you start to build relationships. You'll learn how to build relationships. And and I think the power of why is is a critical now more than ever. I think the power of why begets your purpose, and it unlocks and and fuels that motivation and purpose. And and it really the the the last thing I think I'll say from an AI perspective is that, again, let's use AI to augment. Let's amplify that curiosity. But I also wanna encourage that that it that you avoid critical thinking atrophy. You know, I think that's the most important thing is that we leverage AI to augment, but we don't let it to sort of replace your your curiosity and critical thinking. I think you've spoken to some of this already, so we may actually end up cutting a little bit of this here and there. But I'd just ask a of comment that same a similar question from a But, different you know, you yourself, I would I would imagine, are dealing with all the implications of this kind of AI revolution slash onslaught on a regular basis as well. So without asking you to speak for, you know, how Notion views this, it really just your perspective personally. What is your outlook? And I it I'm getting a piece of this. You're definitely optimistic that I think it will, you know, help help automate the repetitive tasks that no one wants to be doing anyways. Right? Like, I think that is a very compelling bull case to me. But I'll ask you to to put it back in your own words again. Like, what what is your outlook on how AI stands to impact the the workplace writ large? Yeah. I've I've strongly believe that that AIA will continue. And and and right now, as I mentioned, it's currently doing, but I think we'll continue to increasingly address and handle complex routine work. And it's not from an IT perspective, it's not just tickets, but also building a better execution layer. And from that, the the human role shifts from judgment strategy and and relation management and just handling those exceptions that that could that hopefully will will will align with with AI. And I think the most important thing from from my perspective is is you just have to ask your team, you know, what does our actual work look like today? What are those workloads look like? And and and and that and then from that from that question, what is the productivity gain and what's achievable with with adapt with adopting AI technology? And the last question behind that would be then, okay, so what tools, what skills, and what training is required to get there? I think what we really have to look at is is those three components to really feel like how AI can really build that. And I think at the last moment, as I mentioned, IT becomes more about a core orchestration enablement. And and it's not just about making sure that the right tools are deployed effectively, but that they're also deployed securely and and in ways that actually help employees. It's not just wanting to say, hey, we deployed AI, you know, great job. It's also to ensure that it actually helps productivity in the end for us. Exactly. It's, you know, congrats. Kudos to you. Yeah. Yeah. Go us. Gold star on on the fridge. It's all about helping folks in a secure and productive manner. Right. No. I I really appreciate that that answer. So let's move on from from AI for a moment, as we all spend enough of our days talking But about so, you know, as as we've discussed here, you have worked in IT for some of the biggest companies in the world, full stop, and you work for a very fast growing company now. So a question that I always like to ask people in your position is is what you've learned about managing IT for those high growth environments. I was very fond of an analogy that I heard in another interview I did a few months back, someone who I've since learned as a friend of yours, shout out to to Johan Doudy at Asana, He really is the best. I will let you shout him out as well. But he he gave this piece of advice that I have I've been thinking about since. It is is applicable related to these sorts of hyperscaling environments. It it's his analogy, which I may butcher here, but it's he was saying it is often best not to build the mansion, so to speak, this, like, very impressive, but, like, comparatively inflexible system of doing things or or such and such workflow that might work at a certain point in time, but cannot adapt as well as, again, in his words, the bungalow version of the same process workflow, what have you. It it basically, the message being adaptivity over everything. Thank you. Without asking you to come up with your own little turn of phrase, although if you have one, I certainly welcome it, what have you learned about managing IT through growth? Like, how do you how do you account for, you know, even a pace of growth that you obviously cannot, like, look at a crystal ball and be like, we will be this size by this date. Like, what should leaders keep front of mind knowing that the only constant is change or the only constant is change. Right? Yeah. I almost corrected myself, but that is correct. Yeah. No. I think that's that's a great great analogy. I really do like it. I think over over engineering for scale that you don't have yet, I think it creates technical debt, and it and it will definitely slow you down. I think it's very, very critical, I think, an early stage is just