An interview With Larry Dozier - Operations Manager of A1 Web Server
 

Interviewer:  Hello Larry. Can you tell me what you do at A1 Web Server?

Larry:  (chuckling) What don't I do? I guess you could say that I'm responsible for all of the technical aspects of the business. I serve as the Systems Administrator, Programmer, Webmaster, and the initial Technical Support Point of Contact for our clients.

Interviewer:  You also own the company, don't you?

Larry:  Chuck Oppitz and I own 101 Connect LLC which, in turn, owns A1 Web Server.

Interviewer:  What does Chuck do?

Larry:  Chuck handles the business end of the business. He is in charge of billing our clients, handling any issues in relation to that, strategic planning, marketing, and providing a little business discipline to our operations. We have a great partnership. Basically, Chuck is the businessman and I'm the technical nerd.

Interviewer:  How did you get started?

Larry:  Back in 1998 I was working for Chuck as the Systems Administrator and Web Marketer of a hotel he owned. I was also reselling webhosting for David Martin who owned Cedant Hosting. An opportunity came up to lease my own server. Chuck and I had found that we worked very well together, so I approached him with a proposal for forming A1 Web Server. Within 3 weeks we had a website online and were taking orders.

Interviewer:  So how large is A1 Web Server?

Larry:   We're actually a fairly small web hosting company. We host around 1000 websites for clients in over 15 countries. A lot of companies our size try to give the impression that they are actually larger than they really are. We don't do that. Our strength is that we are fairly small. It gives our clients direct access to the guys that own the company, and helps us to stay responsive to our clients needs.

Interviewer:  What's the best thing about your job?

Larry:  That's an easy one - dealing with our clients. They're great. We have very little turnover, so, over time, we've developed some very strong and close relationships with our clients. Our slogan's not just marketing hype, it's reality. Many of our clients have become friends as well.

Interviewer:  What's the most difficult thing?

Larry:  I think, for me, the most difficult thing is that I never know when to quit. I love what I do, and it's tough to break away at quitting time. I end up overworking myself at times.

Interviewer:  Along the same lines, what has been your most challenging experience?

Larry:  A couple of years ago I let down my guard a little on security, and we got clobbered. A hacker did a lot of damage to one of our main servers. I spent 30 hours in our colo center trying to get things back up and running. At a certain point, things looked so unsolvable that I was sure that we'd lose much of our webhosting business.

Interviewer:  Well, you're still in the hosting business...

Larry:  By the grace of God and due to the understanding nature of our clients, we're still here. We learned a hard lesson, there, about vigilance. We also learned some other lessons about planning in advance for disasters.

Interviewer:  How many clients did you lose from that incident.

Larry:  Amazingly enough, we only lost two accounts. I honestly thought we'd lose many more than that. The main reason I kept at it for those thirty hours is because I consider so many clients as friends, and decided I needed to do whatever I could to salvage their data. When I got back to the office, I saw my message machine blinking like crazy. I pulled out a pad of paper and began listening to the messages, ready to process the cancellations. I was absolutely amazed by what I heard. People were, obviously, concerned about their websites and email, but they were concerned about me as well. I can't tell you how touched I was by that. It was a profound thing, and it's permanently changed my outlook on customer service.

Interviewer:  Since then, you've tightened up security?

Larry:  We've become fanatical. I'd estimate that I spend 25% of my time on security issues. It takes a lot of time to stay abreast of the various threats, but it's a real necessity in this business. We've also done a lot of planning for disaster recovery. Our philosophy is to hope for the best but plan for the worst.

Interviewer:  What makes your company different from the thousands of web hosting companies out there?

Larry:  It's the service -  and the attitude. There are some extremely good hosting companies out there when it comes to technical expertise, but you can't get anyone on the phone when you have a question. We answer the phone, reply to emails, actually make a real effort to understand your problem, and don't dismiss any problem as small or insignificant...If it weren't important to you, you wouldn't have called us, right?

I think, too, that there's the transparency we embrace. We don't hide who we are. We don't try to appear to be a big company. Our clients know we're small, but they also know we're competent and honest. They know that sometimes we hit a home run, occasionally we hit a foul ball, but mostly, we just play a consistently good game, and have for several years now.

Interviewer:  Do you run your business from home?

Larry:  No, but I could, and have in the past. The servers are all managed remotely, and I can do that from the office, or from my home, or from just about anywhere.

Interviewer:  Then why the extra expense of an office?

Larry:  No cats.

Interviewer:  Is there a story here?

Larry:  When I did work from home, we had a new kitten that loved to walk on the printer, making it beep. She would occasionally push the "Copy" button, which really thrilled her because that caused a sheet of paper to start feeding out. A real mystery to her how that all happened. She must have thought there was a mouse inside, or something.

She was forever jumping up on my lap while I was working. I eventually got her trained to not do that unless I was talking on the phone, when I would allow it.

At the same time, we also had a young dog who was fascinated with the prospect of chasing the cat. Eventually they forged a working relationship, of sorts, where the cat stayed in the high places, and the dog ruled the low places.

One day, an important client called. I leaned back in my chair while talking to the client, and the cat saw this as her cue to jump on my lap. Apparently, the dog viewed my lap as his turf, and he suddenly jumped up on me too, vigorously challenging the cat's encroachment. The cat was hissing, the dog was snarling, and before I could do anything to stop it, a full fledged war broke out. It startled me so badly that I moved too quickly and spilled coffee all over myself. I was able to keep my composure over the phone, and the client didn't seem to notice, but I decided then and there that it was time to move the business back into an office.

Interviewer:  Web hosting is actually your second career, isn't it?

Larry:  Yes. I worked for 12 years as a commercial fisherman. The last boat I worked on was a crab boat out of Eureka, California, skippered by a man named Bill Burchell. I'd done quite a bit of work for Bill over the years, and he was forever encouraging me to go back to college. I took his advice, and majored in computer programming. Quite a change, really, in working environments.

Interviewer:  What's in store for A1 Web Server?

Larry:  Well, I don't see us becoming a mega company, and I don't think I'd want it to, anyway. I'm pretty happy with the level of service we can provide at the size we are now. We've built up a pretty good base of wonderful clients.

What you'll see over the next few years is an expansion of the number of services we offer. We're not just a web hosting company. We also do some web development, programming, and marketing. Basically, we want to concentrate on serving our existing clients better, and finding ways to help them be successful on the web.

Interviewer:  Thank you for your time, and good luck to you.

Larry:  Thank You!