Fast 15: Melodie Hays

Starting and running a candle and bath bomb business in college, Melodie Hays realized she enjoyed problem-solving. With a major in English literature and a minor in supply chain management, the Fort Worth, Texas, native planned initially to teach English. However, she landed a project manager internship with supply chain software provider SupplyPike in 2017 during her senior year at the University of Arkansas. That led to a full-time job before graduating from college in 2018.

In August 2018, she became a product owner, managing a team of 11 engineers and owning the strategy and direction of SupplyPike’s Deduction Solution for Walmart, which became the company’s keystone product. In October 2020, as director of growth marketing, Hays oversaw an internal-facing team, managing projects like a desktop application and creating an external-facing marketing team. “They’re two very different aspects of the company,” she said. “But at a startup, you have to be pretty scrappy.”

Hays taught herself programming to translate business needs to her engineering team better.

‘Then I realized how much I enjoyed it because programming is problem-solving,” she said. “You’re presented with something you’re trying to accomplish, and you have to figure out how to piece it together.”

Hays helped develop and code all the programs for SupplyPike’s SupplierWiki, an online knowledge base to educate retail suppliers, which grew to 30,000 users in three years. In May 2021, she became vice president of marketing, steering the strategic direction of all marketing initiatives with a team of more than 20 people while maintaining a passion for programming and product development.

From Christine Tan, SupplyPike COO, Hays learned the importance of community involvement and how to advocate for herself. As the first in her family to attend college, she’s motivated to make her parents proud.

In 2018, Hays led marketing for the Nowhere Developers Conference, a tech-focused nonprofit event connecting engineers, hackers and makers in Northwest Arkansas. She created a blog, Ambitious By Nature, to highlight women in tech around the region.

Passionate about nature, the environment and birds, she’s a board member of Northsong Wild Bird Rehabilitation, the state’s only nonprofit facility for native birds.

Hays enjoys learning, reading, programming, hiking, and being outdoors in her downtime.