to invest in foundation. I I often use analogies of of of home building or or or just building a a building, an office building in in in general. I I think it's building that foundation is key. And without a a solid foundation, you have nothing. You can't immediately start building out and thinking about the 2nd Floor or the 3rd Floor without having a a strong foundation from the beginning. So I think and and that means to me having good documentation, having clear processes, and really modular systems. I think there's that there's that flexibility in mind that you have to show. You can't immediately start thinking way ahead because that will get you in trouble in the end. I think scaling with people and the tech stack that you're building is also just as important. You you can't have one without the other. And with that in mind, I think it's prioritizing as ruthlessly as possible. You know, you have to keep in mind that not everything is urgent, even when it feels that way. You have to communicate as proactively as possible, and and you have to understand that you will always have that tech that I think you can't really avoid it, but just be mindful of that. And you build those relationships early on before you need them. I think cross functional trust is how you get buy in for those investments, as I mentioned. Yeah. I gotta like, my my lesson from asking this question a couple or some version of this question a couple times is that construction analogy is that they really they really play. It works better than I necessarily would have expected. I didn't think I didn't think. I absolutely agree. I I never thought it would be as as helpful, but it's sometimes I'm like, hey. You know, when when I talk to some of my folks on my team, it's just you wanna build a wall, but we're already thinking about painting. What about wiring? What about the next wall? It's just there's just I don't know. It's been helpful. I've I've watched a lot of those home improvement shows, and it's something that sticks. Just makes sense. Haven't haven't we all? Yeah. That is, I think, truly the creme de la creme of of of trash TV. Believe this is the at its best. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Very much agreed. A couple more questions for you. And so something that we hear a lot at Rippling IT around here is this frustration that it is you spoke to this a little earlier, but it's it's very difficult to think and act strategically as an IT team when you are just inundated with your daily tasks, you know, requests, what have you, firefighting mode. Yep. That's think a lot of people would call it. Yeah. What is your advice on how best to strike that balance as someone who's probably encountered that situation a time or a time or two before in your career? How do you kind of like get out from under that and start giving yourself the, you know, room to breathe to to even think about, you know, next quarter and beyond. Absolutely. I think the first thing I would say is that you have to accept that some firefighting is just permanent. You know, I think the goal isn't to say I have none. I think it's it's it has to be sustainable. There's some, you know, keeping the lights on projects, and there's things that are always going to be on fire. But I think you have to to build that muscle fairly on to context switch and and without losing that that strategic thread between the two. And I think to make that happen, I think you have to start tracking that unplanned work. I think oftentimes, I think even my team here, we've been in that that habit of not tracking, but I think what we have to do, and it's something that we've taken on in the past couple of years in particular, is to make it a visible category. If I'm going to say something, it's it's a p zero today, that often means that I'm going to say no to something and say yes to something else. And then you have to just track that to say, I'm gonna say no to these things. What does that mean for us in a long time? And to acknowledge it to your to your leadership, to other folks that are impacted to say, well, hold on. Let's let's not do that just yet, or this couldn't wait. And I think it's trying to to show that because, again, you can't escape the firefighting, but you also don't know what's causing those fires. So if you're just trying to document it to try to show, I think that'll really be helpful to do that. And I think the most important thing is is is just blocking time to start thinking about strategy. I think if it means let's just have an hour, let's just talk and create like a meeting. Let's talk what's impacting what's going on, what's not working. I think that'll allow us to start thinking a little more strategically. I think oftentimes, especially in startups, everything's on fire. And if you just accept it without planning or without having that headspace for strategy, I I think you're gonna get in in trouble fairly quickly. So I think it's good for for you to plan out with your with your team or your team leads in particular. Let's talk about it half an hour an hour. If it's weekly, if it's biweekly, what is more pressing? What do we do? And and and again, it's really coming back to identifying that and simply putting it on paper to say, I'm saying yes to this, but I'm not gonna say no to that. Are you okay with