For our 20th anniversary celebration, we are going to lift up the people who have shaped Sol: the partners, clients and employees who have made our business what it is today. Throughout 2022, we will enjoy great food and conversation with the people who have been with us along the way.
I love that my first meal kicking off our 20th anniversary was with our first employee, Erich Luedtke. We met in November 2021 for breakfast and some reminiscing. Erich was our first in-house developer, but he was so much more. He was a designer, a visionary, an illustrator and an inventor – he built amazing web experiences before we even called them that and a plant watering apparatus that still keeps our oldest plant alive (I could write a separate post about that). One of my favorite Erich creations was the Bookzilla red Converse he created for Daren Wang, the founder of the Decatur Book Festival and a good friend of ours at Sol. Erich decided a couple of days before the big event that Daren needed to not just look the part, but wear it. The shoes became famous and took on a life of their own.
If you are wondering where Erich is now, he lives in Chicago with his wife and 4-year-old twins where he is the Head of Tech and one of the founders of Curable. He’s changing the world for the better and making folks healthier along the way. Needless to say, I am a big fan!
