A Year With UpKeep

It’s pretty rare to have a 1-year work anniversary sneak up on you, but a few weeks ago over lunch with my department, that’s exactly what happened. We had just finished celebrating a colleague’s 1 year with UpKeep - a huge accomplishment for a young start up - and I was super excited to throw another surprise for whoever was next on the roster. When I found out it was in fact ME, I could not BELIEVE that a full year had flown by.

When I started at UpKeep 365 days ago today, I joined a group of scrappy, hard-working teammates with a lot of heart, Papa John’s Pizza on speed dial and an electric scooter to zip around our rented co-working space as the predominant means of sharing messages across departments. We still have a team made up of go-getters - and yes, the scooter - but we also have weekly crowd sourced global email updates, a TON of new traditions, a beautiful new office-space with a killer view that’s all ours, and a little more variety in our catered lunches.

As I kick off my second year with UpKeep, I do so with heart full of gratitude. 

Gratitude for where we’ve been as a team and how much we’ve grown in such a short amount of time.

Gratitude for a partner who comes into work to help me build office furniture.

Gratitude for a boss like Ryan whose boundless optimism inspires everyone around him. Ryan is always one of the first people in the office making coffee for the rest of us, and one of the last individuals signing off for the night after meeting with our international team. He meets with every single new hire on their first day and has never once made me feel less than because of a mistake. A lot of people say it’s impossible to find your life’s purpose early in life, but those people have never met Ryan Chan. Thanks, Ryan, for a year full of learning and early-morning caffeine.

Gratitude for our customers who - quite literally - keep our entire world running. I’m so deeply grateful for the opportunity UpKeep has given me to learn about an entire league of intelligent, resourceful and kind people whose work affects the lives of every human on the planet. I don’t know how I went so long not noticing the unsung heroes around me - but I am now forever changed for the better. To the fixers, do-ers, maintainers and improvers - thank you. I promise to never stop working to help you be recognized for all you do.

Gratitude for two direct reports who teach me everyday how to be a better leader and teammate. Arie and Heather, you rock.

Gratitude to a team of people who welcomed me into the UpKeep family a year ago today with open arms:

• Joe

• Jason

• Miji

• Amna

• Garris

• Jon

• Jungho

• Kevin

• Ankit K.

• Prem

• Sandeep

• Manish

• Erol

• Edin

And gratitude for those I watched transform from a name on a resume to teammates that both 1. never stop pushing me to be better and 2. always concede to letting me listen to Disco Hits (loudly) on the company Alexa:

• Susie

• Ismail

• Tyler

• Dale

• Ben

• Anthony F.

• Moid

• Heather

• Gaurav

• Daniel

• Roy

• Anthony I.

• Peter

• Kyle

• Mark

• Ashish

• Drake

• Satya

• John

• Sarah

• Armaan

• Ankit P.

• Arie

• James

• Shane

• Caroline

• Nicole

• Rachel

• Warren

To everyone on Team UpKeep, THANK YOU for making this such an amazing year. I can’t wait to see what all the years ahead of us have in-store. If this past year has been any indication, they’re sure to be full of impact on our customers, laughter through the challenges and a whole lot of ABBA.

Caitlyn Young, Operations Manager at UpKeep