At the end of the summit, David made sure to call Vivian up on stage in front of everyone and said,
“This event’s success owes everything to Vivian’s creativity. She made our tech go viral.”
Another time, the company needed a fundamental system overhaul to prepare for three years of projected growth.
I started technical research six months in advance, wrote a report and implementation plan tens of thousands of words long—
from server selection to data migration, every step tested and risk-proofed.
I submitted the plan, and David sat on it for a month without approval.
When I asked him, he sounded impatient.
“Sophie, this plan is full of jargon.”
“And the investment is huge, the risk even bigger. What if it fails? The current system still works, doesn’t it?”
“Can’t you make something that I—and the marketing team—can understand?”
In that moment, I just felt utterly exhausted.
I built systems with professionalism, with logic, with respect for technology—
not to write a PR brochure that makes non-technical people nod in approval.
I wasn’t incapable of such tricks. I just refused to stoop to them.
I used to believe that in a tech company, technical strength was the ultimate foundation.