Lead by example is founder’s charge to growing team of developers and programmers
Denver, Colo.—Jarod Clark, founder and president of Unleaded Software Inc., earned his Magento certification July 12, 2014. Clark’s role at the 10-year-old company is visionary direction and leads the company sales. Taking and passing the Magento certification test is in keeping with Clark’s challenge to the Denver team of 30 and the Ahmedabad, India team of nine.
“Unleaded is proud to have six Magento certified and Magento certified-plus developers on staff. That accumulated knowledge allows us to build better sites for customers. If I’m going to expect that of my team, I expect it of myself,” said Clark. “It’s a tough exam and having taken it myself, I’m even more proud of my team members who‘ve already passed the exam. And I look forward to being able to announce more of our team earning their certification in the near future.”
Clark fit preparation for the test into his schedule of leading the company while meanwhile taking his MBA at University of Colorado. Clark’s certification comes during the 10th Anniversary Year as a corporation. For eight years prior, from 1996 – 2004, Unleaded operated as a sole proprietorship.
In its earliest days, Clark designed and developed websites for a number of the area’s top enterprises. Everyone was new to the internet and businesses like Europtics to ICG Communications wanted a presence in cyberspace. When Andrew Klein partnered with Clark in 2004 to turn the company into a serious business, the two had just graduated from Colgate University in New York. In their first half year of operations, the two worked out of a basement selling and producing $79,000 in websites. “We played an awful lot of video games in the first few months,” Clark recalled.
In 2005, the team bought its building at Broadway and Park Avenue and the principals invested nights and weekends refurbishing the dated building into a gem in the middle of the Ballpark Neighborhood.
“My partners and I have put everything we have into growing this company. We’ve never asked our team members to do anything we weren’t willing to do ourselves. That kind of shared experience has resulted in an operation that is superior, producing superior work for our customers because we know and understand how Magento works and what works best for various types of customers,” Clark added.