Kathryn O'Day

This awesome Linkedin post from Laura Horton triggered a trip down memory lane. Pardot early days → growing like crazy → being acquired by ExactTarget → being acquired by Salesforce 10 months later.

We were fortunate to be acquired by two great companies, and Adam Blitzer, Pardot COO, was a tremendous leader throughout the experience. It was a wild ride with tons of learning along the way.

Acquisitions and mergers create amazing opportunities for all involved. They also bring a lot of change, uncertainty, and compromise.

If you have an acquisition now, soon, or one day, here are 6 strategies to maximize the opportunity ahead.

6 Things To Maximize Success After Acquisition

1. Make the most of the resources and expertise.

Don’t fight the wave! Lean into the opportunities afforded by a big company.

There’s more resources: people to help, budget for hiring or special initiatives, business infrastructure, global reach, potential to scale quickly.

And more expertise: financial gurus, product geniuses, business veterans, industry thought leaders.

It’s easy to say, “Our way has been working. Leave us alone.” But then you miss out on the advantages of the acquisition!

Adam Blitzer embraced and articulated this approach within Pardot and it created more openness and collaboration. It felt better and drove better results.

2. Meet as many people as possible.

Use your time as the “new kid” to connect with anyone and everyone. People are eager to learn what you do and understand your company and product.

Dave Duke shared this advice during the ExactTarget acquisition. He was right and I’ve shared it many times since.

Even at the largest companies, relationships are key. Build those relationships early and often. Go for quantity to start and meet people at all levels, in all departments.

To share about yourself:

• Practice a clear, concise explanation of your role, team, product, company.
• Keep it high level unless someone really, really digs in. Most people at the acquiring company don’t know more than the press release. It’s been hush hush until the public announcement.
• Know your metrics (e.g. 100 customers, 50 people on the team, CSAT of 8.5). Numbers are the universal love language of companies big and small.

To build rapport:

• Ask good questions.
• Learn about people’s experience or background. No one doesn’t like talking about themselves 😉
• Make a genuine connection. Find something you have in common, no matter how small.
• Be helpful through intros, resources, or information.

Don’t be shy about reaching out to people more senior than you, especially one level up. I was hesitant to “bother” certain folks and missed out on building key relationships. A lesson I learned so you don’t have to!

3. Learn the culture.

Figure out as quickly as you can:

• how things get done
• who has influence
• what people care about
• how the org chart works, who reports to who
• unwritten rules
• email, calendar and meeting norms

Observe, ask questions, and compare notes with others. Meeting lots of people will help with this.

4. Find a trusted friend or mentor at the new company.

Who is well-respected and a top performer? Who is awesome at getting shit done despite big company pace and politics? Who do you want to learn from? Who has been there a long time and knows everyone? Who can give you the backstory when something seems odd?

Find these people! Hitch your wagon to them. Meet with them regularly. Learn everything you can.

5. Support people’s journeys.

Some people will love and thrive in the new environment. Others will get frustrated and want to get back to startup life.

Each of those things is okay. Yes, we always want to retain top talent but the most important thing is that people are happy in their careers, wherever that may be. It’s also playing the long game since you may work with them again one day.

Adam Blitzer would jokingly say, “If it stinks, don’t stay. I’ll help you find something else. I’ll also leave if it stinks.” (He stayed 8 years. 😀)

Giving people freedom and support instead of hollow claims of “nothing will change” was powerful. Those that moved on left on great terms and many Pardot alums stay in touch or work together today.

6. Don’t glorify the “good ole days.”

Yes, there was autonomy, camaraderie, ping pong tournaments, and hoodies.

But there was also constant worry over the competitor with 10x more funding, an infinite product backlog, and only one marketing person.

If the company had grown organically, things would have changed anyway. Bigger teams, more rules, slower pace, and more structure come with scale. Also, good things like new roles, better benefits, more office locations, and more stability. It’s the nature of growth.

