This month, we’re celebrating Ben’s birthday! Ben works up in Boulder and is one of the software engineers who works on the Development Team.

Ben first found out about InvitedHome when he connected with one of our development teammates through LinkedIn. At the time, Ben was going to school for coding down in Denver and really loved what InvitedHome was doing and what we were creating.

Ben is super proud that his first development job is with such a fun, collaborative company. He enjoys working on a lean and mean team that has so many responsibilities. This makes him feel like he’s really making a difference and that he a helpful part of the development team. He recently completed a huge project that involved a large-scale revamp of the accounting software that we use. That project was a great success and he’s excited to move onto bigger and better things. During his time with InvitedHome, Ben feels that he’s been able to “level-up” quickly and has learned so many new skills and techniques.

Ben’s favorite home is a little different from the rest of the teammates. While most of our teammates interact with the “front-end” of our website, Ben interacts almost solely with the “back-end” and consequently never gets much exposure to our homes. However, whenever Ben is trying to create a new feature or develop a new application he always uses The Monarch. This spacious North Lake Tahoe cabin is, apparently, the perfect home to test-out new features and tools. It’s also the perfect home for a Lake Tahoe vacation!  

Now, enough about work; Ben, who was born and raised in New Jersey, decided to leave the gloom of the East Coast behind and follow the sunshine to Colorado. One of the things that Ben enjoys most about CO is the proximity of city and culture to the boundless outdoors. As an avid triathlete, Ben cherishes the 300 days of Colorado sunshine, which make biking and running in the mountains truly spectacular.

One of Ben’s most memorable trips was when he went to a little beachtown in Oaxaca, Mexico and rented an Airbnb with some of his friends. He said that the most memorable thing about the vacation was swimming around in warm, blue water. During his trip, he and his friends met a group of Canadian ex-pats who showed them around town and relaxed on the beach with them.

The core value that resonates most strongly with Ben is Treat People Like Humans. He says that one of the qualities that he admires most is empathy and that it’s actually incredibly important when it comes to developing an application or software. In order for a feature to be user-friendly he needs to really put himself into other people's’ shoes in order to gain insight into what they want and like. This also transfers nicely to the workplace, he says.

Thank you for all your hard work Ben! From all of us at InvitedHome, we hope you have a relaxing birthday!


Here's Ben taking on the jungle! 

This month we’re celebrating Lauren’s 1-year InvitedHome Anniversary! Lauren has worn many hats during her time with InvitedHome. She originally joined our team as a Vacation Consultant and did so well that she was training new-hires by her 3rd month with InvitedHome! After 10 months she showed such drive that it was clear that a promotion was in order. A spot opened up on our operations team and she jumped at the chance when it presented itself.

Lauren first learned about InvitedHome when she read an article about the best companies to work for in Boulder, CO. After reading about InvitedHome she hurriedly applied and quickly landed the job! During her time with InvitedHome, Lauren has been impressed by how well our teams work together and how quickly she has learned and advanced in our company.

In 2013, Lauren moved from Galveston, TX (where she was born and raised) to Boulder. She wanted to start living a healthier life and enjoy all that the Colorado outdoors have to offer. Since then, she has dirt-biked, mountain biked and skied more trails than you can imagine. For skiing, her favorite resort is Crested Butte; and when it comes to offroading and dirt biking she loves the Mammoth Gulch Trail near Rollinsville, CO. She says this trail is a special one. You start out hiking along the valley floor (where the Amtrak train goes up to Winter Park) and then ascend beyond the tree line where you’re met by stunning views at the summit.

Lauren’s favorite home is Villa Mendia in Telluride. She says that there is no home like this one. In December, her and a few other teammates went down to visit the destination and she fell in love with the home. Before her trip she was the vacation specialist for Telluride so she had a lot of experience working with this home. This trip made her appreciate the home even more.

The best vacation she’s ever taken is when she went to St. Lucia in 2016 and stayed at Ladera. This resort is truly extraordinary. Her room had only three walls, which sounds strange until you realize that in place of the fourth wall was an infinity pool that had stunning views of the twin peaks of the Pitons. Spectacular vacations like this are what Lauren strives for; so much so, she has the next 20 years of vacations planned out and has a bucket list that stretches for miles.

The next vacation she has planned is to visit Switzerland and hike the Tour du Mont Blanc, which is a hiking trail that winds through France, Switzerland and Italy and circumvents the base of the Mont Blanc massif! After finishing the 110 mile trek she plans on connecting with her mom’s family who lives in Switzerland!

Our core value that resonates most with Lauren is Treating People Like Humans. She said that the companies she worked at previously treated her like a cog in the machine, sometimes forgetting her name. Suffice it to say, she enjoys that our teammates genuinely care about her input and ideas and who she is as a person.

And last but not least, some more exciting news...Lauren is getting married in August! She’ll be tying the knot at Arapahoe Basin’s mid-mountain lodge! Sounds pretty awesome to us! We wish the best to Lauren and her soon-to-be husband and we thank her for all her hard work and dedication.

Thank you Lauren!


Here's Lauren hanging out in front of a cactus!