From snow-making to lawn mowing to handheld drinking tools to Rosenbauer, firefighter Joe Caughey (HiViz National Division Manager of Fire Products) is the perfect amount of passion and quirk for the HiViz team
We tend to be drawn to people who have nerdy hobbies here at HiViz.
You all may recall the story of HiViz LED Lighting CEO Sam Massa’s childhood obsession with school busses. When we learned that Joe Caughey had a unique interest in making snow as a child (and still to this day!), we knew he was going to be a good fit.
It all started when he was 10 years old, becoming fascinated with the process after skiing at local resorts in Minnesota where he grew up. This fascination grew to a mild obsession, to the point of building a mini ski “resort” in his backyard, making his own compressors, and having a bedroom full of snow-making equipment from the same company’s actual ski resorts use for professional snowmaking.
Despite the benefits, like being the only house on the block to have snow in the yard on Halloween, Joe’s parents didn’t exactly love supplying household water to fund this hobby, and there may or may not have been several instances of Joe breaking his dad’s tools and water pipes at the house.
This is where Joe’s entrepreneurial drive begins. Fueled by his passions, Joe picked up odd jobs like snow shoveling to cover his expenses, and then took it further to work out sponsorship deals with relevant companies to supply his equipment.
Joe is still passionate about snowmaking to this day (we can’t wait for an invite to his house here in western North Carolina this winter), but as he entered his teen years, he turned his focus to his entrepreneurial side. Joe built a successful lawncare business in high school while also working with Railworks to develop their wakeboarding product line (another passion of Joe’s) and joining the Fire Explorer program.
With all this business experience before graduating from high school, Joe had little interest in college. His very supportive parents were not going to let him bail on higher education though. After a careful search Joe landed on Saint John’s University because they had an entrepreneurship program and their own fire department, both of which Joe took part in.
Throughout college, Joe got the best of both of his passions. He worked his way up to Captain at his fire department and co-founded the handheld drinking tool company Triink with his classmates.
By the time Joe was getting ready to graduate, he realized he needed to experience working with a larger corporation to round out his business skillset. Not wanting to give up his passion for firefighting, Joe sought out an internship with a fire truck manufacturer in his hometown, Rosenbauer America and had a fantastic summer with them.
One of the great things about being young is the feeling of having nothing to lose. So at the end of his internship, as Joe prepared to return to his life of entrepreneurship, he boldly wrote a letter to the company leaders giving his blunt feedback on the good and bad (er, “opportunities for improvement”) of the company. Joe assumed he’d never hear from Rosenbauer again, yet before he could even turn his laptop in to HR on his last day, the CEO had written back thanking him for his feedback and offering him a full-time position.
Before coming on board with us, Joe spent the last two years immersing himself in the fire apparatus world with Rosenbauer working in a variety of roles. Joe started in inside sales at Rosenbauer working apparatus specs through pricing and production. After outgrowing that role, he hit the road: Joe spent time on the east coast onboarding new dealers to the Rosenbauer family, and even went as far as Saudi Arabia to assist with a large industrial apparatus contract. Eventually, Joe came home to take over product management of Rosenbauer loose equipment, pumps, the Batter Extinguishing Tool, and the RTE firefighting robot. During this time Joe also maintained his efforts in the firefighting world, working part time at Lake Johanna Fire Department while he lived in Minnesota.
Joe was drawn to HiViz early on, impressed with our marketing and customer experience efforts. He often refers to memories of working with us our team and the speed at which we solved his problems. Once our team began talking with Joe about this position, it was clear to all involved that he was the perfect fit, and we can’t wait to see what his does next.
If you want to learn more about Joe’s story, check out his podcast episode on The 24/48 (available anywhere you listen to podcasts). He also co-hosts the newly launched podcast The Supply Line alongside Technical Sales Engineer Lee Shaffer.
