Forge Member Spotlight: Derrick Magnotta

Forge Member Spotlight: Derrick Magnotta

Meet Forge Member, Derrick Magnotta!

 

Derrick is the COO of Quality Counts, Inc. – an employment screening company – they do background checks, drug testing, and medical exams for employers around the country. We love having Derrick as part of the Forge community!

 

What is your favorite part about your job?
“Problem solving, hands down. Every customer brings a unique set of challenges, and I love digging into those—figuring out their processes, pain points, and goals. Then I get to match that with our capabilities and experience to craft something tailored and effective. It’s like building a custom solution every time—and that never gets old.”

 

What made you decide to join Forge?
“I had been working from home a few days a week, but wanted to manage better work/life balance. When my office was at home, I could always work. Going to a clean, neutral third space helped improve my focus at work and improve my enjoyment of life at home.”

 

What is your favorite thing about Forge?
“It is bright, clean, and there’s always freshly brewed Domestique coffee. What else can you ask for?”

 

What is your favorite spot/place to work at Forge?
“I like to sit overlooking the window onto the street. It’s amazing how many people don’t know how to drive in a city.”

 

What are your favorite tech tools to get your job done or keep your life organized?
“The best tech tool for me is one that reinforces my daily rituals and keeps me focused. I use a personal Google Site as my home base—it’s where I link all my core systems, applications, and dashboards. Each day starts with a review of our performance dashboard from the previous business day—order volumes, error rates, fulfillment rates—so I can immediately get a pulse on operations. Having everything centralized in one place makes my workflow feel streamlined and intentional. It’s the first page I open every morning and the top item on my bookmarks bar. Other applications include our proprietary systems, Google Sheets for analytics and dashboards, ChatGPT (including a custom trained bot on my company’s SOPs), and Any.do for task tracking and scheduling.”
Is there a product you cannot live without?
“Endel! It generates sound based on mood to help me focus, gain energy, or decompress after the day.”
What is the last show you binge-watched?
“Veep (for at least the fourth or fifth time)”

 

What is your ideal weekend in Birmingham?
“My ideal weekend in Birmingham starts with a quiet Friday night—cooking pasta or pizza at home for my wife and just enjoying some downtime together. Saturday kicks off with a walk at Ruffner with our dog, Roosie, grabbing a coffee at Domestique, then meeting up with friends for wine at Red or White or a beer at a brewery. We’ll usually head to a second spot for dinner – ideally Hattie B’s. On Sunday, we sleep in, grab a taco from Taco Morro Loco, and hang out on our screen porch. Simple, low key, relaxed.”
Meet Forge Ambassador Catrice Pruitt

Meet Forge Ambassador Catrice Pruitt

We are excited to introduce our newest Forge Ambassador, Catrice Pruitt!

 

Catrice Pruitt

Tell us a little bit about yourself!

 

A native of Fairfield, Alabama, Catrice is pursuing her Ph.D in Early Childhood Education at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). She completed her Masters in Early Childhood Education at Alabama State University and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management from Miles College.
With 15+ years of experience in early childhood education, Catrice uses her expertise to mentor, motivate and educate child care directors, advocate for our youngest learners on Capitol Hill alongside the Women’s Foundation of Alabama and Voices for Alabama’s Children. She is also transcending into other ventures such as finance and health and well-being to help evoke community impact and economic power.

What brought you to Forge?

 

The opportunity to grow professionally and personally, while making new connections.

What are you looking forward to about working at Forge?

 

Learning more about co-working spaces and how to best meet the needs of clients in this setting. Also, making new connections and knowing what services are in the Magic City.

What do you do when you are not working at Forge?

 

Catrice works at a local nonprofit making quality childcare happen for our youngest learners. In her spare time, you can find Catrice active with several committees and focus groups, serving on several Board of Directors, leading several peer groups such as the W.E.D.N (Women Entrepreneurs & Directors Network), mentoring future leaders in 21st Century Skills readiness, reading and listening to audio books, and serving at my church.
You can also find her at local eateries, coffee shops, Barnes & Noble, and most importantly, spending time with her greatest joy, her daughter Erin.

If you could choose to do anything for the day, what would you choose to do?

 

Spend the day in another country enjoying the food and learning the culture.

What is your favorite thing about Birmingham?

 

The legacy of Birmingham and the people who helped shape it.
Member Spotlight: Ethan Davis

Member Spotlight: Ethan Davis

 

Tell us a little bit about what you do/your company does.

