The Trail Report
& field notes.

Chase Wright's brother is seven years older, spent his career in the military, and was deep enough into computers that young Chase, by his own account, would have probably called him a super nerd. Before Chase had held a job at all, that brother gave him a piece of advice.

By the time Todd Mares went looking for a job, he hadn't had one in about thirty years. He'd run his own low voltage cabling company: infrastructure work, the wire and pathway that every other system in a building quietly depends on. He was good at it, and for a long stretch it worked. Then the Denver market turned on him.

Kacey van Hemert met Pine Cove years before she ever worked there. She was the on-site tech at DaVinci Academy in Utah, still finishing a degree in computer software engineering, when a guy named Kyle Thompson showed up from a company called Pine Cove Consulting. No pitch. No job offer. Just a name worth remembering. (DaVinci is a Pine Cove client today.)

Kyle Rygg didn't come to Pine Cove looking for a tech job. He came for a cup of coffee with a guy he'd met through football. That guy was Brandon. The two had crossed paths through the NIL program Brandon was building with the Bozeman football team, but they'd never really talked. So Kyle sent a message on LinkedIn and asked to grab coffee. A friend had mentioned Pine Cove was "some kind of tech company." That was about all he knew going in.

Morgan Pagett didn't find Pine Cove through a job posting. He found them in a high school hallway in Douglas, Wyoming. Pine Cove was the IT provider for Morgan's school district, and as a student tech, he was already elbow-deep in the work, fielding problems and trying to fix things. When Pine Cove came in to help sort out some aging infrastructure, Derek Curtis and Mike Stroud took notice.

Before working in technology, Mike was a fifth grade teacher. That experience still shapes how he supports districts today. He understands how much educators rely on technology and how quickly things can change when it is not working. As a Technical Account Manager, Mike partners closely with school leaders, helping them navigate both day-to-day challenges and long-term planning.

Behind every strong client relationship at Pine Cove is someone who genuinely cares, and Brandan Bassett is one of those people. As one of our most tenured leaders, Brandan brings more than technical experience; he brings relationship-first thinking. He's the kind of partner who remembers what matters to your district, who shows up consistently, and who sees beyond the immediate ticket to the bigger picture. Clients trust Brandan because he listens first. Strategy comes second.