Staff Profiles: Erik
This is part of series of posts to help people get to know the Chess.com team better. Today, we meet the guy who started Chess.com and still runs it today: Erik!
Who are you?
My name is Erik. I’m 38 years old and I live in Bay Area, California with my amazing wife and four kids (ages 14, 12, 9, 7).
What do you do at Chess.com?
I am the main “connector” of Chess.com - I connect people with resources and vision, and make sure that what comes out is a wonderful product! More formally, my title is “CEO”, but I find that to be an obnoxiously pretentious series of letters.
What does a typical day look like?
My days start early at 5am. I wake up early so I can do email with some people who are on the other side of the world from me! I do that for about 30 minutes before I go exercise and then get the kids off to school. Once they are gone, my house feels pretty empty and I get to work! I work from my floor, my couch, my standing desk… wherever. I don’t have an office, just a laptop! Each day I sort through nearly a thousand inbound emails, write hundreds of outgoing emails, and online chat with about 40 people. I take a quick break for lunch and then get back to “connecting” things. Usually about dinner time I want to gouge my eyes out from looking at the screen all day. After dinner and family time, I hit email once again - I have a pretty strict near-zero inbox policy!
How and why did Chess.com start?
I’ve written about that over the years, and you can find the first of my posts about it here.
What else do you like to do aside from chess?
CrossFit. (The first rule of CrossFit is you MUST talk about CrossFit! You can message me if you want my stats!) Trail running. Cycling. Spending time with the family. Great TV shows. Hearthstone. Texas Hold'em.
What is the future of Chess.com?
We have an entirely new website launching later this year! It has been re-built from the ground up to be more amazing and will be the platform where we will be able to build into the future. Our current site is feeling a little old at times, while our mobile apps are amazing. The new site will be like the mobile apps and will be faster, easier to use, and much improved all around! It’s taken about 18 months longer than we expected!!?
Thanks for tuning in! Check back next week for another staff profile.
