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Skye Perry
Founder, SSP Innovations
“The hard work ethic, interpersonal relationships, and collaboration skills I have learned through music have absolutely translated to my leadership in business.”
Skye Perry is an entrepreneur and advisor who built SSP Innovations into a market-leading GIS and utility software company, scaling it from a one-person startup into a global organization. Today he advises founders and executive teams on growth, strategy, and transformation.
A lifelong musician shaped by public school music programs, he brings the discipline, collaboration, and creative thinking developed through music into how he leads, builds teams, and navigates complex challenges. He serves as a Board Member of Education Through Music Colorado and is the Founding Ambassador of Musicianship in Business.
Tell us about your professional journey and what defines your work and leadership today. What motivates you in the role you hold and the field in which you operate?
I started SSP Innovations in 2003 as a one‑person, bootstrapped operation and grew it into a market‑leading GIS and utility software company by combining deep technical delivery with deliberate, values‑driven strategy. My career has been defined by hands‑on problem solving—designing and implementing complex geospatial solutions, leading major pivots (partner disputes, platform transitions, overall strategy), and executing targeted acquisitions to add product and data capabilities. Those experiences taught me how to scale teams, integrate products and services, manage risk through market disruption, and keep customer outcomes central to every decision.
Today my work and leadership are defined by clarity of purpose, integrity, and a focus on building trusted long‑term relationships. I lead by setting strategic direction, enabling talented leaders, and creating systems that let teams do their best work without sacrificing culture. What motivates me is creating durable impact—helping organizations navigate transformational change, delivering measurable value to customers, and mentoring founders and execs so they can scale responsibly. In my advisory and board roles I bring that mix of technical depth, operational experience, and people‑first leadership to help others grow, pivot, and succeed.
How has music been part of your life? When did it first enter your life, and how has it evolved over time—whether through playing an instrument, singing, composing, or other forms of musical practice?
I am a lifelong musician and a product of the public-school music system. In addition to the standard curriculum music classes, I joined the school orchestra in 5th grade on violin before moving to the string bass in 6th grade. I had also been studying saxophone privately since 4th grade and switched to the school band program in 7th grade when it was formally offered. I then continued with saxophone in school through college in addition to playing snare drum in the 9th grade marching band, eventually becoming the drum major my senior year, and picking up a lot of other instruments along the way. During that final high school year, 4 of my 7 classes were all through music program (symphonic band, jazz band, music theory, and orchestra) and I was on a track to study music education in college. While I made the last-minute decision to study business and computer science, music played a VERY important part of my childhood and has continued to be a big part of my life in adulthood. I have recorded and performed throughout my adult life. Most of my performance has been on bass guitar and I currently perform regularly with the Castle Oaks Worship Team on bass and drums and on acoustic guitar in a duo with Tanya Pomirchy. While my time commitment to music has ebbed and flowed over the years, it has always been a very important part of who I am.
Many leaders recognize that the skills developed through music extend far beyond the stage or rehearsal room. Learning and practicing music often strengthens qualities such as listening, discipline, collaboration, creative thinking, resilience, and the ability to perform under pressure—skills that are also essential in professional life. Looking back, how has music shaped the way you think, collaborate, innovate, or lead in your professional life?
Music was everything to me in my youth. Performing both as a solo musician and as part of small, medium, and large ensembles provided both a very important outlet for my creativity but also a tremendous amount of skills used for building relationships with other individuals and as part of a team. When performing in a group, the sum of the parts is always greater than the individual contributions of each musician. The hard work ethic, interpersonal relationships, and collaboration skills I have learned through music have absolutely translated to my leadership in business.
Can you recall a moment in your professional life when your experience with music helped you navigate a challenge, make a decision, collaborate with others, or unlock a creative solution?
I have plenty of examples but the most fun example to share was when we decided to utilize music as a major marketing campaign at SSP Innovations. By 2014 we employed so many brilliant professionals that were also musicians that we decided to head to the studio to record a version of Bruno Mars’ Uptown Funk with new (nerdy but very relevant) words that described our business. We then recorded a full length music video to go along with the song. This was premiered in 2015 as part of a marketing campaign. The campaign was a HUGE success in our industry and showed that we were real people who loved fun and music in addition to our professional jobs. Beyond the market success though, the experience proved to be a wonderful team bonding experience for everyone involved in the writing, creation, recording, and even the video production for the company. It’s been over ten years since “GIS You Up” was released but both employees and industry vets still talk about it! We can’t help but smile when we watch the below video and think back to all the work that went into creating such a fun production! And just about everyone in the company was involved in some way.Â
What resonates with you about ETM-CO’s mission to ensure that music is part of every child’s education—especially in under-resourced schools—and why do you believe access to music from an early age matters for the next generation?
Music played a VERY important part of my childhood and has continued to be a big part of my life in adulthood. I am excited to offer my professional skills & connections combined with my love and support of educational music to ETM-CO to help the organization continue to make a difference for the coming generations of musicians, business people, and good all around people of our community. I cannot even imagine my life without music in it and the thought of music education not being available to every child in Colorado truly breaks my heart. Music education is absolutely a key foundation to unlocking each child’s passion and joy and can then contribute to so many other areas of personal and professional development. Early age music education access can truly change the world by unlocking the potential in the lives of children who may otherwise never realize their full potential!
And now, the most difficult question—one we often ask our students. What does music give you today that nothing else does?
Today, music provides an outlet for passion, creativity and self-esteem that I do not get from any other source. While I have succeeded in business and so many other areas of life, nothing provides me the satisfaction that comes from music and that is why I am so passionate about ensuring we enable future generations of musicians for years to come.
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