Have you been through an acquisition? What advice or learnings do you have?

It’s Time for Customer Success

You’ve brought on your paying first customers. Woohoo! You’re a dream team of one: sales rep, implementation specialist, and technical support combined. Things are going great. So great, in fact, it’s time to make “Customer Success” an official thing.  

Where do you begin??

Here are 4 great resources to help you start your Customer Success department with confidence.

4 Essential Customer Success Resources

1. Your First Customer Success Hire (article)

This article from Atlanta Ventures (written by yours truly 😉) covers:

• Who to hire
• What they’ll be doing
• Where to post the role
• How to interview them
• Why Customer Success is so important!

2. The Customer Support Handbook (book)

Why this book is great:

• Simple, short, practical
• Recommended by the best support leader I know – Vincent Migliore. He is phenomenal at building technical support teams and making customers happy.
• Required reading for many years on the award-winning Customer Success team at Pardot!

3. Customer Service 101 Training Deck (slides)

Hundreds of Customer Success hires at Pardot, Salesforce, Rigor, and beyond have been trained from variations of this deck. It’s fun, practical, and specific.

Feel free to copy and make it your own!

It covers:

• Understanding customers
• Key components of a great customer interaction
• What if they’re upset?!?!
• Customer service writing
• BONUS: intro section to clarify your company values and customer goals

4. Customer Success Conversations with Francis Cordon (podcast)

This podcast is a perfect overview for someone who likes to understand the big picture before diving into details.

Francis Cordon is a Customer Success visionary whose philosophy and tactics apply to all companies, big and small. (He’s been wildly successful at both.)

Learn why Francis advocates for:

• Pre-sales as post-sales; post-sales as pre-sales
• Showing objective ROI to your customer’s boss’s boss
• Customer Win Slides
• Customer Success as a competitive advantage - now and as you scale!

Any other recommendations for founders who are ramping up their Customer Success function? What else should be included in this Customer Success Starter Pack??

You’ve been hired by a startup!

You get a job offer from an awesome, early stage company. You’re pumped to get in there, learn a bunch, and make an impact.

The company has been clear – it’s a little chaotic right now. But that’s also why they need you so desperately! There’s no job description, performance metrics, or 90 day plan. It’s a “get in and figure it out” scenario.

Or maybe there’s some general guidance but no training, systems, or documentation. Information on customers or the product? It’s passed down from generation to generation, ahem, person to person, via Slack messages or meetings.

In this undefined world, how do you know if you’re on track? What’s a normal ramp time at a startup and how long does it feel “overwhelming” before it becomes “hectic-but-manageable”?

If you’re the manager of a rockstar new hire, how can you support them and set their expectations?

Here are the 4 stages I’ve seen many teammates go through or have even experienced myself on the startup journey!

4 Stages To Expect After Joining a Startup

STAGE 1: What is my job? What does this company do?

📅 Month 0-3

You were hired to do customer success but what exactly does that mean? There’s 500 things that need attention! As you talk to different people around the company, they offer differing advice or priorities. New caveats and resources are shared daily. “How will I ever learn it all,” you say.

Never fear. IT’S TOTALLY NORMAL! It’s not a reflection on you or the company. Onboarding at even the most organized startups feels chaotic. Lean into the learning and enjoy the new relationships and knowledge!

#ManagerTip

Set expectations that it’s normal for things to feel hard or confusing at first. They will get more clear over time! Top performers are always eager to make an impact. Point out wins or things they are doing well to emphasize that. If there’s any behavior isn’t aligned with company values, correct it kindly and immediately.

STAGE 2: How do I do my job?

📅 Month 3-6

You’ve figured out the elevator pitch and maybe had a small win or two. You’ve listened, learned, and assimilated info for 3 months. And you finally feel like you know what your job is! Yay! Time to start focusing on the priorities and honing your skills in those areas.

