Humans of Tepia: David Leaders

Introduce yourself

My name is David Leaders. I am 24 years old and originally from Omaha, Nebraska. I currently live in Las Vegas, Nevada. I love going hiking and camping and visiting the National Parks. We are making it a goal to hit all of the National Parks in the USA and even expand it into other countries when we get the chance to. My girlfriend Taylor and I have been together for 5 years now and other than hiking/camping we also dog sit together on Rover and like to joke that we are ‘professional’ dog sitters.

What’s your earliest tech memory?

My earliest tech memory was growing up, my Dad had an iPad that my brother and I would use to play mobile games on. I fell in love with video games and ended up stumbling on Testflight, I had no idea its intended use back then, and thought I could test out any game I wanted to before any new updates and whatnot. After looking it up I found out that it was not at all what I thought.

Little did I know it would come full circle 10-15 years later working at Tepia. I use Testflight almost every day in app development and I never would have thought working in tech is where I would be when I had first found out about it back then.

What’s your day-to-day like?

My day-to-day is usually pretty laid back unless we have some high energy dogs we are watching. I wake up and the first thing I always do is make coffee. I am a coffee lover so I make it just about every morning. I always try to stand for at least a few hours every week when I am working and sometimes I use a walking pad too. After work usually consists of hanging out with any dogs we have at the time, playing video games, watching shows/movies we have on our list, and making dinner.

Do you have a favorite computer superstition or ritual that probably doesn’t work – but you still do it anyway?

No real superstitions but my one ritual is whenever I can, I open my window next to my desk when I first get on for work. I feel like it helps me to get a better start to my day.

How did you end up working at Tepia?

I found the opening on Indeed and thought I would be a great fit and so I applied!

What’s your favorite project that you’ve worked on so far?

My favorite project so far is a Venmo style app that allows users to send virtual gifts to each other. You can send someone a beer or a rose and they all have a $ amount attached to the. Later in the flow, you can select a fun Giphy and add a custom message to send to them as well. A cool feature in the works is being able to add an audio message to make these gifts more personable.

What’s the office culture like?

It’s great! Working remote has its challenges and hurdles, but Roam allows us to still have that in person feel while we are all located around the world. Everyone is super helpful and respectful which makes work really enjoyable.

What’s your ultimate dream-big project – the one you’re working towards, the one that’ll blow all the other projects out of the water?

My ultimate dream big project isn’t super tech related, but being able to renovate an old school bus into a camper so that we can travel around the country and still have the home amenities on the road. It would be cool to implement some tech related items like lights that can be controlled by an app on your phone and a sound system that can also be adjusted from your phone.