04.10.2012 By Alex Sergeyev
How Working At Dyn Helps Me Grow As An Engineer
We have the reputation of being more fun than your typical tech company: lots of toys, our Music Meets Tech event, a climbing wall and even a “treehouse” conference room. But these are not essential to what makes Dyn an exciting and happy workplace for us engineers. Our top strength is that we are “learners” as we like to discover new things and want to solve problems.
Dyn gives us a plenty of opportunities to grow and keep improving ourselves:
- We frequent many major tech conferences nationwide and internationally. During our first quarter alone, we had employees at OASIS, Percona Live: DC 2012, Less Conf, Strata and PyCon just to name a few, meeting tech leaders and innovative minds to learn from their ideas.
- We maintain a strong commitment toward contributing to Open Source projects. Everyone has the freedom to commit important bug fixes to open software. It’s a great feeling to know that your little piece of code (or even a summary of the problem you found) can be appreciated by and beneficial to programmers around the world.
- We enjoy our “Unroadmap days” where Dyn engineers have two full days each month to work on anything they like. It gives us freedom to explore and create our own projects while expanding our skills.
- Everyone is encouraged to host internal “Lunch and Learn” events. It is a chance to meet in an open forum setting and step back from our computers to swap information.
04.02.2012 By Adam Coughlin
Community Matters: Helping Those When Economic Realities Strike
37 people were hired at Dyn during the first quarter of 2012 and with the second quarter of 2012 kicking off today, two new employees begin their Dyn careers today.
But their arrival is really the ending to another story and hopefully the beginning to a new, great one.
Read More03.29.2012 By Josh Delisle
Don’t Just Be Good. Be Great.
I’ve hemmed and hawed about whether or not this topic merited a public blog post or should be reserved for an email to my entire sales team or even our entire company. Now before you all think I’m jumping ship or pulling a Jerry Maguire, I’m not. This is a story about a scaling company with new bodies being added each and every week.
Over my time in sales for several big companies, I’ve observed an obvious flaw in scaling any organization; the daunting task of losing hands-on control, creating focus in departments/teams/individuals, sharing accountability across the board and the possibility of not being able to scale corporate and personal ideals that got us to the place we are today.
It’s some heavy responsibility on Dyn leadership, tenured employees and on the new hires who walk in the door but we’re up for the challenge.
Read More03.27.2012 By Matt Toy
Celebrating An Anniversary By Raising The Bar
This blog marks my one-year anniversary at Dyn, but as many Dyners will tell you, time is actually counted in dog years because of the pace here. (So is this actually my seventh anniversary?)
Quite simply, the past 12 months FLEW by. What started out as managing a “small team of three” quickly became five, then seven, then twelve and ultimately growing as high as 25. The growth in the team was a result of success: a new product launch, a rebrand, a new website, a new office and finally massive ecommerce changes.
Not only did each of these successes bring more employees but they also came with higher expectations. What I figured out early: when you succeed here, the bar gets raised and it’s not acceptable to just meet expectations the next time. The new expectation is that you’ll keep raising the bar with each successive project.
I understand this isn’t rocket science, but it was the first time I had experienced this first-hand as a professional…and I’m no spring chicken.
Read More03.21.2012 By Kyle York
Why You Should Always Answer Your Phone
It’s a Thursday night. I’m late, lost, scrambling to find where I’m going on Google Maps, walking from one meeting to another in Manhattan with our CEO Jeremy and COO Gray.
My phone rings and I answer it. I always do when someone on my team calls. If a client pings me, same effort. Family? It’s rare I don’t pick those calls up as well.
I try to be as accessible as possible as it’s one of the things that makes me good at my job. I feel that trying and caring helps make me a good person, a philosophy leaders in other organizations lose along the way.
To paraphrase, here’s what the call was about.
“Hey York, it’s D’Amato. Got a second? You’re the first person I’m calling after my Mom and brother. Our offer was accepted for our first new house! I’m telling you, this is a lifer of a house… I can’t even believe we could afford it. We close in 45 days. Jenna and I are so excited. I wish my Dad was alive to share this with.”
Yeah, you read that right. John D’Amato, Dyn Strategic Partner Manager, called me first before friends or other colleagues or his aunts, uncles, cousins or anyone else for that matter.
I spoke at Saint Anselm College in Goffstown, NH, a few weeks ago and a student asked me, “What is your favorite part of your job?”
I told that story.
Building a company is all about the personal relationships you build with colleagues, customers, partners & vendors and that continued to confirm my belief in that. Congrats, John and Jenna. Your new home is beautiful. Your Dad would be very proud.
