Episode 1: Connecting People, Not Just Cables
Guests: James Hackett (COO) & Chris “Frost” Frost (CTO)

We’re kicking off Cruzio Stories with the people who helped build it — literally.

In this first episode, we sit down with James Hackett and Chris “Frost” Frost, Cruzio’s longtime COO and CTO. Both of them started at the front desk more than 20 years ago and worked their way into leadership, helping shape Cruzio into what it is today: an independent internet company that’s been serving Santa Cruz since 1989 — and still going strong.

But this podcast isn’t just about Cruzio or tech. It’s about Santa Cruz.

Cruzio Stories is a bi-weekly look into the people who make this place go — the creatives, builders, founders, and community voices who share space inside the Cruzio building. The coworking space is our nucleus, but the stories are bigger than that. These are Santa Cruz stories, told one short conversation at a time.

This first episode goes deep — from Cruzio’s early days as a dial-in bulletin board to the wild moment in 2008 when a fiber line got cut and disconnected the entire county from the outside world. James and Frost talk about what it took to build new infrastructure, transform an old newspaper building, and stay fiercely local in an industry dominated by giants.

At the heart of it, it’s a story about connection — not just cables and bandwidth, but people and purpose.

Subscribe now and stay tuned. The next story could be from the business next door, the artist at the hot desk, or the nonprofit building something big — all right here at the Cruzio hub.