We’re excited to kick off a brand new category of articles that directly showcase stories about our Databox Playmakers. In Playmaker Spotlight, we get up-close (and sometimes personal) with one of our valuable team members whose individual contributions shouldn’t stay under the radar but rather be used to learn more about their unique experience. Besides being a great opportunity to share their accomplishments with the world, this article also hopes to provide you with insider info about our team culture and what it’s like to work at Databox.

Our first Playmaker Spotlight features Emil Korpar, who has recently taken over the role of the Director of Customer and Technical Support and is one of our Databox Playmakers that truly embodies our Playmaker culture with his customer-first mentality, a strong sense of ownership, problem-solving abilities, and a goal-driven mentality. We wanted to get Emil’s perspective on his exponential career growth and how he sees his journey at Databox. 

Joining Databox and how it all changed

Emil joined Databox as a Customer Support Specialist in 2017 as our second person on the Customer support team, and he quickly became one of our most ambitious and successful members. He was responsible for handling customer emails and escalating technical issues to our Product & Engineering teams, which was done much differently back then. As Emil remembers, he had to “go to the desk next to yours and check with a developer what’s happening and why. Today, we’ve got a ton of things documented so knowledge can more easily and faster be distributed across the team.” 

Let’s just say we’ve come a long way since then. In fact, with our product and team growing quickly, Emil was the one that significantly contributed to developing processes that followed our growth. 

The road to success was fast and dynamic

In the spirit of taking the challenges face on, like a true Playmaker, after about a year and a half, Emil was entrusted to lead the Technical Support team, train individuals on product knowledge and support-related soft skills, and collaborate with Product & Engineering to develop processes that would help to increase collaboration between both teams. What he points out about it is the chance to “collaborate with great people from different teams to better understand how Technical Support and Engineering could work together to increase product adoption and the self-serviceness of the product.”

Emil had the unique opportunity to witness the growing pains we faced along the way as we scaled the team. He was soon entrusted with managing the entire Customer and Technical Support operation and grew his team to 45 people. He spent countless hours on developing strong and impactful training materials to help individuals grow, and introduced several initiatives and processes to improve the efficiency and impact of our organization. 

What he emphasizes is

“The importance of having great people on the team who share the same passion for customer service, teamwork, and growth. This is the type of energy that fuels me every day and makes me love the job I do.”

In January 2022, Emil has been promoted to Director of Customer & Technical Support, which celebrates his dedication and rightfully acknowledges an outstanding learning curve he has demonstrated in the past 4 years. 

Emil’s biggest achievement is helping people grow

When asked about his biggest accomplishments, Emil confirms it has been “being in a position that allows me to work with many different people and help them grow – personally and professionally. Seeing other people who I’ve worked with succeed is the biggest confirmation of my work that I can wish for.” 

Since joining Databox, Emil has contributed to the growth of the Customer Success team from 3 to almost 60 team members and had the pleasure of working with many amazing members of our team. 

“Helping others allows me to grow as a person, too so this is something that I don’t intend to stop doing,” says Emil about his role in his team.

The next milestone is creating a strong leadership team

When it comes to our culture, a big part of our mission is to continue creating an environment in which our talents can grow their careers. Without a doubt, Emil’s career path has been both an inspiration and a confirmation of the right direction. Looking into the future and recognizing the steps we need to take to better our teams is a quality of any great leader. When asked about his plans for the future, Emil told us this: 

“The next milestone I want to reach is growing a strong and independent Customer & Technical Support leadership team. We recently grew the Customer Support management team, so the next important task is to better distribute the manager-to-direct-report ratio. This way leads and managers can spend more time on 1:1 development and help individuals progress through their career path.” 

Success is a combination of successful work and happiness

When hiring new teammates, we always look for a culture-add and Emil truly personifies the values we have set as a company “Success to me means defining a milestone, progressing towards it one step at a time, and then exceeding it. By underpromising something to yourself and then overdelivering it’s easier to stay humble and motivated, and the results usually exceed your initial expectations.”

And what is his advice for future Databox team members?

“Focus on the path as opposed to just on the goal. Of course, perspective is extremely important but over-prioritizing the goal can quickly put you off the path. The motivation should not be “I want to get to X” but rather “HOW can I get to X”. This mindset allows you to expand your knowledge and skillset in the right way and potentially open up new opportunities.” 

If you feel like you identify with Emil’s mindset, then you might be a perfect fit for our Customer Success team. Interested in learning more? Read more about our culture and check out our open roles.