Slater Smith, our new Customer Success Engineer

We’re excited to welcome Slater Smith, joining us from New Zealand as our very first hire in the APAC region.

Slater brings 6+ years of experience in email automation tools, most recently from Customer.io, where he headed the team’s APAC customer success efforts. He’s passionate about developer support and email deliverability, and has helped companies of all sizes get the most out of their email tools.

More about Slater

How did you get into software?

I stumbled upon an SMS messaging automation product while managing a volunteer turnout effort in late 2018. I found the tool fascinating, and as I experimented with it more, I became enamored.

I enrolled in a software dev bootcamp that winter, betting on myself and hoping I could find a role that combined my strategic generalist background with coding. Customer Success fit like a glove — I haven’t looked back since!

What does your desktop/home screen look like?

I moved to New Zealand in 2021, but was born and raised in Oregon. I spent my 20s road-tripping the state for various creative projects (see proof here). It should surprise no one that I find this photo incredibly nostalgic and soothing.

Why are you at Resend?

As someone with many years of experience in the email automation space, I can tell you right now that Resend is special. Once I started playing around in the product I immediately understood the appeal.

Resend makes the technical work easy for developers, while also making nuanced deliverability topics approachable. The product and the team align perfectly with my values: no-nonsense and humble with a desire to be useful. I’m thrilled to be here!

Where do you find #inspiration?

People who are excellent at what they do and then use that super-power to lift up others and help them be excellent at what they do. There are few things that I find more inspiring than these kinds of people in work and in life.

In nature, I find inspiration in quiet mountainous spaces where my thoughts can wander. I grew up in the High Desert, and I think I may have accidentally left my spirit wandering somewhere along the Tam McArthur Rim trail.

If you weren't programming, what would you be doing?

I’d probably be running my own little digital agency. In my early career, I carved out a small space for myself as a producer of sorts. I absolutely love bringing talented technical folks together to create really impressive work and build meaningful memories.

If I hadn’t become fascinated by the tech industry, I likely would have continued pitching projects, supporting technicians, and launching digital campaigns on bootstrapped budgets.

Favorite tool?

Notion, and it’s no contest. There’s no better tool for staying organized and consolidating complex notes — I love using dropdown menus to turn my one-pagers into immersive, multi-layered, clean experiences for my coworkers.

Favorite hotkey?

I live and die by ⌘+Shift+V — I will be the arbiter of my own formatting.

Favorite place to visit?

My partner and I live just down the road from the Zealandia nature reserve, a magical place that singlehandedly brought back endangered species like kākā and tūī (and yes, kiwi) to the Wellington / Te Whanganui-a-Tara region. Zealandia is our backyard and playground - we visit as often as we can.

Advice for ambitious software engineers?

Book regular, casual check-ins with your customer-facing colleagues! I can’t tell you how close I’ve become to my engineering coworkers over the years, and how many great product ideas have come from CX + Eng brainstorming. Your customer-facing colleagues will learn a ton from you about how your product works (which will help them more easily self-serve on tricky tickets), and you’ll learn a ton about who your end users are and what they want (helping you catch product and UX mistakes before they happen). CX + Eng make for very good work friends!