About Nik
Who am I? Well, as you guessed by the name on the blog URL, I am Nik – Nik Panter in full for all of you whom love that kind o thing.
Live in Ottawa, Ontario (Canada’s Capital!) and run a small Salesforce consulting firm called xLerate. When I am not trying to drive my clients or employees crazy, I can usually be found playing with a new application or widget on the net, figuring out how to get the most bang out of my iPhone, or figuring out how to run everything off a MacBook with ease.
Besides the work stuff, I am married to a beautiful woman named Steph for the past 11 years, and we have two crazy kids – Jordan and William. They are into Highland Dance (Jordan is…), Hockey, Soccer, and all sorts of other messy and interesting hobbies. Between work and children, when my wife and I have more than 13 seconds together, we try to keep up on some TV shows we like to watch, go and see a movie with a higher rating than PG-13, or simply say hello while doing crossword puzzles or backgammon.
Why name the blog “News From The Basement”? Well, this has been a long standing joke with some friends, and collegues of mine. As I began my company with very modest beginnings, my office was in the basement of my home (I have since upgraded to an actual room within the house!). As this was seen and taken as a derogatory stance by some in the industry (Ottawa is a very conservative town, and companies are to have offices, not home offices), it made me chuckle…so many successful industry leaders had hatched from basements, garages and apartments. Salesforce.com, Apple, Hewlett Packard…and here I was being portrayed it that same light (whether the intention of such a wonderful compliment was wished remains to be seen)! I take the title of “Guy in the Basement” proudly, and as such, have even named the blog about it!
Want to read more? Feel free to follow me on Twitter (screen name nikpanter), or look me up on Facebook! Until next time – enjoy!
