Life was a bit different back in the 1980s—fewer computers, more newspapers, and a whole lot more telephone conversations. Cars still had ashtrays!
And here at Lightspeed, life was certainly a bit different, and you might be wondering what it was really like. Right? Well, let’s ask Lauretta Sechrest, our first official employee and an early trailblazer here at Lightspeed. In 1987, Lauretta began her career with us in customer support and training, and through grit and diligence, forged a career that helped shape our culture and mission.
“I used to work for a motorcycle dealership as the parts manager, and they sent me to training where they offered me a job,” she says before explaining that she actually passed on this initial offer. “I was too scared, and I really loved my job at the motorcycle dealership.
“I loved the system, the implementation of it, and getting it set up, so when they came back around, I finally said yes. I just really enjoyed the entire process.”
Doing more, with less
In the beginning, our operations were a whole lot smaller. Alongside programming prodigy Ernie Blodgett and salesman Robert L. Bagley, Lauretta answered the phone, did customer support, dialed in on the modem, executed troubleshooting, handled IT, and more.
She was a jack of all trades in the office—and when you’re running an operation as small as Lightspeed was back then, you had to be a Swiss army knife. While Ernie wrote the code and built the platform, and Robert introduced it to dealerships across the country, Lauretta was there to keep it all going in the background.
Lauretta was also very much part of the hiring and onboarding of new employees. One of whom was Brian Bodine, who is now Lightspeed’s Chief Sales Officer. “He was so young and smart and energetic,” Lauretta says. “He always had such a positive attitude, even from the very beginning. It has been no surprise that he has moved up through the organization.
Another one of her impressive hires was her brother, Laurn Rice. Like Brian, he excelled and worked his way through the company. In fact, it was Laurn that actually trained Brian back when he was first hired. More than a salesperson, Laurn was a bit of a cultural institution—a celebrity, perhaps—at the office. He was unique. He was a force of nature. He was Laurn.
A celebrity to everyone he met
“Laurn worked very differently than the rest of the salespeople,” Lauretta says. All day long, team members from different departments would come to Laurn for insights on work or for advice on ideas to pursue, or for help on a project.
“At trade shows, other companies would hire sports stars or pretty girls. We didn’t need them; we had Laurn. When he came by, heads would turn, and greetings would be exchanged. Everyone on his team knew he was a leader.”
According to Lauretta, people would line up at trade shows to meet and talk with him, and individuals from dealerships would stop by and wait until they had a chance to talk to Laurn—and only Laurn.
Humble beginnings, from the bottom to the top
“[Laurn] used to race motorcycles, and he was in a motorcycle accident when he was 18 years old,” Lauretta says when explaining the path that Laurn took before arriving at Lightspeed. Luckily, Laurn was fully protected with a helmet and chest protector when he had this accident.
However, the accident had a lasting effect on him that Lauretta could see and feel.
“The bike went out from under him, and he landed right on his behind and broke his back. And so he was kind of struggling,” she says. “He’d gotten out of the hospital after a few months and was kind of struggling with life, and he had really long hair, and I said, ‘come and work in customer support.’”
Laurn told Lauretta that he would think about it. So he thought and thought, and he didn’t come up with an answer soon enough, so Lauretta ended up going back to him and begging him to join the team.
“I hired him, and I said, ‘You have to cut your hair.’” Lauretta recounts. “He later told me that he cried more on the day he cut his hair than when he was in the accident.”
Moving through the entire organization at Lightspeed—from running sales to becoming the general manager—Laurn proved his worth over the years. He had an incredible way of interacting with customers (and everyone else) and was known as being one of the most personable people at the company. He connected with people. He quickly built rapport with people. He forged relationships.
At the Lightspeed offices, we added a new lobby and decided to pay tribute to Laurn by naming it after him—because there’ll never be another like him.
