About Tee and Troy

About Us

Quick info We are both from the US - Troy from Florida and Tee from Massachusettes. We adopted "Kitty" in Seattle (where his name was originally "Leon") and King Friday (originally "Lashes") also there, although years apart. We met in Boston in 1998 where we both were living and working. In 1999, we moved to Seattle - and in the span of the next several years, moved back to Boston, back to Seattle (Redmond, technically), into Seattle proper (Fremont), and in June 2006, to London. Within London we've rented two different flats, and in November 2007, bought a small terraced house. Never to move again. Although, if our previous track record would indicate anything, this might be a far-flung fantasy!

Work stuff Both of us have had interesting work lives.. certainly not what we probably each expected, though. In college, Troy graduated with a religion degree from Florida State University; Tee graduated with a Business degree concentrated on Operations and Information Technology. Both of us had strong personal interests in computers and technology and gadgets seemed always to be a hobby for each of us. It's still strange sometimes to step back and realize we're both getting paid to do things we love. How lucky is that?

Tee graduated college and starting working for Price Waterhouse in the IT/Management Consulting group. Very quickly he specialized (completely randomly) in SAP implementations. After about 2.5 years at PW, he left and went independent to provide SAP development expertise to companies who were implementing SAP. In 1999, Troy's work looked like it would move him to Seattle from Boston, so Tee starting looking for contract work in Seattle and found a full-time position at Microsoft instead, working on Microsoft's internal SAP implementation. Jumping forward to today, Tee is still at Microsoft, although in a completely different position - working in MSN's international product development group in London. During 2001, Tee had left Microsoft to join a start-up company in Seattle, but after the Sept 11 attacks and resulting market downturn, we decided that a more stable job made sense - especially since Troy was also at the startup! You can see more professional details on the Terry Earls LinkedIn page.

Troy worked for a document management company, PC Docs, during and after university. When Tee and Troy met in Boston, Troy had just started a new job at a four person startup company, focused on mobile internet applications. The startup was based in Seattle (where the two founders were), although Troy and the fourth person were located in Boston. The company was thinking about growing, so had asked the two guys in Boston to move to Seattle. This corresponded with the time Tee was ready to start a new contract, so they jointly decided to move to Seattle. Quite randomly, Microsoft acquired the start-up company after only a few months of being in Seattle. It happened so quickly that the other person in Boston hadn't moved yet. When Microsoft acquired the company, the other guy stayed in Boston and didn't move. In any case, Troy's job was much less exciting after the acquision, and we decided to move back to Boston, where Troy joined an online billing company and Tee stayed with Microsoft but switched to the consulting division, based out of Boston. After about a year, the two original founders of the mobile company left Microsoft and started a new start-up in Seattle - and we both quit our respective jobs to move back to Seattle and join the startup. (Tired yet?) After a couple of years there, Troy eventually left and joined Expedia and has been there since. You can see more professional details on the Troy Kaser LinkedIn page.