This sh*t is hard. And somehow, this team makes it look easy.
Just over a year ago, I walked into my first Chainguard summit on Day 1 - nervous, excited, not knowing what was ahead. What I found was a team already taking on the hard stuff, and refusing to let the challenges get in the way of building something special.
Since then, we’ve:
🚀 Welcomed 350+ new Chainguardians
🌍 Expanded to 13+ countries
⚙️ Transitioned from a PEO to building our own HR operations
💻 Rolled out Workday HRIS in months (a project that usually takes a year+)
🏆 Earned Great Place to Work certification while tripling headcount
🐙 Came together for company summits in Austin, Nashville, and Chicago
🍦 Held our first People Team offsite - full of feedback, a north star for what’s next… and a whole lot of ice cream
The truth is: scaling at this pace looks shiny from the outside, but from the inside it’s equal parts exhilarating and exhausting (in the best way). Systems break. Priorities shift. You’re constantly solving “firsts.”
What I’ve learned this year:
🟣 Don’t wait for perfect. Launch, learn, iterate. Perfection slows you down.
🟣 Over-communicate. When in doubt, say it again. And then once more.
🟣 Culture doesn’t scale by accident. It’s a daily choice protected in the hard moments, and celebrated in the good ones.
My takeaway? Growth will always be messy. The win isn’t avoiding the mess, it’s working alongside a (great) team that can move through it and build it together.
Big, big shout-out to Grace Shiell, Tamara Dambreville, and Gary Knox, who lead the way every single day. Proud to be part of this team and inspired by the care and drive they bring to every challenge.
And if you’re excited to work somewhere people do the best work of their careers (and don’t take themselves too seriously), we’re hiring. 💜