#ManagerTip

Now is a good time to revisit early expectations on performance or priorities. Your new hire will still be asking a lot of questions but they should be “new” rather than “repeat” ones. If they’re struggling with the same things over and over, review their learning and documentation strategies.

STAGE 3: How do I do my job really well?

📅 Month 6-12

You’re starting to get an effective playbook in place, official or unofficial. You’re getting good feedback from customers or teammates. You look back and say, “Wow, I can’t believe how far I’ve come since 6 months ago! It feels like a lifetime.” You’re in a groove and it feels so good. 💃🏻

#ManagerTip

Evaluate the first six months. If you’re not really excited about this person, give specific feedback on how to improve. They’re over the early learning hump and should be contributing. If they’re crushing it, think about what’s next for them. What will keep them engaged? How can they add even more value?

STAGE 4: How can I grow?

📅 Month 12-24

You feel pretty confident in your current skills and want to expand further. Whether it’s training new hires, taking on special projects, testing new strategies, or moving into a new role, you’re ready for the next challenge.

Now is when you’re SO GLAD you joined a startup! The early uncertainty was worth it. Fast company growth means lots of personal and professional opportunity. Make the most of the rocket ship. 🚀

#ManagerTip

Have conversations about areas of interest and growth. Brainstorm ways someone could spread their wings. Are they interested in managing? They could mentor or train new hires. Do they want to try a new role? Have them do special projects with a different team to explore the work and potential fit.

Joining a startup is tremendously fun and rewarding. Knowing what to expect can be helpful as you jump in the deep end and learn to swim at the same time. Be kind to yourself, stay positive, and embrace the opportunity before you!

Do these stages resonate with you? What other stages have you experienced when joining startups?

The COO Search

I frequently talk to founders who are looking for a Chief Operations Officer (COO). These are early stage companies – 5 to 20 employees, $0 to $1,000,000 in revenue, 5 to 50 customers, bootstrapped or small seed funding.

The founder is looking for:

• Another leader
• Trusted resource who can handle mission critical initiatives
• Skills or experience the founder isn’t as strong in (e.g. sales, product/tech)
• Someone who can “free up” the mind or calendar of the founder

It’s hard, near impossible, to find an excellent, experienced, affordable startup COO for a company at this stage.

Do not despair! You don’t need to find your magical once-in-a-lifetime unicorn on day one.  

Here are 3 strategies to fill a COO role at an early stage startup.

3 Startup Hires To Make When You’re Looking for a COO

1. Hire an operations manager…that could grow into a COO.

Why buy a sledgehammer when a heavy duty fly swatter does the job? Yes, the very junior folks haven’t worked out. But the range between entry-level ops and COO is vast.

Is there someone smart, hungry, and operationally-minded in your network that could start as an ops manager and grow from there? COOs are hard to find but everyone knows an up-and-coming ass kicker, I mean, operator.

Think: project manager, exec assistant, event planner. Look for a few years of experience in a logistics-heavy role with people or vendor management experience. They will be well-respected, highly recommended, and have moved up quickly. You’ll hear people say, “I trust them to get shit done.”

2. Hire a function-specific leader…that could grow into a COO.

What area of your business could use a leader or more experience? Don’t hire a general COO. Hire a VP of Sales, Head of Marketing, Finance Manager, or Business Development Lead. Pick someone who thinks about systems, processes, and playbooks.

You’ll acquire deep expertise in an area where you need it today AND the potential to develop a COO from within your organization.

3. Outsource to a contractor or virtual assistant.

If someone was managing your calendar, paying invoices, following up on client to-dos, designing marketing materials, running your social media, buying groceries, setting meeting agendas, onboarding new hires –OR WHATEVER ELSE YOU NEED– how much time would that give you?

Not sure what could be delegated? Levels CEO Sam Corcos has 56 tasks that are handled by a virtual assistant. Read this amazing Sam Corcos Starter Pack for inspiration.

