Sarah Drasner

Chris supported me in my early career. He invited me to conferences to speak even though I was unknown, encouraged me when I wrote articles, and made sure I felt like part of a community.

He invited me on a podcast one time, and we started chatting before the recording. We started giggling and giggling and before long I was laughing so hard I was crying. Then he started recording. The first few minutes of that podcast (it was also recorded on video) was us wiping our eyes and trying to recover while starting to try to be professional.

Another time, I spoke at a conference he and Ari put on. They chose a "best of" winner for the best speech and gave me an award. A few months later I was making fun of myself, showing photos of me unable to see over the podium (I am very short), saying "this is what it looks like when I give speeches". He posted: no this is what you look like when you give speeches, a photo of me with the award. I had never had support like that before. I was new to speaking, and men in the industry weren't always kind to me. He was so kind. And not just to me, but to everyone around him.