I just posted there with some reflections a yearly later on this little #givethanks100 project. Check it out:

I like to call the three of us the “Three Amigos”. One of my favorite things to do during the summer is for the three of us to go on bike rides together.

I see myself in Eli in many ways- he looks like me, he’s an introvert, and he loves to code. Fortunately for him, I can already tell he will be much taller than me.

Adeline and I share a birthday and a personality type. She’s adventurous and creative and more likely to ask for forgiveness than permission… all traits that I admire.

My family is my first priority and I would do anything for them. It is also true that I have never found myself capable of completely checking out of work. My kids are very gracious and understanding on this.

Perhaps the biggest test of my “work-life integration” philosophy came a year ago. On March 25th 2021, I signed a letter of intent to sell HomeSpotter to Lone Wolf. Two days later, I hopped in an RV with the family for a two week trek to some amazing national parks in Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. Given that the LOI to close process took only 46 days, that means that 32% of that process happened while I was traversing the country in an RV with my family.

I didn’t want to jeopardize the deal or convey that I was any less committed to a timely close, so I never really mentioned I was in an RV to my new colleagues at Lone Wolf. I took many due diligence meetings hunched over a laptop on the side of the road or in some other temporarily contrived office setup.

We managed to have the vacation of a lifetime and enjoyed every minute of it … and the deal closed on time too.

As I thought about the things I most wanted to do if the deal closed, the thing that kept floating to the top of my list was that I simply wanted to spend more time with my kids daily and to cherish each moment before they head off to make a life of their own.

I’ve since been very fortunate this past school year to be able to commit to doing a few school drop offs and pick ups each week. That twenty minute drive to/from school is often the highlight of my day.

I’ve also had the chance to take tennis lessons with Eli and to watch my daughter excel at gymnastics.

Eli and Adeline- I love you both to the moon and back. I am so lucky you are my kids and I am so proud of who you are both becoming. Thank you for supporting and understanding your entrepreneurial father. The best is yet to come.

Originally posted on LinkedIn – head over to give it a like or a share.

I’m giving thanks for 100+ days to individuals that positively impacted me or HomeSpotter’s trajectory.

We had many people who made big contributions during this key time, which represented our second big wave of growth as a company – which was most evident in bringing Boost to market and growing it and also in our acquisition of Spacio.

While not a comprehensive list, I want to call out David Berget, Jason Brown, Seth Goodlaxson, Ben Holmgren, Galen Kistler, Trevor Kozar, Josh Lewis, Elmer Meyer, and Amit Periyapatna for your contributions during this time.

Some of these individuals, like Trevor, played a key role in customer success. Others had big contributions behind the scenes in product or engineering roles.

All of these individuals played a critical role in driving us forward. They made us a better company and we were very fortunate to have them as part of the team.

David, Jason, Seth, Ben, Galen, Trevor, Josh, Meyer, and Amit- thank you for your contributions.

Originally posted on LinkedIn – head over to give it a like or a share.

I’m giving thanks for 100+ days to individuals that positively impacted me or HomeSpotter’s trajectory.

Rajeev has been a long-term partner of both Spacio and HomeSpotter. He always has great ideas and has been an advocate and a partner for us.

Rajeev is an early adopter through and through. He is always pushing the boundaries on new ways to drive value for his agents and we’ve often been the fortunate recipient of some of those ideas that have netted out to product enhancements.

Rajeev- thank you for your partnership and for all of your ideas for improvement.

Originally posted on LinkedIn – head over to give it a like or a share.

I’m giving thanks for 100+ days to individuals that positively impacted me or HomeSpotter’s trajectory.

Ting was co-founder and CTO of Spacio. I first got to know Ting a bit before we acquired Spacio.

He and his team built a great product. And he was very dedicated to providing his customers good service.

He was also a true professional

Ting- thank you for hard work and for building such a great product.

Originally posted on LinkedIn – head over to give it a like or a share.

I’m giving thanks for 100+ days to individuals that positively impacted me or HomeSpotter’s trajectory.

Abby joined just a bit before COVID went full swing. She spearheaded several projects for us. A key one involved operationalizing and automating much of our invoicing and collections process.

Abby’s an entrepreneur herself and she brought an entrepreneurial mindset and desire to solve problems to her work. I’m excited that she continues to push us forward at Lone Wolf today.

Abby- thank you for your dedication to excellence.

Originally posted on LinkedIn – head over to give it a like or a share.

I’m giving thanks for 100+ days to individuals that positively impacted me or HomeSpotter’s trajectory.

Justin helped us out several times over the years with contract devops, infrastructure, and IT services. He was a true professional – and we were fortunate to be able to work with him on a contract basis.

Justin- thank you for your contributions!

Originally posted on LinkedIn – head over to give it a like or a share.