But Weren’t You a Startup COO?!?

Is this blasphemy coming from a former startup COO?

Spoiler alert. I was Option #2. I started as the head of Client Success and moved into the COO role after a year. I was motivated, well-prepared, and had deep knowledge of the team and business. The company knew my strengths (and weaknesses - ha!) and moved me into the role with confidence. It was a win-win.

Do you have an awesome story about how you found (or developed) your COO? Other tips for startup founders looking for COOs? Please share!

Your Startup Is Growing

Your company is in the Wild West phase. You’re moving fast and breaking things.

The idea of documenting something is laughable. Your process changes daily and you’re the only person doing this work anyway.

Then things start to change…

• You can’t list every customer off the top of your head.
• You hire a few sales people.
• Someone wants to take a vacation but the business can’t run without them.
• Teams are figuring out how to work together more efficiently.
• You notice the repetitive manual tasks slowing you down.

You start wondering, “Is now the time to start documenting stuff? Maybe define a workflow or add a Zapier integration?”

Speed is your competitive advantage. You want to stay lean and nimble. But also, stuff is starting to break.

How do you know when it’s time to add structure, playbooks, automation, tools or guidelines??

6 Signs It’s Time To Build Internal Processes

1. Things are falling through the cracks. A lot.

One customer renewal overlooked, no problem. Two or three? → Okay, let’s add a weekly email report.

Forget to send invites to an event? → Time for a checklist.

The dollar amount is wrong on a contract because of a manual error…for the third time this month.  → Do we upgrade our e-sign tool to get pricing configurations?

2. New hires are confused or slow to ramp up.

You’ve added several new hires who aren’t “getting it.”

What resources are available to them to understand the company, job, tasks, or internal quirks? Do you have recordings of a product demo, a plan for call shadowing, and some documentation about how to use the CRM?

You don’t need an LMS on day one. Start simple and build it out over time.

3. You’re playing referee.

I love to get in the middle of employee conflict

…said no CEO ever

It usually happens first in sales because commissions are at stake and sales folks, by definition, are great at making the ask and pushing boundaries.

• “They took my lead.”
• “Do I get more commission because of the multiyear contract?”

It’ll overflow into a fun game of “Whose job is it anyway?”

• “Customer Success sends customer newsletters.”

• “No, that’s Marketing’s job.”

Clarifying roles or putting rules of engagement on (digital) paper will help alleviate this. Creating technology-enabled guardrails with in-app automation or user permissions is phase two.

4. It takes longer to explain than to operationalize.  

You realize it’s quicker to put instructions in a Google Doc than to sit down for a 30 minute walk through of <insert your fave startup workflow here>.

If you’re an engineer, you’d rather write a script or create a widget than do that manual data pull again.

5. You get the same question multiple times per day, week, month.

Ask me once, it’s a one off. Ask me twice, I notice. Ask me three times, I’ll answer you with a canned response or link to doc. Ask me twenty times, I’ll spend money or time on a longer term fix.

6. You forget the process yourself.

Things are changing fast and getting more complex. What are all the steps to send a customer email again? Do you pull the list from the CRM or the Marketing Automation tool?

You designed the workflow but can’t remember it. Whomp whomp! It’s only happened to me 100x. Time to document, automate, or both.

The Balancing Act

It’s a common and important question - when is the right time to add internal process?

Add too much, it will slow you down, create unnecessary expenses, and be out-of-date before it’s done.

Add too little, your customers, employees, and growth trajectory will pay the price.

It’s a delicate balance that you’ll continually refine. Look for the signs and adjust as you go.

Growing pains are a fantastic “problem” to have! 🚀

The Journey

I love the process and journey of pursuing big things.

It’s goal setting. It’s planning. It’s incremental progress applied to all aspects of life.

We do it year-round but the start of a new year is a natural time to reflect and refocus.