it? And and again, all of us accepting that that risk together. Yeah. I I must say, much of that sounds like a hard won wisdom, which allows me to transition to my my last question for you, which is really more of an open ended one, but if you'll humor me. And I think we've touched on this to some extent. But with all your many years of experience now under your bow, what is the one thing you you know now? It can be something we've already mentioned Yep. That you wish you had known five, ten years ago. What what is that piece of of seasoned wisdom that you would pass on to your younger self given the opportunity? Yeah. It's a great question. I I think I would say that I would challenge all of us to look up. And and what I mean by that is that I think we spend so much time, and I know the irony is not lost to me here, especially being in IT and being in technology, but I think we spend so much of our time staring at our screens. And it's obviously the nature of what we do here in IT, but I think the most important connections happen when you look up from your computer, from your phone, and you engage with the people around you. I believe, especially in the last five years with the pandemic, I think it was a stark reminder that, you know, we all adapted to temp temporarily, we adapted to remote work. But I think something was lost, and I think it was that human connection. And it's I it's just something that's absolutely unsettled. And I think for it's absolutely incent essential. Sorry. For creativity, for trust building, for your own well-being, it's just important to engage with with others. And and I I acknowledge, especially in startup life, that burnout is absolutely real, and it often creeps up on you, and it's definitely a risk from from all from all levels. But I think one of the best defenses to that is just disengaging. And it's not just taking about it's not just about taking PTO and taking time off and and stepping away, but it's it's also being present when you're with people and and put the phone down, you know, and I think and and have a conversation without multitasking. I think especially where we're all integrated and you're talking to someone, but all of sudden, someone is slacking on the side and hold on. And it's just being engaged with that person, I think, the most important thing. And and fortunately for me in this past five to ten years, you know, half of it was or has been in in this pandemic and post pandemic world, but it's something that I think I I learned to to sort of appreciate, especially during that time and and just missing people and missing and and, you know, I think we all had remote you know, those Zoom remote parties and everything else, I think just something about just being connected with humans. And I feel like you just can't truly support your team. You can't support others. You can't build real relationships if if you're always half present and and just having your eyes on the screen. Yeah. I I cannot even express to you how much I agree with that sentiment. So that that I think is as good a place to leave it as any. But let me thank you again for for taking the time this afternoon. It was really, a pleasure. Absolutely. Likewise. Thank you so much for your time. Cheers. Alrighty. Well, you look at that. We made it through to the other side. So as I as I just wrote in there, I do wanna, like, verbally thank everybody for getting the the chat popping today. That was that was a lot of fun hanging out in there with you guys. Hope you guys had fun with that as well. As I also mentioned over to the right, we do have a couple other things to cover. So if you have a few more minutes to spare, please spend them with us. Let's start with couple more events we have upcoming. This is not an exhaustive list. We actually have, like, too many things for me to put on slides, so I'm I'm missing one webinar, which is gonna be a really fun one, about, like, women in IT and, that kind of leading as a woman in a field that is so, like, pretty overwhelmingly male dominated. So if any of you guys are interested in in joining that one, we'll be sure to get that that link, up as well. Before that one, we'll have one with, James, who I mentioned, who some of you know from some earlier webinars of ours. How to keep your IT job while implementing automation. It's I mean, it is something that we were just talking about with Edgar. It is a source of some, again, understandable anxiety in in the field today. So that's gonna be a really cool one, getting a lot of different perspectives, panel of four people, two Rippling guys, two non Rippling guys, and we're gonna talk it all out. So come and join us for that one, same time, same place on next Wednesday, a week from today. And then something a little different, but if any of you have ever joined any of our virtual events, we have one of those coming up with some with one of my new favorite people, a dude named Dakota Snow, otherwise known as bearded IT dad. He's the man and will be joining our bearded IT guy in Carter, who some of you will also recognize from prior webinars. That's gonna be a couple weeks from now. That's gonna be, like, a a virtual cocktail making class. And in between that, they will be kinda covering the other aspects of what we're just talking about with Edgar, which is, like, how