Employee Spotlight: Timur Nasafi, IT Manager and Avid Cycler

Hannah Juley
Hannah Juley
October 29th, 2019
Estimated read time: 5 minutes, 6 seconds

FastSpring’s Employee Spotlight is a Q&A series that features the hardworking, intelligent, and fun people that make FastSpring great. Get to know the fantastic team behind the ecommerce platform!

Q: What is your role at FastSpring?

A: My role is the Manager of Information Technology (IT) here at FastSpring. I manage all of the employee-facing systems, computers, hardware, and software. Basically all the technology people use to do their jobs on a day-to-day basis.

Q: You were recently promoted from Account Executive to IT Manager, how are you liking your new role?

A: I’m loving it! I love the solutions you can bring via IT, the way you can make people’s jobs easier, and how that can impact their day-to-day. I’m really excited to be able to have that level of engagement with my coworkers.

Q: Do you feel like your role as an AE helps you in your role in IT?

A: Definitely. I think generally in IT it can be hard to get in the mindset of a user, but I was a user as an AE. I know that outside of IT, when your technology isn’t working for you then you aren’t able to do your job. So being in the IT role now helps me understand what is important specifically as an employee at FastSpring. It gives me a nice perspective on things.

Q: What did you do before FastSpring/How did you get to where you are today?

A: Before FastSpring, I worked at a local Managed Service Provider in town (it’s like outsourced IT as a service) and I was in a technical role there for a while. But in my last year and a half there, I was actually selling their services as well as doing solutions architecture. So I was a help-desk tech, an assist admin, a BDR, an AE, and onboarding. So that’s how I ended up in sales at FastSpring originally.

Q: What inspired you to join FastSpring?

A: I heard about FastSpring some years ago, I just loved how everyone was super welcoming. I could tell everyone was enjoying working together and I just got really good vibes from the company which made me really interested in working here. Then when I found out what we do from an ecommerce aspect and how we’re market leaders, I really liked that and wanted to join.

Q: What made you passionate about joining the IT world?

A: I’ve always been fascinated with technology. As a kid, I was always the one taking apart my family’s VCR. When I started working, it came pretty easily to me to troubleshoot and solve IT problems. And when I realized that I could apply that to business processes, I grew a passion for it through seeing how it impacts real people and makes their life so much easier.

Q: What does a typical day look like for Timur at FastSpring?

A: I try to map out my days strategically so I have time to work on proactive projects. But during a typical day, I come to the office in the morning and check my emails. Then I try and figure out who has an urgent request, maybe someone is having some trouble with our video conferencing set up in a conference room, so I attend to that. I’m constantly reprioritizing my days based on need. We also have a lot of bigger picture projects going on right now that I’m involved in. At the end of the day, it’s a lot of me running around the office.

Q: What excites you every day working at FastSpring?

A: It’s definitely the people. Everyone is really great to work with, they’re engaging, and you can tell we all share a common goal.

Q: Do you have a favorite memory of your time at FastSpring?

A: We had a really cool sales summit back when I was an AE. It was great because we brought out our Amsterdam team and spent time talking about what goals we’re focusing on, did live training, and got to know each other better. I’ve never worked for a company before where they included our international team as a part of our sales summit.

Q: What is your proudest accomplishment while working at FastSpring?

A: Tech-wise, I’m very proud that I was able to get the IT role, and I already feel like people trust me which I really appreciate. Everyone has been very open to my solutions and willing to implement them.

Q: What are your favorite hobbies and activities outside of work?

A: I’m a pretty avid cyclist. Santa Barbara is just the perfect place to do it because of the coast rides and the super beautiful weather year-round. I really love it because it’s helped me explore Santa Barbara. Every Saturday morning I set aside time for a 5-hour ride without fail. Then during the week, I try to go around 2-3 times as well. I try to keep it up to like 8-10 hours a week to keep my endurance up.

Q: What’s the toughest road you’ve cycled up?

A: Gibraltar is the hardest road I’ve cycled up, it’s around an hour of an 8-10% grade all the way up. Everyone just suffers through it together but it was a nice accomplishment. I’m going to be doing the Ride Santa Barbara 100 in a month which is a 100-mile ride which will be my longest ride, my record is 70 miles right now. But it means I have to climb up Gibraltar AGAIN. It’s a full loop and about 10,000 feet of climbing in total, I’m very excited.

Q: What is a fun fact most people may not know about you?

A: Most people might know this already, but I’m bilingual in Uzbek. That was actually my first language. I’m fluent in Uzbek and English, but my parents speak a ton of languages and unfortunately, they only taught me two of them.

Hannah Juley

Hannah Juley

Hannah is a recent graduate from UC-Santa Barbara. Her prior experience in marketing lead her to the FastSpring Marketing Coordinator role. Hannah assists with content, social media and department expenses. Outside of work, you can find her at the beach either playing volleyball or reading a book.

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