I’m giving thanks for 100+ days to individuals that positively impacted me or HomeSpotter’s trajectory.

John worked with us as a contractor on several occasions. He did an amazing job of solidifying our Android code base and making it more maintainable.

John is a perfectionist at his core and his code reflects that.

John- thank you for helping us level up.

Originally posted on LinkedIn – head over to give it a like or a share.

I’m giving thanks for 100+ days to individuals that positively impacted me or HomeSpotter’s trajectory.

When I first got to know Tracy and Jeanette, they were both at RE/MAX Regional Services, and they lead the roll out and adoption of HomeSpotter’s mobile app throughout five different states’ RE/MAX franchises.

It stretched us as a company at the time – we went from 60 MLS feeds to 120 MLS feeds in a period of four months. And while I was certainly proud of the work we did internally to make that happen, it simply wouldn’t have been possible without Tracy and Jeanette shepherding things through on their side.

As luck would have it, Tracy and I are now working together at Lone Wolf. We’re so lucky to have her.

Tracy and Jeanette- thank you for your partnership!

Originally posted on LinkedIn – head over to give it a like or a share.

I’m giving thanks for 100+ days to individuals that positively impacted me or HomeSpotter’s trajectory.

While I previously gave thanks to Art Carter for his great advice and partnership, I’d be remiss if I didn’t also give a shoutout to Adrese as well.

I think I first got to know Adrese from CRMLS at my first CMLS event in Tucson in 2011. We kept in touch and continued to check in at various conferences.

A couple years later I called Adrese with an idea I had around bringing a lite version of our service to CRMLS for free. That re-opened the door to a conversation. And fortunately for us, CRMLS liked what we were doing but didn’t want to provide a lesser version to their members, which led to us forming our largest client partnership to date.

Adrese- thank you for opening the door to our partnership!

Originally posted on LinkedIn – head over to give it a like or a share.

I’m giving thanks for 100+ days to individuals that positively impacted me or HomeSpotter’s trajectory.

I often say that I grew up in a family of entrepreneurs. And while I’m mostly referring to my Mom and Dad, I often think of my Grandpa Kardell as I’m saying that too.

My Grandpa was a farmer. And farmers are, at their core, entrepreneurs. There’s a substantial amount of risk that they take on each and every year.

But Grandpa was an “entrepreneur” in ways that extend way beyond farming. He was always generating new ideas and angling for a way to make them work. He was a great negotiator. And he was a judicious risk taker.

He also led a life of high integrity and left a high bar for us all. I had the great privilege of getting to see him in his final days before he passed away at the age of 94. My Dad asked him if he was scared of what was to come. I’ll never forget … he gave an unequivocal “no” as an answer. That confidence… to know you’ve lived the life you wanted to and that you have an unwavering faith in what’s to come. It’s something I can only hope to emulate.

Grandpa- I miss you and can’t thank you enough for the legacy you started, passed on to my Dad, and that I now hope lives on in me.

Originally posted on LinkedIn – head over to give it a like or a share.

I’m giving thanks for 100+ days to individuals that positively impacted me or HomeSpotter’s trajectory.

Jimmy is the CEO of Lone Wolf. Post-acquisition, I’ve gotten to know him a bit better. He’s a big Texas A&M fan and after they beat Alabama this last year, I think I became one too.

In all seriousness, though, Jimmy is a top notch operator. I first saw parts of that when he stepped in during key and critical parts of Lone Wolf’s acquisition of HomeSpotter to ensure we stayed on track and got the deal done. And I've seen it post-acquisition many times over.

Jimmy has also pulled together an amazing executive team in Caroline Morris, Sean Wheeler, Matt Keenan, Kate Annis, Jen Davis, Rob Crocker, and Chris Egan.

Lest anyone write this post off as pandering, let me be clear. I sincerely mean it when I say working with and for Jimmy and the rest of this team is a big reason why I’m at Lone Wolf. This team works hard, plays to win, and has fun while doing it too.

Jimmy- thanks for giving me and the HomeSpotter team such a great opportunity. I’m looking forward to the successes we continue to drive together next.

Originally posted on LinkedIn – head over to give it a like or a share.

I’m giving thanks for 100+ days to individuals that positively impacted me or HomeSpotter’s trajectory.

REBGV has been a long-term partner of HomeSpotter’s and they are an incredibly good team to work with. Over the years, we’ve had the pleasure of working with Mike Pedersen, Ian Abbott, Isiah Amon, Gord Lau, Volker Seidel, and Katrin Newell.

They’ve provided a lot of great feedback to help us improve. And we continue to have very high adoption to this day.

Mike, Ian, Isiah, Gord, Volker, and Katrin- thank you for your ongoing partnership and support!

Originally posted on LinkedIn – head over to give it a like or a share.

