The gTeam celebrates.

What a week. We launched our partnerhip with Diapers.com and welcomed Jeff Beyer as our new* COO / CFO. (*when I say "new", we met Jeff right off the boat in 2004. He has been on the Board since then and a big contributor to the success of g)

To celebrate, we had an all team lunch at Serratto – a gFavorite.

 

Jolynn, our VP, Merchandising with Tyler our Operations Czar. Jolynn came to us from Adidas. She is from Canada like Kim. So they both spell funny and speak funny but not as funny as me. Tyler is 100% Oregon. His dream vacation of all global destinations would be anywhere in Oregon. I love that!

Gillian (LHS) – one of our Diaper Therapists to the Eco Savvy with Steph (RHS) our "All round Jillaroo".  Gillian was a customer who moved up to Portland from the Bay area and joined the gCrew. She is amazing with customers. I should know  – I sit opposite her. (She has to endure my music. Sorry Gilly). Steph works in our finance group and does a superb job supporting everyone else at gHQ (as well as chasing me for lost receipts).

Jeff with Kim. Jeff is a huge Cubs fan. But he is a realistic Cubs fan. His email is "cubslose@…"! However the tide is turning right? First the Giants, next the Cubs? And you all know Kim. President. Chief Woo-er. Keeper of the brand (so no, Jason, we can't use that shade of orange!).

Our two international (external consultant) men of mystery. So mysterious that despite working really closely on getting the web integration right for Diapers.com, they had never met each other until this lunch. All IM. Zach on the left, Ezra on the right. Ezra has been with us since the beginning when he built our first site.

Karen, Michelle and Dodge. Or Kazaa, Schooner and Smithers. You pick. Karen has a split personality. She's either running our Boutique program or she is a product manager, working on new gStuff. Schooner (an Australian term for a beer. Michelle's surname is Schnoor and I mis-read it when we first met. I was stinging for a beer right at that moment. Whatever) runs our gMum program, supports Marty on the sales side and is our Director of Marketing. Smithers is our Web Czar. He keeps the tubes running day and night. He has only broken them once when an enormous amount of you wanted to buy a huge amount of stuff at exactly the same time. No harm, no foul.

Kelli (LHS)  is our Head Diaper Therapist to the Eco-Savvy and our internal wordsmith. So when she is not on the phone chatting with gPeeps, or corresponding via email she conjures up the words we need to let you all know what we're up to.  Mimi (RHS) is our Product Czar. She has been with us as a consultant since 2005 and has just joined us full time. Mimi comes to use from Columbia Sportswear and she sure knows her way around textiles! 

Heather (with Hadley! LHS) and Andi. Heather is a Diaper Therapist to the Eco Savvy. Like Gillian and Kelli (the rest of our Therapy group) she too was a customer first and then joined the gTeam. Her hubby John works at Anvil, the group that helps optimize our website so it's all in the family. Andi works in our finance group. She comes to us from our auditors. So she audited us for 2 years just to make sure we were Kosher before joining us. That's quite the due diligence. She is our Spreadsheet Czar. As a Liberal Arts graduate, words cannot adequately express the respect I have for Andi and those Excel spreadsheets. 

Kate – our #2 employee and VP Marketing with Harvey, our outbound Ops man. Kate worked at a PR agency we had engaged before we even had a brand back in 2004. We thought she rocked so Kim woo'ed and woo'ed and Kate made the leap. What a trip it has been. Harvey (real name Jeff but we already had a Jeff@gD.com so he had to change his name by Deed Poll – committment bro') is a worldy young man having worked in London and South America. He keeps the minutes for our all team meetings each week. These are more entertaining than the meeting. The kid is gifted.

Kimmy with Dave, our Chief Culture Officer. When we first arrived in Portland in 2004, I was introduced to Dave and we went for a walk in the woods. When we got back, I decided that our company (which at that point had no brand, no funding, no office and no staff) really needed a culture guy. Kim thought I was insane. But it was the right move. Every entrepreneur (and investor) says "it's all about the people". But very few really invest in that. Dave is a rockstar, helping us with how we hire, how we run meetings, how we get along, how we resolve issues. He designs and facilitates our annual retreat. Every company needs a CCO. And he works for beer.

The whole gCrew, except for Dawn who manages our Finance group and Marty, our VP, Sales. I'd feel bad about not having these two here but here's the thing. Dawn is in Hawaii chillaxing on vacay and Marty splits his time between his home in Phoenix and a place on the Sea of Cortez in Mehico. So no sympathy for either of you!