A Day in the Life of Steadfast CEO, Elise Kennedy

Today we’re continuing our day in the life series, this time featuring our CEO, Elise Kennedy! Elise is an incredible leader and manager, wearing a number of different hats from operations to HR to sales. The Steadfast team could go on and on about how much we appreciate Elise, her passion for Steadfast and her employees, and the aspirational vision she sets. Today, though, we’re letting her tell her story in her own words.

We asked her a few questions about what a typical day in her life is like, how she views her role, and what she wants to see for this business and industry. She gave some really fun and insightful responses.

So without further ado, a day in the life of Elise Kennedy:

What is your morning routine? How has that changed during the pandemic? 

I’m actually not a morning person! I have much more of a late-night routine than a morning routine. When I’m on at work, I’m pretty laser-focused, and then typically get to my mountain of texts late at night. 

The pandemic has helped me embrace my inner night-owl. Usually when I wake up around 8-8:30, my kind husband brings me coffee. I check emails, news, Twitter, and Slack. I also like to write down my intentions for the day, but sometimes I do that the night before. 

Give us the quick version of your role at Steadfast.  What are your responsibilities? What are you focused on?

As CEO, I’m focused on equal parts strategy/vision as well as day-to-day operations. No one warned me about all the administrative things there are to focus on as a CEO! 

A lot of my time operationally is spent financial forecasting, accounting, capacity planning, and small HR tasks to support my team. 

When it comes to strategy/vision, it can look different day-to-day but ultimately with the goal of making Steadfast an elite builder of software for other founders. 

That can mean quick calls with Project Management to see how we can use better tools for better client experiences, calls with developers to see what their workload is like and what they want to work on so I can bring them the best projects, or brainstorming with marketing how we can get across our mission to serve founders in the most effective way.

Basically, my job is to be a servant leader: I’m lucky to have a team that’s a lot smarter than me, so encouraging them to dream big and getting them all the resources they need to make them happen and get out of the way is my ultimate goal.  Like writing this blog post for our marketing team. 

On any given day, where do you end up spending most of your time?

I’m usually on several calls a day, so Google Hangouts. Can’t wait to do more in person meetups one of these days! 

What is your favorite tool that you use daily? 

Twitter: networking, news, and fun tweets. It’s a great way to keep in touch with friends and connections while we’re all WFH. 

What is the best possible lunch on a Wednesday?

Non-pandemic: Veggie Burger and iced tea at Better Half outside with a friend, followed by coffee inside and afternoon co-working.

Pandemic: Chilantro rice bowl with basil peach lemonade. 

What is your go-to happy hour beverage?

Spicy margaritas. If you haven’t had one before, this is your sign to try it! 

If you could change one thing to improve the software development process, community, or industry, what is that change and how would that make your life better and other people’s lives better?

I’d love for all of us (in the industry + community + clients) to value the human element of software development more. 

With the number of dev firms out there, development can seem like a commodity. But it’s not even close to that. It’s humans building products that other humans will use, and whether it’s a decision to build a feature (or do nothing), you’re putting your product into hands where your development team is making product decisions on an hourly basis. 

Also, since a lot of people view development as a commodity (which is fair -- we must do a better job of educating people on the process behind it), they view it less of a partnership. We carefully pick our clients and partners who view the process as a partnership. (See: our No Asshole policy.) 

Dev firms can also seem really stuffy and impersonal. I’m not about that life -- life’s too short. We value joy in what we do. 

At the end of the day, what is success for you?

Helping other founders turn their dreams into reality. Cultivating and maintaining a culture where people are happy, professionally fulfilled, and inclusive.