Meet the team: Emily Speer

Emily Speer

Client Support Engineer
At SAILTHRU since June 2012
Location: Upper West Side

“Do or do not. There is no try.” – Yoda (yes, Yoda)

The name “Emily” means “industrious” and this lady has spent most of her life proving that point. Emily moved to New York from northern Idaho right out of high school to attend a theater conservatory. Among her accomplishments, she has produced a feature film, a documentary about the war in Afghanistan, and in 2008, started her own company specializing in educational web content and corporate videos. Her ability to solve intense, time-sensitive puzzles, coupled with her hunger to learn and grow makes her a great addition to Sailthru.

A little known fact about me is... I broke my back when I was 8.

The best part of my job is… That I get to dig into issues on all fronts and help solve problems large and small.

Not many people know that I’m really good at… Triathlons (and singing.  I’m a stellar singer).

The worst job experience I’ve ever had is… Having a film I was producing get shut down.  Although, it was also one of the best because of the lessons learned.  (The project was finished; it’s awesome!)

In 5 years I want to be…  Working with Marigold Engage by Sailthru’s international client base from an office in California.  And winning triathlons.  Gotta aim high!

You’re pretty new to the Sailthru team –  how are you liking it so far?
I like it a lot. It’s a totally different industry – I have a 20 year history with theater and film production – but the software world is in line with the way the production world works. It’s so fast paced and everything is very project driven; I really appreciate that.

Is this your first time working at a startup?
This is my first time working at a software startup. I’ve worked at a lot of small companies, film production companies that were starting from scratch.

I know you recently had a documentary premiere, can you tell us about that?
I was brought on at the end of a very long and arduous journey for a filmmaker friend of mine. She spent 5 years filming a documentary about Afghanistan and the conflict going on over there. And so, I came in on the back end to help compile all the footage and create a storyline for the film.  We’re really, really proud of it. Now it’s a 55 minute long educational piece that we’re pitching to markets abroad and we just had it shown at the Academy for Television Arts and Sciences (the guys that do the Emmy’s). It’s got some good traction on it, and we’re looking forward to seeing it viewed.

Are you going to continue working on production?
I anticipate that I’m going to take a fairly long break from production at this point. Mostly because I’m really focused on where the software industry is going. I think the two will meet at some point, but right now they’re polar opposites repelling each other. As soon as the motion picture industry realizes that technology is where it’s at, the two will coincide. I want to be at the beginning of that. I want to be part of that transition.