kenodriscoll.com - About

kenodriscoll.com

About Me

Four things about me.

Background

I started out working as a systems and network engineer, which mostly involved building IP data networks, cajoling legacy protocols such as DECNet to play nicely with them, and designing the architecture for the first generation of e-commerce websites. Back then hardware was something that hurt if you kicked it and apart from Unix, a TCP/IP stack was an expensive extra that came in a shiny box with a bound manual.

After that, I joined a service provider, where I became responsible for everything that had an RJ45 socket, every line of code, and all of the technical staff. The guy they blame, aka, the Chief Technology Officer. There I designed a carrier grade hosted email and spam filtering platform.

Around this time I also co-founded Ireland's first domain registrar for the (then new) .EU ccTLD. That business was later acquired.

We Monitor Email

In 2014, after spending time working in senior management roles, I founded We Monitor Email. Originally a SaaS based platform for monitoring the health of on-premise or hybrid email servers, the business pivoted into professional services, focusing on email deliverability, and then DMARC.

Now, I never aspired to own a niche PS practice for the same reasons most people don't - hard to scale up, thus difficult to exit, hence eventually soul destroying to own. Luckily, things worked out fairly well and that business was acquired in 2022.

Author

I wrote Email Deliverability Explained in 2017. It wasn't really planned, just something that organically grew out of answering the same questions over and over again. There weren't any books about email deliverability at the time, so I wrote the first one to stop having to repeat myself. I ended up self publishing because when I spoke to a publisher, they wanted to make it a much bigger project than I'd envisioned or had time for. So I did it myself, learnt a lot, and produced something I'm proud of, and which has been well received.

I'm currently working on the second edition of Email Deliverability Explained, along with some other writing projects that may turn into books.

Work

I am currently the Head of Deliverability for Upland Software. At Upland I manage a cross-functional team of fantastic consultants who support the deliverability needs of internal and external clients of products such as PostUp, Second Street, and Adestra.

Between my day job, some pro bono consulting, and the handful of low-touch clients I retained from the acquisition, I am kept pretty busy. I now enjoy a healthy work/life balance and am not looking to take on any more work. However, there is no harm in reaching out if you have an really interesting project etc. The worst that can happen is I say "pass" and maybe point you in the direction of someone else.