to advance one's career in, frankly, a time of some uncertainty around technology in general. So I I think that is gonna be really fun, and I'm excited to join that one as a civilian, not the host. So I'll be there. You guys should come hang out. Speaking of hanging out, we do an annual conference, a series thereof, actually, in a couple different cities. So we call it rippling on the road. There will be, like, a lot of IT specific programming at all of these events. The first one is in Chicago. It's in early March. So if you are local to the area or near enough to get there, please go ahead and register. I dropped the link in the doc side panel, which is also true of the other events. So, yeah, go go and sign up if you have a sec. Would love to see you there. Now quickly, I will get through this quickly, I promise. But, I would be remiss in given that this is a rippling IT webinar, I have to quickly do the sales pitch. So let's do that. What do we see out there as we, you know, philosophically, as Rippling, look out at the market and see the problems that we are trying to solve? And what we see is pretty well represented in this slide here. We see a ton of disparate systems that struggle to talk to one another, and what that results in is a lot of connective work that tends to fall on people and teams like yourselves. We think that's an issue. We hope to solve that issue. Part of how we approach that is by trying to bring all of those things or as many of them as we can manage into one house. I don't really like the single pane of glass framing, frankly, but, like, it is truer here than it has been in any prior stop of mine. And and that is because it is it's pretty deeply embedded into how we believe this stuff should work, whether that is device management, you know, SSO, an automated compliance product, which we have coming in April, and we're very excited to to start talking about more in the next couple months. All of these things that are, frankly, like, too disparate to be usable, to a lot of to a lot of teams, people, and orgs. And that is, like, really what we are, aimed at changing. And, like, again, I'll kinda zoom through this, but, like, the thought process here in the way that we've built Rippling and Rippling IT as a result is, like, you have this layer of of your data, your HRIS data, your employees, like, what their attributes are as well as, like, the third party tools that you guys all use as an org to do your jobs day to day. That's the data on which everything else rests. And we believe that that is, like, the best way to the best way to power, like, really smooth automations that do not require a ton of manual work just to get from point a to b to c. It's that it's all in one house, and these things work together in order to, like, actually power and automate, like, an onboarding workflow end to end. And that's that's really the intention and and what we're we're building over here. So, hopefully, those of you who use Rippling are already familiar with that. But, yeah, it's it's all about it's the ripple effect is also a fun thing that we like to say around here, but it's it is true that this is, a foundational part of how we have built the product and how we think about it. It's it's so often we're not really talking about this device. We're talking about the person who is using that device and where they are located. And it like, again, like, from a product philosophy standpoint, like, that is where we start. We think that is a big part of what really differentiates us, in this market. So spiel complete. Thank you for sticking with me through that. The survey is up. If you are interested in seeing a demo, see see what this looks like in your environment, I highly encourage you to do that. Frankly, all of our solutions consultants are way more knowledgeable about what you can and can't do with this platform than I am. They will give you a far more sophisticated pitch than that just was, but they will also be able to customize it to how you and your org work. And that is, like, that's that's just an immensely valuable thing for you guys to have if you are at all interested in checking that out. So please do click in on that survey, and we'll get you all squared away. So last thing before we wrap, you guys might have seen hold on. I have more slides to zoom through. Not much q and a. We did cover everything while we were talking. So I, again, appreciate everybody's activity in the chat today. That was a lot of fun me and more fun than usual, frankly. So good stuff. But I do have a couple raffle winners to announce. So thank you for sticking with me to the bitter end here. Number one, we've got Daniel Odicho from Palo. Paulo AI. I'm gonna go with Paulo. Daniel, number one. Actually, I have two going on today, a rare double feature. The second one will be going to William Andringa from Range Printing. So, both of you guys can expect to get an email with a link to claim that, just after this session wraps up. We we like to do that, frankly, because it's fun. So I hope you guys enjoy, and please send us a picture once they are completed. And that is all we have time for today. So I will give you guys five minutes back and encourage everybody to come back and join us again for another one of these somewhere down the line. So this has been fun.