Tracy Lee is a startup founder and angel investor focused on developer tooling. Her passion is helping entrepreneurs with go to market and marketing, development (management), and open source strategies. She loves talking about figuring out tactical ways to go to market, expand sales and drive customer acquisition through automation.
“Tracy Lee has an innate sense of leadership. She is able to thrive in any situation and I never stop on being impressed by her experience and knowledge” says Simone Cuomo, Software Architect at This Dot Labs.
Lee also on the RxJS core team, a Google Developer Expert, a Github Star, and a Microsoft MVP. She spends most of her time in the open source ecosystem, and building products and communities in this space.
Tracy is truly an inspiration to those around her and has built such an incredible community around the things she’s doing. She brings people together in a way that stimulates growth and innovation. She’s continually recognized in our industry as a leader for these deeds,” offers Dustin Goodman, Engineering Manager at This Dot Labs.
After her last exit in 2015, she started a consultancy called This Dot Labs, which serves clients such as Stripe, Xero, Docusign, Twilio, Roblox, Google, Cloudinary, Sentry, and more, but also helps startups get off the ground from POC to implementation.
Goldie Chan: What excites you about technology right now?
Tracy Lee: Developer tooling gets better every day and continues to revolutionizes the way we build software. It’s amazing to see the innovation in our space and how these tools help developers streamline their workflows, increase productivity, and create applications faster and easier.
I’m particularly curious to see how AI is going to begin changing the landscape as well in the developer ecosystem. Currently, AI can only go so far to help get developers unstuck, or spark ideas of how to code better, but it cannot replace humans doing the job. But, what will it mean for our future, and how will we be able to use AI to better improve our lives as developers? Watching this unfold has and will continue to be fascinating. We are already so blessed with so many new tools and better ways to develop. IDEs providing code suggestions and autocompletions have become a norm. Real time error checking has made it faster to ship less buggy code to production, and so many amazing collaboration tools to help with better code management in teams have helped us along in the past few years.
The trend these days has also been centered around new frameworks and libraries. Developers are starting to enjoy the benefits of these technologies that offer high-level abstractions and easier composition to expedite development and eliminate the need for configuration/low level tasks. Abstracting away low-level implementation details allows developers to focus on solving higher-level problems and accelerating the development process.
Chan: What has your career path been?
Lee: I’ve always been a big believer of doing. Since my early 20’s, I began in startups in the Silicon Valley as a founder/CEO with a focus on marketing. I believe that boots on the ground bootstrapping is the best way to learn lessons early and as fast as possible before you accelerate growth. My first startup, Dishcrawl, we grew presence (and people) from 15 cities to 250 cities in one year. It was intense, fun, and rewarding.
After my first successful exit as a startup cofounder, I decided to embark on my second career as a developer/technologist and started a consultancy focused on web and application development. We’ve been around for 7 years now, and have grown to over 50 developers worldwide. We serve a wide range of clients, including industry-leading companies like Stripe, Xero, Docusign, Twilio, Roblox, Google, Cloudinary, Sentry, and many others. It’s exciting to support both established organizations and help startups from proof of concept to implementation on the development side of the house.
I’ve also angel invested in several startups in the developer tooling space and enjoy mentoring startup founders and helping them accelerate their growth.
My passion for development and community has led me to become a frequent keynote speaker at conferences, where I get to share knowledge with the wider tech community.
Chan: Who would you love to work or partner with?
Lee: I would absolutely love to work or partner with big brands like Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and other popular high end brands. I have observed numerous suboptimal consumer experiences across these brands. Having an understanding of how easy it would be to optimize these consumer experiences on the development side, and left scratching my head as to why it has not been improved, fuels my desire to help fix their problems (for me too, as a consumer!)
It’s so easy to rectify existing shortcomings and take consumer experiences to new heights while driving revenue growth, boosting conversions, and deliver more unparalleled experiences that could set these brands apart in the market.
Chan: Describe your personal brand.
Lee: My life revolves around my passion for empowering the historically under-represented, building communities, and making a difference in the world. I try to build inclusive and supportive networks where we can come together, collaborate, and uplift one another, creating a sense of belonging and unity.
I actively try to provide mentorship, coaching, and opportunities that equip the historically under-represented with the opportunities. I always strive to foster a culture of empowerment, and inspire us all to become trailblazers in our fields of work.
Chan: Who is an Asian or an Asian American that has inspired you and your career?
Lee: The Asian individuals who have truly inspired me and shaped my career are my parents. From a young age, I witnessed their unwavering work ethic and dedication. They worked tirelessly, often putting in long hours late into the night, and even brought me along to their workplaces on weekends. Seeing their commitment to providing for me and my sister and ensuring my education was a top priority has had a profound impact on my life.
Moreover, my parents went above and beyond to provide me with every opportunity to succeed. They made sacrifices, saved diligently, and prioritized our education. They sent me to the best schools possible, recognizing the value of education, and instilled in me the importance of hard work and perseverance. Through their example, they instilled in me the drive to work tirelessly toward my goals and the understanding of the tremendous impact that dedication and determination can have on one’s path to success.
Chan: What is a lesson you’d share with your younger self?
Lee: If I could share a lesson with my younger self, it would be to recognize and embrace my leadership capabilities earlier on. Looking back, I realize that it took until my junior year in college for me to realize my capabilities. I would encourage myself to seek out mentorship opportunities and engage in more networking events. By doing so, I could have tapped into a wealth of knowledge and experiences that would have accelerated my development as a leader. I would have unlocked greater opportunities for growth and set myself on a more intentional path towards success.
Chan: What are you working on now?
Lee: Currently, my primary focus is on advancing This Dot as a company and exploring new avenues to empower development teams. We strive to make a positive impact through our consulting services, staff augmentation, and migration of legacy systems.
Simultaneously, I am directing my attention towards addressing the underrepresentation of women in tech leadership roles. I am passionate about empowering women to achieve leadership positions and bringing about a change in the ratio at the top levels.
To accomplish this, I am actively seeking ways to support women in the industry and create opportunities for their advancement. This includes providing platforms, resources, and mentorship opportunities that can enhance their leadership skills and open doors for them to secure more seats at the table. It’s a long journey, and what I’ve decided to spend the next 5-7 years focused on. Change takes time.
Chan: Any career advice for this year?
Lee: I recently interviewed Erica Stanley, a Director of Engineering at Google, for my Engineering Leadership podcast, she shared a powerful insight: “Never waste a good crisis.” This resonated with me deeply as we all are going through the same journey, watching the economic climate change. While the circumstances may be challenging, they also present unique opportunities to invest in yourself and explore uncharted territories that could potentially accelerate your career growth.
Embrace the mindset of continuous learning and development. Take advantage of anything that can help you acquire new competencies, expand your understanding, or position you to stand out in a competitive market. Crisis is always a catalyst for change and innovation. Remember that when one door closes, another one opens. Embrace uncertainty with a positive mindset and a willingness to step outside your comfort zone.
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