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Three months into 2017 and it’s already proving to be an exciting year here at Language I/O. To support our rapidly growing customer list, we recently welcomed top industry talent to our development team.
In March, Craig Boal joined Language I/O as the director of software development at the Cheyenne, Wyo. headquarters. Boal came to Language I/O, provider of multilingual support software, following an eleven-year career at Sierra Trading Post. Boal was hired as Sierra Trading Post’s first web developer in 2006, a wise hire since under Boal’s direction, the company’s web presence took off. Eventually, he was promoted to manager of eCommerce Development and Operations overseeing web and mobile app development as well as operations.
“The goal was to bring the development of the eCommerce platform, which had been outsourced, back in house,” Boal said. “We did that within a year.”
And what a critical achievement! During his tenure at Sierra Trading Post, the company became a Top 100 Internet Retailer, claimed industry-leading user experience scores and conversion rates and experienced double-digit eCommerce revenue growth. Boal’s drive to provide seamless eCommerce integration proved to be a critical component of that success.
“When we advertised for a senior developer and Craig reached out with interest, I was thrilled,” said Heather Morgan Shoemaker, Language I/O co-founder and head of the software development group in Cheyenne, Wyo. “When I asked folks in the Cheyenne software community about him, the response was uniformly ‘Craig is a genius.’ He clearly brings the technical background and leadership skills I was looking for as well as a great deal of enthusiasm.”
Language I/O decided to seek a director of software development after a year of phenomenal growth. Since the end of 2016, Language I/O has added new clients, expanded services for existing clients and added Language I/O Chat, an app that allows Oracle and Salesforce users to chat with customers in their language in real-time through CMS integration.
“The company’s growth has been amazing and that’s exactly what we want,” Morgan Shoemaker said. “But it was becoming difficult to lead the software development team and at the same time fill the role of managing partner in a growing software company. It was time to find someone with Craig’s experience who could focus on our product architecture, security and scalability and help us really take over the multilingual customer support market with our product Language I/O®.”
Language I/O is a dynamic, multilingual customer support, women-owned software start-up that takes its culture seriously. Language I/O co-owners Morgan Shoemaker and Kaarina Kvaavik want to ensure every hire focuses on an individual’s professional ability, not their gender. From day one, Boal has proven to be a great fit.
“I am extremely excited about the passion Kaarina and Heather have for Language I/O,” Boal said. “It’s infectious. It was also appealing to work for a strong female leadership team. That’s pretty unique, especially in this industry. Working for a women-owned company was definitely a selling point.”
Boal actually met Shoemaker and first heard of Language I/O years ago while he was working for Sierra Trading Post. The two met at a roundtable hosted by the City of Cheyenne.
“I didn’t know much about the company,” Boal said, “but I remember being really impressed by some of the things Heather talked about. I remember thinking that she came across as strong and knowledgeable, which was obviously appealing.”
As Language I/O began to grow, Boal sought out new challenges that would help him expand upon his computer science skill set.
“Developing code and working closely with other developers is where my true passion lies,” Boal said.
The challenge for Boal, was finding a new opportunity that would interest him without forcing him to leave Wyoming. The majority of Boal’s family lives in Wyoming and he loves the Wyoming lifestyle. He enjoys wakeboarding on nearby reservoirs, snowboarding and fly fishing. He likes the small city feel of Cheyenne, which has been great for raising a family, but is still close enough to Denver for concerts, sporting events and easy access to an international airport.
The Language I/O post seemed to be the perfect fit. It would have Boal staying in Cheyenne, working for a small, innovative company whose owners he respected immensely and would offer new challenges.
“One thing that really excites me about Language I/O is the problem they’re trying to solve,” Boal said about Language I/O’s quest to bring omni channel quality machine and human translations to customer support. “It’s really interesting and resonates with me personally.”
Boal said the idea of having significant influence over an organization like Language I/O is also appealing. However, while he’s learning about the company and the development of its products, he said he plans to spend a lot of time listening.
“I want to absorb and understand the history of why things are done they way they are,” Boal said. “I believe that level of understanding is crucial to successfully build upon a top notch foundation.”