Executive Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, SPS COMMERCE INC
Driving Change Episode 14 with Chief Technology Officer Jamie Thingelstad
Business is moving faster than ever, in tech it is moving even faster. In order to stay ahead we need to be constantly learning.
About Jamie Thingelstad
Jamie Thingelstad, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at SPS Commerce, has discussed the company's growth and his approach to technology leadership. He stated that SPS Commerce runs a retail network connecting more than 990,000 companies and celebrated its 78th quarter of consecutive growth. Thingelstad described leading a global technology team spanning four continents and noted that during the pandemic, the company used a portfolio approach, re-evaluating product investments and pulling its horizon to 12 to 18 months to remain nimble. He also emphasized the importance of building learning organizations and bringing in diversity through bootcamps or internship programs. Thingelstad has shared personal productivity methods, including using tags in OmniFocus to organize interactions with colleagues and managing "tag overload" by regularly reviewing and removing unused tags. He expressed concern about privacy and "constant surveillance," stating he is excited about technology being developed to help individuals manage their privacy. Thingelstad also reflected on his career, noting that timing and luck played a role and that he looks for companies building platforms at the center of an ecosystem.
Transcript (32 segments)
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Host0:00
So as I turn that corner, it's going to be a quilt. It will totally work. I'm completely confident. Now business is moving faster than ever, and in tech it's moving even faster. In order to stay ahead, we need to be constantly learning. This is driving change. Where we go for a ride with tech leaders to gain insights on their beliefs, habits, routines, and influences. Today we go for a ride with Jamie Thingelstad, Chief Technology Officer of SPS Commerce. On the ride we talk about trusting your intuition, connecting your passion with what you do, and solving problems that matter. So you are currently the CTO at SPS Commerce, that correct?
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Jamie Thingelstad0:42
Yes.
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Host0:45
So what is SPS?
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Jamie Thingelstad0:45
At SPS we run the world's largest retail network. That means we connect 65,000 people in retail together to exchange fulfillment information, order product, find new products, find nutrition partners, and understand how products are selling.
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Host1:00
Okay, and you've been there for about three years?
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Jamie Thingelstad1:05
About three years, a little over three years.
H
Host1:08
Okay, so what has been the transition since you got there from a technology side?
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Jamie Thingelstad1:10
We've been really focused on evolving our technology organization to meet the needs of the growth of our business. We've built out our shipping velocity significantly so that we can get code through our environments and out to customers faster. We scaled our platform significantly so that we can deal with the growth in the business, and we've really focused a lot on our culture and making sure that we have the culture of a technology team that you need as you're building out your platforms.
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Host1:51
As the CTO of SPS, how is your role defined? Because I know the role of CTO can definitely be defined differently in different companies. What is it for SPS?
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Jamie Thingelstad1:59
I'm responsible for and lead the technology organization, which covers three or four different continents. It's a team of about 350 people. All of our software development, the development of all our new products, the 24x7 operations of our production environment, building out new retailers that come into our network is part of my team, and additionally I have the corporate technology functions as well as the security functions.
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Host2:30
That's a lot. Yeah, it is. That's a lot. It's a great job. Looking at your background, I find it interesting that your bio reads as if you were in Silicon Valley. You've been in all these different tech startups and acquisitions, and you're in Minnesota. Started with BigCharts, is that right? So what was BigCharts and how did that happen?
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Jamie Thingelstad2:57
In the mid to late 90s, Philip Hoskins and I, a small group of folks, built out a company called BigCharts, which was a website in the early days of the web, pre-Web 2.0 even, that served financial charts and stock data to individual investors. And importantly, we also licensed that service as an application service provider, which is what we called it before it was SaaS, to financial service firms. At one point we served 18 of the top 20 financial services firms the charting experiences on their websites.
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Host3:39
And you also spent time over at EthBridge, is that right?
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Jamie Thingelstad3:41
Yeah, I was CTO for, and COO and CTO actually, for a company called Alenda. Alenda won the Minnesota Cup when I was an entrepreneur in residence at Split Rock Partners. Michael Gorman there was looking at investing in the company, and I assisted with the due diligence on that, and then along with the Series A round that Split Rock did, I joined as COO and CTO of Alenda, which then eventually became EthBridge.
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Host4:16
And then EthBridge went along and then they were eventually sold as well, is that right?