Read More03.16.2012 By Chris Gonyea
Repetition & Refinement Are Keys To Support Excellence
Our Dyn Concierge team handled nearly 15,000 phone calls and 75,000 tickets in 2011. That doesn’t even count assisting our sales team, who have the Implementation team running around non-stop all day assisting our new DNS and Email customers.
However, our team isn’t nearly as big as you would think when you first look at those numbers. We come from a variety of backgrounds, ranging from IT, public sector, military, retail, special education, TV industry and more. With all that diversity, there is one simple constant on how we can learn our job, do our job, and do it so well: repetition and refinement.
Read More03.12.2012 By Kyle York
#SXSWi: Why We Want You To ‘Get Some IaaS’
Whoever said ‘DNS is Sexy’ first is owed a ton of props. What a poet!
Our disruptive 2nd major marketing campaign we ran (after the inaugural ‘Break Free’ campaign) cemented Dyn as a major player in the Managed DNS arena. It made us think long and hard about raising the bar and pushing the limits for whatever we decided to roll with next. It couldn’t flop.
In typical Dyn fashion, we didn’t take ourselves too seriously, had some fun, and mocked the Internet routing protocol we deliver our clients. If you are conservative, I’m sure it can be a little crass. Yes, we played off of GoDaddy’s continued approach that sex sells, but with a major twist: no sexy people, antics, commercials, celebrities, wet t-shirts or huge dollars.
When you sell 24/7 trust-based services with strict service level agreements, things can be pretty heady and pretty stressful. Our campaigns set out to humanize the code, which is why we’re ready to announce the next one that is about the rock the technology world.
Read More03.09.2012 By Kyle York
#SXSWi: Technology Startups & Emerging Bands Are One & The Same
People often ask me why we integrate emerging music into our marketing, events and brand building efforts and man, I relish in being asked. This very conversation represents the entire strategy behind it.
The reason? Technology startups are no different than emerging bands.
Think about it. You start out with an idea and a goal, whether it’s a band name or great song or a company or product. You are banking on building a ‘stick it to the man’ career in the digital music startup age where companies like Kickstarter, Soundcloud, Pandora and Spotify disrupt the status quo (yes, a couple Dyn clients littered in there).
You set out to build a following, to monetize, to build stability, to build a brand. The shared goal is to build a profession and lifestyle doing something immensely enjoyable that you believe in without hesitation — all in an effort to take the world by storm.
In both cases, some stay bootstrapped and independent. Some decide to take venture capital or sign with a major label. For some, it’s a choice. For some, it’s just the way it is. In both cases, you “Keep Calm And Carry On” and stay true to your art, whatever form it may take.
It’s like our SXSW ’12 headliner Dawes sings: “It’s a little bit of everything.”
Read More03.08.2012 By Dan McAuliffe
WPI’s UXDM Lab: Bringing Science To The Art Of Design
Lynda Elliott also contributed to this post.
Last Friday, members of our web development and executive team were invited to the grand opening of the User Experience and Decision Making (UXDM) Research Laboratory at WPI, something that will be a great addition to the campus and will help promote an industry that is only getting bigger.
What Is it?
The UXDM, which Dyn helped fund through our DynCares initiative, is a laboratory set up where individuals or businesses can test how users interact with their mobile and/or full-screen website, using the cutting-edge technology of user eye tracking. Simply put, the lab gives others the chance to look through the user’s eyes and learn something valuable about what they see and how they interact with it.
From there, businesses can then apply what they learn to an array of different issues, from streamlining a complex process in order to increase conversions to making their website more compatible for those with disabilities. No matter what your use for it may be, user experience has become an undeniably important commodity and having a better understanding of it can noticeably improve a company’s revenue.
Read More03.02.2012 By Kyle York
How To Build A Startup Ecosystem In A Small City
When talking about our individual and collective efforts to create a startup ecosystem in Manchester, NH, our leadership consistently hears, “That’s great, but c’mon. What’s in it for Dyn?”
To answer this question, you must first understand our roots. Co-founders Jeremy Hitchcock (CEO) and Tom Daly (CTO) were both brought up in the greater Manchester area and attended Manchester high schools. I actually met Jeremy in the halls of our middle school in the neighboring town of Bedford, way back in the mid 90’s.
Gray Chynoweth (COO) grew up 20 minutes north in Canterbury and breathes the state motto of “Live Free or Die”, while Josh Delisle (VP of Worldwide Sales) touts Amherst as his hometown. Joe Raczka (VP of Finance) is a Bedford alum, just like Jeremy and I. Matt Toy (VP of Client Services) hails from New London.
Cory von Wallenstein (CPO)? Well, he finally bought in and moved here two years ago from Massachusetts to join the movement. Like Cory, nearly every Dyn employee has bought in to the NH way of life and has their own unique story to tell.
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