Meet Keenan Cline | CTO / Owner of Lightbulb Networks

We had the good fortune of connecting with Keenan Cline and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Keenan, can you talk to us a bit about the social impact of your business?
I could come out and say the obvious things on this question like “We do a good job and help businesses grow”. I’m not going to do that today though. I want to bring up two things that were and still are core driving forces with my company. The event in my life that drove me towards starting Lightbulb Networks was when I worked for another company very similar to ours. I had a few clients assigned to me and I had made a ton of positive changes in their environment. I got to see not only the business grow and become more profitable, but I saw a very positive change in the average employee at those businesses. We all have jobs because we need a paycheck. I think most of us try to pull something else from our jobs beyond that paycheck to have a sense of purpose or accomplishment. The same holds true for all of those employees at those companies I helped. I got to see their work life improve from my changes. They no longer had to come to work and fight with their technology to do their job. I know I’m very passionate about what I do and I’m sure a lot of those people are too. Helping improve a major section of their life is one of the core elements of Lightbulb Networks. The second impact we have I would say would be to our employees. I’ve worked in great working environments and not so great ones. I dreamed of making Lightbulb Networks a great place to work. I’ve been that field engineer before. I’ve been that remote engineer before. I’ve been that guy that’s on call, that intern, that senior engineer, that project leader. I know what’s made me happy and not happy in those positions. At Lightbulb Networks we put our employees as a priority. During the early days of covid lockdowns our Lead Engineer casually mentioned he was looking for a part time job afterhours so he could save up money in case his wife got laid off. I didnt want him to have to go through that so we gave him a raise. He was incredibly appreciative. I think thats the way it should be done. Our employees are real people. People go through stuff and need help sometimes. I’ve needed help before. We all have. I wish someone had done that for me when I had to take a second job delivering pizzas to put my wife through school. The other way I think we improve our employees lives is, we dont have vacation or sick days. If you’re sick, stay home. If you want to go on vacation just schedule it ahead of time. You dont lose pay, theres not some amount of hours to keep track of. Just be honest and dont abuse it. I always hated missing out on events for my kids or having to choose to go to work so I still had enough hours for that vacation we had planned or whatever. Through this system we build a mutual respect and our employees get to live their life. Those are some of the ways I think we have a positive impact on our community. I hope maybe this will inspire some other business owners to do similar things.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I could talk all day about my team that I’ve built within Lightbulb Networks and the things we’ve accomplished. I think what I’m most proud of though is how well we take care of our clients. Knock on wood, we’ve never gotten a single negative survey. When we complete any ticket, it sends out a little survey to see how well we did. I know I cant keep it forever but so far, we’ve never gotten a negative survey back since we opened our doors. I also love how fast and efficient we are with our clients. When I check the metrics we consistently have an average response time of less than 15 minutes for all of our tickets, less than a tenth of a percent of re-opened tickets because the issue came back, and over 75% of our tickets are proactive support. Our proactive support has done wonders for our clients. We’re constantly making things better or fixing problems before the client even feels it which means they get to keep doing what they do best. That’s at the core of what we do at Lightbulb Networks. If I had some advice for some entrepreneurs out there though, the easiest/hardest lesson for me to learn was to check my ego at the door. If you can keep your ego from getting in the way, you’ll learn so much more and create something really special. Whether its taking a nugget of advice or information from someone else or listening to your team, be humble and thankful. Yes I am the owner and yes I am the boss and can make whatever decision I want without any consultation but I don’t do that. I always talk it over with the core team first and sometimes my opinion is outnumbered. I could just do whatever I want anyway but I don’t. I treat my team as equals and that has created this sense of ownership and value for my team that you couldn’t buy even if you wanted to. I see my role as the support for everyone else. I make sure everything is in place for everyone else to succeed and through that there is a lot of mutual respect and drive from everyone. I have to force my team to take breaks most days because we all just care about our company and our clients so much. Check your ego at the door, listen, be compassionate, give respect, and be humble. Watch what that does for you.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
To be fair I don’t get out too much. I work 12 hour days a lot and I have a family that I hang out with so I haven’t been or seen a lot of things for awhile. Plus covid so none of us have done much for awhile. I would say though, Orange county has a lot of great breweries around including my favorite Unsung Brewery in Anaheim. The packing district in Anaheim is also right across the street for some absolutely incredible food. Pre covid I would take friends and family that were visiting there. We cant forget the beaches. I used to surf a lot and still have a few boards so I would definitely take my friends surfing. I know everyone loves Huntington and Newport but my favorite has always been Seal Beach. Its small and quiet. The restaurant at the one end of the beach makes some great club sandwiches and margaritas that just absolutely hit the spot after a long day of surfing. I’ve always wanted to go out in the desert at night with the top down on the Jeep where there’s no light pollution to see the milky way so I think that’d be a cool thing to do as well. If we had enough time I’d also take them to se the giant sequoias. I’ve been to see them once and it was amazing.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My biggest support and influence has always been my Mom. When I was a kid I saw her studying to become a CPA and I used her computer for college to spark my deep interest in computers. I saw her start her first job making $20k to eventually becoming the first female partner at a medium sized CPA firm on the East Coast. She really was my inspiration for my success. She has also been my main source of encouragement to start and maintain my own business. Anytime I’m not sure about making a move with the business I call her and she is always ready to give me her opinion. So my shoutout has to go to Barbara Roman, my inspiration, my mentor, my Mom. Thanks for being there for me.

As a secondary I would have to say I learned a lot of nuance, got a lot of influence, and made a lot of connections through different groups and meeting different small business owners around LA. One of those was T.E.A.M. where I got to bounce ideas off others that had been doing this longer than I had. Another was Business Networking & Beers where I got to socialize with lots of different business owners, executives, and just regular employees over a few drinks. Bob Cornwall from Placentia Super Service I think has been a good influence for me. He’s nudged me in the right direction on some things a few times and I definitely appreciate that.

Website: lightbulbnetworks.net

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lightbulb-networks/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LightbulbNetwrx

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lightbulbnetworks/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdoxQ9PRSw_zayGlSC6p-MQ