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Jamie Thingelstad4:18
Yeah, we launched our platform, tried a couple of different things, did some really innovative stuff in distributed social commerce, and then I actually decided to leave the company, and then the company was sold to an advertising agency a few months after that.
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Host4:48
Okay, I think one thing a lot of people don't know is the C-suite role in raising money. Can you explain a little bit like typically what happens and what their role is?
J
Jamie Thingelstad5:01
If you're building a technology company, investors want to know who is leading the technology organization and how they execute and how they build a team. Investors look for the CTO to be a founder preferably, so that they are part of the core team. One of the things I found interesting is what different people think the CTO does. For example, when we were raising money in the Valley, I would talk to some investors and they would think the CTO is the idea person, the guy that sits in his little cave with the lights off and just ships things, not able to actually run a team, build a team, deal with operational matters. In my background, I always look at building and operating the technology team as all parts of technology.
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Host6:08
You know, I think a lot of people in IT or technology are really interested in working in software companies or being part of a ride in an emerging tech company. You've been in a lot of them. How do you find them and how do you know they're the right one to join?
J
Jamie Thingelstad6:25
For me, I think about things like the culture of the organization. For technology particularly, understanding the culture of the team is really important. Personally, I look for companies that are building platforms and are at the center of an ecosystem. I always want to find something where the product and service that we operate is kind of the key to the ecosystem, not a peripheral. And then looking for the right type of technology. Most of the folks I know and the organizations I've been involved in are pretty forward thinking about technology and using new and innovative ways of solving problems. Not every organization has that need, so matching that to your personal interest is important as well.
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Host7:48
Looking back, what advice would you give your 25-year-old self?
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Jamie Thingelstad7:49
Trust your intuition. Certain decisions are really good decisions made with data. Other decisions, you should trust your intuition equally as much. Always focus on the team. One of the things that leaders can forget is that star engineers are great, but if they're not a good member of the team, that's not a good fit for your organization.
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Host8:21
Yeah, anything you did specifically that you think was helpful for you to kind of get in the position that you are now?
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Jamie Thingelstad8:27
Work really hard. I was meeting with a CEO founder today and the conversation we had right off the bat is that some people are just not willing to put in the work. As simple as that is. But first of all, anybody who doesn't admit that there's timing and luck has something to do with where things end up. I think that's always part of it. I happened to be in college when literally the web was being created, and I happened to be there to be around the first generation of companies that were building on the web. But I think what I would say is focus on what matters, always think about how you're learning and evolving your skills, and connect what you're doing to your passion. I personally am fundamentally passionate about technology. I often tell people if there wasn't a great career to be had in technology, I'd just be in technology without a great career. I love it. It's what I do. Connecting your passion to what you do is a really important part of being happy.
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Host10:00
I do a decent amount of reading. When it comes to the more evergreen topics like organizational design and how you build teams and leadership topics, there's more to read than you could ever read in your whole life. Are there any specific books that are some of your favorites?
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Jamie Thingelstad10:20
I'm kind of old school. I really liked Peter Drucker's 'The Effective Executive'. That was a really significant book that I enjoyed. His books are timeless. I'm a big advocate of GTD, Getting Things Done, so I read David Allen's books on that and practice that regularly to make sure I stay on top of everything that needs to get done.
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Host11:00
Tell me a little bit about MinneStar. I know you've been actively involved in that. Tell me a little bit about that community and the events.
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Jamie Thingelstad11:04
MinneStar is the nonprofit that runs MinneBar and MinneDemo. Our mission is to connect people who are passionate about technology in the Twin Cities area, in the state of Minnesota. We run MinneDemo, which is a demo event: working software only, seven demos, seven minutes long. They're very different events. MinneDemo is a great place to network and see what's happening in the community. MinneBar is a great place to learn about technology and to share what you've learned with other people in the community.
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Host11:49
Most executives are always working on some sort of big problem or challenge. What's top of mind for you right now?
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Jamie Thingelstad11:58
Top of mind for me right now is that at SPS we've had an amazing track record of growth for the last decade plus. But I'm very interested in understanding and figuring out how our platform and products can enable even more growth. I think there's some really innovative stuff we can do in that area over the course of the next number of years.
H
Host12:25
Excellent. Well, great, thanks a lot. I appreciate it. It was fun.
Hey, this is Jeff Martin again. If you go to leadbychange.com, you can see this show and other shows. If you subscribe, you can get early access to new shows and also exclusive content. Thanks for watching.