I’m giving thanks for 100+ days to individuals that positively impacted me or HomeSpotter’s trajectory.

Val was our customer support manager/lead for 2 years at HomeSpotter. Val always went above and beyond to deliver strong for our customers. She really embodied two of our core values at HomeSpotter - she possessed strong empathy for our customers and she was a doer at her core.

Val had a unique ability to bring a positive attitude to everything she did. She was very motivated to improve processes along the way for the good of our customers and our internal teams as well.

Val- thank you for your positive impact on our customers and all of us at HomeSpotter!

Originally posted on LinkedIn – head over to give it a like or a share.

I’m giving thanks for 100+ days to individuals that positively impacted me or HomeSpotter’s trajectory.

Pete and Khou have both been part of our QA team and the help ensure that we consistently ship with quality.

More recently, Pete has moved into a development role and it’s been good to see him progress as he’s desired in his career.

Pete and Khou- thank you for your commitment to quality.

Originally posted on LinkedIn – head over to give it a like or a share.

I’m giving thanks for 100+ days to individuals that positively impacted me or HomeSpotter’s trajectory.

Paul (a/k/a Minnesota Headhunter) worked with us a few times over the years to help us with recruiting.

If you didn’t know, it is unbecoming of Minnesotans to talk about our successes or to speak with pride, or anything resembling it. I think the #1 thing I learned from Paul in our time working together is that one of the most important things in recruiting is to be out there and be vocal. And that doing so would require me to get the word out on our momentum and accomplishments in a way that wasn’t otherwise natural for me.

He really pushed us to light up our social channels, seek out press coverage, and get the word out on what we were up to. And we were ultimately able to attract better talent as a result.

Paul- thank you for your coaching and helping us to up our game on recruiting and beyond.

Originally posted on LinkedIn – head over to give it a like or a share.

I’m giving thanks for 100+ days to individuals that positively impacted me or HomeSpotter’s trajectory.

Shane joined the week after we moved to “work from home by default” in mid-2020 as Director of Growth. It was surely an odd time to have just switched jobs. Over the next six months he made monumental contributions that helped us level up our growth marketing efforts.

Shane is uniquely gifted as an engineer who moves fast and has broad interdisciplinary skills. Prior to 2020, nearly all of our sales to date had been to larger enterprises. Shane introduced a number of successful patterns and strategies for optimizing direct to agent marketing-led growth.

Shane- thank you for joining us and making such a high impact.

Originally posted on LinkedIn – head over to give it a like or a share.

I’m giving thanks for 100+ days to individuals that positively impacted me or HomeSpotter’s trajectory.

This post is dedicated to: Chad Becker, Jon-Erik Borgen, Ryan Broshar, Elizabeth Cannon, Meredith Cannon, Jon Dahl, Jonathan Ellis, Jeff Hinck, Bonnie Huebsch, Tim Huebsch, Vince O'Connell, Cindy Ostendorf, Phil Pogge, Joel Seleskie, various individuals mentioned in prior posts, and others still who would prefer not receive public recognition.

I can’t say enough good things about our investor group. Many provided value beyond just the cash. All were patient. There was hardly a conversation wondering how soon we would sell and there was never a demand that we explore an unproductive business direction. All were responsive when I asked for help.

With such a large cap table, I consider myself uniquely fortunate.

Chad, Jon-Erik, Ryan, Elizabeth, Meredith, Jon, Jonathan, Jeff, Bonnie, Tim, Vince, Cindy, Phil, Joel, and all of the others- we simply wouldn’t have reached the level of success we did without you. Thank you for your support and trust in me and our team.

Originally posted on LinkedIn – head over to give it a like or a share.

I’m giving thanks for 100+ days to individuals that positively impacted me or HomeSpotter’s trajectory.

Cedric and Hayley both joined HomeSpotter immediately after completing different coding schools. And they are both great examples of individuals I’m proud we hired over the years. They’re motivated, key contributors to their respective teams to this day.

Outside of their coding skills, they’re on a short list of people I’d go ask for advice on all things craft beer or crypto. I’ll let you guess who’s who on that.

Cedric and Hayley- I’m so grateful you chose to come work for HomeSpotter and that you’re continuing to push us forward at Lone Wolf.

Originally posted on LinkedIn – head over to give it a like or a share.

I’m giving thanks for 100+ days to individuals that positively impacted me or HomeSpotter’s trajectory.

John is the President of Cressy & Everett Real Estate, who has been a long-time customer of both our Boost and Connect products.

John has shared a lot of great ideas with us over the years. He’s also been one of my favorite people to connect with at various conferences.

John- thank you for your support and ideas.

Originally posted on LinkedIn – head over to give it a like or a share.

I’m giving thanks for 100+ days to individuals that positively impacted me or HomeSpotter’s trajectory.