Here are several specific strategies to lay a foundation for success for 2022 and harness the energy and motivation of the new year!

4 Ways To Dominate Your 2022 Goals

1. Focus on the specific, daily actions.

What is within your control, that you can execute daily, that will move you towards your goal?

Sometimes this is identified as Leading vs Lagging Indicators. In sports, you’ll hear Trust the Process.  

Want to complete a marathon? Follow a workout plan with daily runs.

Want to be the top sales rep? Identify daily meeting goals to hit pipeline targets.

Work backwards from the end goal to understand what needs to happen monthly, weekly, and daily. Then focus on consistent, steady execution every day.

2. Keep it positive.

Human brains are weird. We hear “don’t do that” and it makes us want to immediately do that. Just ask my kids!

How do you work within our crazy brains? Flip it to what you can do.

Goal: Lose weight.

Positive framing: Eat more vegetables.

Goal: Decrease social media usage.

Positive framing: Call friends IRL.

Everyone likes MORE of something. How can you turn your goal into addition instead of subtraction?

3. Make time.

Time is our most valuable resource. And often the biggest obstacle to your positive, specific, actionable intentions.

You want to go to the gym 4 times per week. Cool.

You’re also working 50 hours per week, getting 6 hours of sleep, and have a 5am wake up to pack lunches, get ready, and commute.

You have a specific, positive daily action…BUT NO TIME TO DO IT.

How to ✨magically✨ create more time:

• STOP doing something that is a lower priority
• get HELP by asking, outsourcing, or paying for it
• make intentional TRADEOFFS
• BUNDLE with an existing activity

Get a weekly meal delivery service. Respond to emails in 48 hours instead of 24. Turn a work meeting into a walking catch up.

Get specific with your plan of “when” and how to realistically fit it in.

If you can’t find the time, that’s okay. That means you have other priorities. Acknowledge that and table the goal for now.

4. Read Atomic Habits.

Best. Book. Ever.

4.8 out of 5 stars from 50,000+ people so I’m not the only fangirl.

Comprehensive, clear, and actionable.

I had several eye-opening takeaways even though I “knew it all already.” (Lolz.)

Any #protips on dominating goals? Everyone is different! What’s been effective for you?

Reminder: If anyone needs help on specific daily actions, how to reframe something in the positive, or where to find time, shoot me a note. I love this stuff!

Are You Behind on Scaling?

I often hear from CEOs of high growth companies that they need process, operational help, or they feel “behind” on scaling.

Good news: THIS IS TOTALLY NORMAL!

If you’re “ahead,” there’s a good chance you built process before you needed it, overhired, or aren’t growing fast enough.

I’ve seen operational scale and systems at high growth companies of all stages and sizes.

What I’ve learned:

1. Every company is unique. Scale and operational needs can differ wildly based on founder personality, industry, product, and customer needs.
2. There are common patterns of what things scale and when.
3. Even when you’re on track, things feel messy and imperfect.

So, what are the stages of scale and key characteristics?

6 Stages of Operational Scale at Startups

STAGE #1: Wild West

Key Characteristics:

• Everyone reports to the CEO
• “Communication” means turning around in your chair and talking to each other
• Everyone is in every Slack channel
• Job titles? What are those?

##Protip: Many founders look back on this time as one of their favorite phases. It’s hard but incredibly focused. Nothing matters but customers, revenue, and building something people want. Lots of hilarious stories about scrappiness and first-timer mistakes.

STAGE #2: The Basics

Key Characteristics:

• Employee growth from 10 to 50
• Adding one layer: managers or team leads for functional areas
• Intentional communication (Weekly Update Email, All-Hands Meeting)
• V.1 of hiring process, performance management, goal setting
• Wrangling — uh, I mean— bringing consistency to contracts, invoices, and pricing
• Workflows for high priority items like inbound leads

##Protip: Define your Core Values and shore up your culture NOW! It will help in recruiting, hiring, performance management, and faster decision making across the company.

