Taking Pride in Our Roots to Gateway, Inc.
PC Pitstop, the maker of PC Matic, PC Matic Pro and PC Matic MSP, is a company with strong roots to the computer manufacturing company, Gateway, Inc. PC Pitstop founder and CEO, Rob Cheng, started his career at Gateway in 1991 as their first Director of Marketing. Gateway was booming and he held a succession of increasingly challenging positions including Vice President of Marketing, Vice President of Desktop Products, General Manager Gateway Europe, and Senior Vice President of Gateway Consumer, responsible for sales, marketing and support worldwide. In 1999, he left Gateway to begin his own journey in entrepreneurship, with the creation of PC Pitstop.
Shortly after starting PC Pitstop, Rob reached out to long-time Gateway, Inc. Executive Assistant, Sheila Molden for part-time assistance with accounting and payroll duties. She began working part-time for PC Pitstop in 2000, and transitioned to full-time employment in 2004, after leaving Gateway. Sheila continues to head accounting and payroll for PC Pitstop, as well as several other duties ranging from customer service to human resources.
Rob then reached out to Lyle Schuknecht for assistance with database analysis. Lyle agreed, working part-time for PC Pitstop, while also working full-time at Gateway Computers. Prior to joining PC Pitstop full-time, Lyle worked at Gateway from 1992 to 2005 in various areas including consumer marketing, database marketing, and supply chain management. In 2005, Lyle joined the PC Pitstop team full-time, and has been the go-to data analysis guru since.
Keith Linden, PC Pitstop’s Chief Operating Officer, has strong ties to Gateway as well. In 1993, Keith began his employment at Gateway. By 1995 he was the Manager of the American’s Material Forecasting team. While in that role, Rob Cheng was the Senior Vice President that Keith reported to. The material forecast drove and impacted the entire company and during that time it was Gateway’s most profitable point. The accuracy of that forecast was a major contributing factor. In 2004, Keith reached out to Rob regarding a potential opportunity at PC Pitstop. He was hired at that time to develop PC Pitstop’s first e-commerce software application, Optimize.
PC Pitstop’s Vice President of Sales, Corey Munson is yet another Gateway-ian. Corey worked at Gateway from 1997 to 2005 spending four years with Rob in direct sales and another four years with Keith in product marketing. Approximately a year after leaving Gateway, Keith recruited Corey to the PC Pitstop team. He has been with PC Pitstop since, leading both the marketing and sales departments.
Ted Waitt always said to zig while everyone was zagging. As the security industry continues to focus on a blacklist for malware detection, while PC Matic delivers the only globally automated whitelist technology. To learn more about PC Pitstop’s company growth, product offerings, and their ties to the Siouxland area, click here.
Do you have ties to Gateway too? Perhaps feeling a bit nostalgic? We’d love to hear your stories! Drop a comment below:
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