Meet Tom George, Fitted’s Engineering Manager and the Head of the Cloud DevOps team! We got the opportunity to ask Tom about his Engineering background, exciting product updates coming down the pipeline, and why he loves working at Fitted. We are thrilled to share his thoughts on all things Fitted!
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How did you get to where you are today in your career?
Mostly hard work and luck. While pursuing an education in college, I went to school part-time and worked full-time. I learned quickly and became a key contributor at work.
Another aspect that has helped me grow my career has been the people I’ve met along the way. The relationships I have built have provided me with great opportunities – leading me to two great companies, Clearwater, and now Fitted.
What made you want to work at Fitted?
Fitted was an exciting prospect because we’re trying to do something that no one has ever done before. Our mission is to help brick-and-mortar retailers succeed – we’re not your typical company that is solely focused on trying to get money. At a previous company I worked for, profit was always the end goal versus actually helping people be better.
The biggest factor that drew me to Fitted was that we were trying to accomplish something that would help retailers be their best, while also being flexible in our technology stack. At Fitted, I knew I could make valuable contributions, bring innovative ideas to the table, and also try new things to set Fitted and our partners up for success.
What do you enjoy most about being a part of the Fitted team?
The team itself! All of the people at Fitted are very good people. Our team truly wants to make a difference in others’ lives, and they want Fitted to succeed – ultimately transforming the retail industry.
Our work at Fitted is a challenge – no one has ever done what we’re trying to do. One of the things I never want to do is get into a job where I’m doing the same thing over and over and not being challenged. I want to always be improving and finding better ways to do things, and Fitted provides me with that opportunity.
How is Fitted revolutionizing retail now? What is coming in Fitted’s future that you’re most excited about?
Right now we are revolutionizing retail by giving retailers information that they didn’t have in the past. One of the biggest things that surprised me was the fact that prior to Fitted, retailers were placing orders without knowing the price until after they had the product and got invoiced for it. The order and payment visibility that Fitted provides is helping retailers like crazy!
What I see as one of the big game-changers coming down the pipeline is distributed warehousing. Distributed warehousing is the idea that we could potentially say, “Hey brands, you have these giant warehouses that you’re paying tons of money for, but guess what you have retailers all across the country. They all have little warehouses and you can just store your inventory with all these retailers. Then, your retailers can just sell your inventory directly from the warehouse basically.” I think this could be truly revolutionary for brands.
We have a lot of other exciting new releases coming soon too. Allowing retailers to place futures orders through Fitted will be groundbreaking. At Fitted, we’re making the playing field level for all retailers, no matter their size – and that’s really how we’re revolutionizing retail.
How is the engineering team driving forward the Fitted mission?
For the most part we’re putting ideas into practice. Ideas are generated by our Founders, but also internally with our CS team, Marketing team, Sales team, PO team, and Engineering team. We all have great ideas, and the Engineering team takes these ideas to see what is technically possible and technically feasible to eventually make them a reality. When implementing a new idea, it all comes down to opportunity cost. Is the technical time we put into something worth what this awesome idea is?
How would your team describe you?
I would assume they would describe me as someone that is a good leader that listens to their issues and actually takes action to help solve them. Someone that is knowledgeable that comes to the table with research, with preplanned ideas, and also someone that doesn’t take credit for other people’s work. I always try to make sure that the individual doing the work on something is getting the credit for it. I would hope that that’s something they think about me.
What’s your favorite activity outside of work?
My favorite activity depends on the season. During the winter, I spend a good amount of time skiing at Bogus Basin. I don’t spend much time outside during the winter other than skiing. For the rest of the year I do a lot of mountain biking, kayaking, rafting, and woodworking. I’ve also done a lot of cabinetry and I’m working on my fence right now.
What is something no one would know about you?
I usually tell everyone everything about me. I grew up in North Idaho, surrounded by family. My grandparents had a Dude Ranch. I spent summers working at their ranch, doing guided tours for guests which included guided hunting trips and a few horse backing day trips into mountainous areas where motorized vehicles are not allowed.
