Life at Nautilus Interview with Irene Sparck -Leveraging the language of business to help Nautilus grow

Irene Sparck is Senior Manager, Accounting at Nautilus. She started her career in urban planning but switched to accounting hoping to do work that would have more immediate positive impacts on the world around her. In the interview below, she shares how her career transition accomplished that goal incredibly well and describes the ways she and her team enable Nautilus’ success.

What enticed you to change from a career in urban planning to accounting?

There are a few practical reasons for the shift – more job stability for one – but once I started learning how accounting impacts a business, I was sold on a full-fledged career change. In intro accounting courses, they stress that accounting is “the language of business” and I’ve observed that to be true in a variety of important ways including:

• Accounting shows where inefficiencies lie in a business and highlights what actions can be taken to correct those inefficiencies
• Accounting provides executives with standardized means of telling the story of a company’s success that can be compared across the industry
• Accounting helps business leaders determine if they’ve made the right decisions

Critically for me, all these things are actionable. If I gather data showing that a process is taking months longer than other similar processes, I can dig into the process and help the team determine how to change it for the better. This has the potential to make the whole business more efficient and even make work more enjoyable for the employees involved. Accounting data can also be shared with people like investors as a measure of progress. This can greatly improve the perceived value of a company – something that is particularly important for a young start-up like ours.

What kinds of accounting positions did you have previously and why did you make the move to Nautilus?

I previously worked at a variety of B2B tech companies. These were all focused on providing important software services, but it could be hard to see how they improved people’s lives on a day-to-day basis. At Nautilus, we’re building a platform with the potential to improve the health and lives of people all over the world. It’s highly motivating to think about the very direct ways our technology can enhance people’s lives, and I love chatting with friends and family about what we do. They almost always engage with follow-up questions and want to learn more.

In a more practical sense, I wanted to work at a startup like Nautilus because I knew it would give me the opportunity to apply my current expertise and grow my skills in other facets of accounting. For instance, I have deep experience with accounting as it relates to software development and software sales. We’ll be providing software as part of our platform so my experience is highly applicable, but accounting as it relates to physical manufacturing and stock management will also be critical. Given how nimble we are as a startup, I’ll have the opportunity to learn more about accounting in these parts of the business. My genuine interest in these areas will enable me to go above and beyond while also providing maximal benefit to Nautilus.

What keeps you motivated on a day-to-day basis?

Nautilus mission, “to positively impact the health and lives of people around the world,” is highly motivating on its own, but my coworkers also boost my energy and drive. Everyone on our team is genuinely curious about the ways we can most effectively grow the company. They are action-oriented, challenge me to take on big projects, and are a pleasure to work with on a personal level.

On the days when my brain is a bit overloaded from work, I recharge through hobbies like crochet and baking. Creating and sharing things like crochet, cupcakes, or my special bourbon-soaked, chocolate chip, oatmeal cookies gives me a different kind of satisfaction than accounting. It definitely rejuvenates me when I can focus on them.

Beyond that, I help organize and manage a variety of organizations my children take part in. I’m a leader of one of the largest Girl Scout troops in Seattle, coach softball, and serve on the board of Magnolia Little League. While these activities pull me out of work mode, they also help me learn new things about people and process management that I’ve been able to apply in my professional life.

What are your career goals?

My ultimate goal is to lead all accounting functions at an organization. I hope to combine my experiences with organizations like the Girl Scouts with my professional experiences to achieve this aim. Accounting covers a wide range of activities, and diverse experiences build my understanding of these activities while enabling me to manage the people that own them. I’m very grateful for all the leadership and management experiences I continue to have and think they’ll position me well to become head of an accounting team in the future.