 

Front Gate Tickets specializes in ticketing and RFID technology for 180 music festivals in North America. We help with everything from building and hosting the ticketing website, wristband fulfillment, and making sure everyone scans correctly on-site for both Live Nation and independent promoters.”

What is your favorite part about your job?

 

 

“The travel for sure! Each year I end up getting to go to about 20 different music festivals, so you probably won’t see me in the office every week.”

What made you decide to join Forge?

 

“That sweet sweet location! It’s hard to beat downtown Birmingham.”

What is your favorite thing about Forge?

 

 

“The absolutely amazing commute from my apartment in the building.”

What is your favorite spot/place to work at Forge?

 

 

“Catch me on the West side overlooking the food hall courtyard OR in a booth on a meeting that should have been an email.”

What are your favorite tech tools to get your job done or keep your life organized?

 

“You gotta have that external monitor and cable bag with you! (I’m borderline useless without a second screen.)”

What is the last show you binge-watched?

 

 

“What We Do In The Shadows”
Meet Forge Member Seth Daggett

Meet Forge Member Seth Daggett

Check out our Member Spotlight of Seth Daggett! He’s the Product Design Director at Etsy and we’re so happy he is part of the Forge community.
Tell us a little bit about what you do/your company does.
Etsy is a global marketplace for unique and creative goods. We connect millions of buyers and sellers from nearly every country around the world to leverage the power of business, with a mission to “Keep Commerce Human.” I manage a team of design managers and designers working on personalization, ML, data, development and design platforms.”
What is your favorite part about your job?
“The best part of working at Etsy is the people, from the coworkers I get to partner with and learn from to the buyers and sellers we support.”
What made you decide to join Forge?
“I moved from Brooklyn to Birmingham in 2021. After working from home a couple of years, I really missed being in more of an office environment. Forge offered a nice, bike-able, commute, and a flexible environment for working around other creative, talented and driven folks.”
What is your favorite thing about Forge?
“I love it’s location, I’m inspired by the architecture downtown and get energy from the commute.”
What is your favorite spot/place to work at Forge?
“I like moving around, but the phone booths are super cozy!”
What are your favorite tech tools to get your job done or keep your life organized?
Is there a product you cannot live without?
“Campari (for Negronis!)”
What is the last show you binge-watched?
What is your ideal weekend in Birmingham?
  • Eating! Homemade Pizza on the back porch on Friday
  • Pastries at Last Call and Coffee at June on Saturday morning
  • Burger at Back Forty or Ramen at Shu Shop
  • Catch a Legion FC game on Saturday night
  • Lazy Sunday with more food with friends and family

 

 

Are you a remote worker, small business owner or entrepreneur? We’d love for you to join our community at Forge! Book a tour today.

Meet Forge Member Alyce A Hendricks-Hoglan

Meet Forge Member Alyce A Hendricks-Hoglan

We are excited to introduce Forge Member Alyce A Hendricks-Hoglan!

Alyce is the Office Manager and a Paralegal for Elizabeth Hunter Law Firm.

 

Tell us more about what your company does.

“Here at the Elizabeth Law Firm, we represent clients in Criminal Defense matters across the State of Alabama. We fight and advocate aggressively, and effectively for our clients to be able to be heard in the courtrooms and have a fair hearing.”

 

What is your favorite part about your job?

“Giving hope to clients who feel like their situation is hopeless. Being able to speak on their behalf on a case that could ultimately change their entire life.”

 

What made you decide to join Forge?

“We are a small yet dynamic duo law firm. It gave us the space that we needed for the time being, The location is great and the staff are amazing and helpful.”

 

What is your favorite thing about Forge?

“My favorite thing about Forge is the ability to have flexible time to come into a safe environment and be able to handle important task any time of the day.”

 

What is your favorite spot to work at Forge?

“In our nice spacious office overlooking the food hall.”

 

What are your favorite tech tools to get your job done or keep your life organized?

Practice Panther is a software that is efficient for taking notes, adding clients and getting invoices sent out. Literally an all-in-one stop shop.”

 

What is the last show you binge-watched?

“Bridgerton and I cannot wait until the next season comes out.”

 

What is your ideal weekend in Birmingham?

“Well in my spare time, I am actually a Vocalist / Songwriter, so normally I am somewhere playing the piano on the weekends or singing. Posting on my YouTube @TheLadyAlyce is another project I love working on as well.”

 

Are you currently working from home and looking to get out of the house? Join our thriving community! Book a tour of Forge and see what we have to offer.