STAGE #3: Departments Grow Up

Key Characteristics:

• Largest teams have 30+ people
• Adding managers of managers including more external hires
• More documentation, process, training, and planning within each department. Examples:
• new sales rep bootcamp
• customer success internal wiki
• engineering team offsite
• Upgrading internal tools or software for more automation, volume, complexity
• Adding “rules of engagement” between departments and playbooks for cross-functional projects like product launches

##Protip Invest in your people. Leadership training and career path discussions are fantastic to implement now. Employees feel empowered and see a future at your company, even if they get a new boss or their day-to-day has changed.  

STAGE #4: Big Kid Stuff

Key Characteristics:

• First foray into global expansion, launching a new product, moving up or down market, opening a new office
• Bringing services in-house like legal, IT, facilities management
• Shoring up product and business security, governance, compliance and other things with checklists, paperwork, and lawyers 😉  

##Protip Any senior leaders or folks from the early days looking for new challenges? Having trusted people on new initiatives can provide them with “startup-like” work within a larger company. It also ensures company culture is at the forefront and de-risks the people aspect of the new endeavor.

STAGE #5: Operations Everywhere!

Key Characteristics:

• More operations-specific hiring than ever before
• Company-wide understanding of the need and value of operations
• Centralized ops function -OR- each dept will have a dedicated ops role or team

##Protip Who on your current team is organized, analytics-oriented, and loves playbooks and systems? Could they be a fit for a new operations role?

STAGE #6: Repeatable Expansion

Key Characteristics:

• Are you even a startup anymore?!? 😜
• Dedicated teams for new location openings, M&A, new market launches
• You’re thinking about unicorn status, going public, SPACing…and the fun new challenges that come with it!

##Protip Appreciate how many lives you’ve impacted. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of people with jobs, opportunities, life experiences, relationships, and memories, thanks to what you and others have built.

Every Company Is Unique

These stages are an overview but each company is different.

At Pardot, we opened up a London office before we had in-house legal or IT. Some companies make their first acquisition before they’ve hammered out their hiring process. Sometimes Stage #5: Operations Everywhere! happens as part of Stage #3: Departments Grow Up. Or not at all!

What operational stages or journeys have you seen? Do you identify with these? Any key areas to add??

Awesome Men Who Want to Help

I’ve worked with many fantastic men in leadership positions who have been supportive of me and other women at the company and in the business world at large.

I’ve also talked to many men who care and want to help but aren’t sure where to start.

If you’re a man in a leadership role who wants to help level the playing field or help more women succeed, here are 6 specific strategies that are straightforward and impactful.  

Some of them you can do in less than 5 minutes, starting today!

6 Ways Men In Leadership Roles Can Support Women

1. Give them access.

A (male) CEO I worked for introduced me to an informal group of CEOs with an email list and a quarterly gathering. He was too busy to regularly participate. For me, it was an incredible learning and networking experience. The group wanted more diversity and welcomed me as a startup executive even though I wasn’t a CEO.

💡✨ What exclusive or high-impact organizations or events could you broker access to for a woman at your company?

2. Open the door.

The first week I joined the company, the (male) CEO sent me an article detailing the toxic bro culture of Wall Street and said, “If our company is ever doing things like this, let me know.”

There were a few things over the years I brought to his attention. Nothing egregious. A comment to a woman about what to wear to a meeting. A suggestive email from a customer. He addressed them quickly and directly. Molehills never became mountains. The women who worked for him proudly shared the stories with their friends and future hires.  

💡✨ Do the women at your company know you want to hear from them if something is off? Shoot them a quick note linking to this blog or another article about the topic.

3. Advocate for good parental leave.

Not just primary parent leave, which we know is important, but secondary parent leave too.

For example, when Dad has more time to help with a new baby because of secondary parent leave, Mom has more mental and physical energy to re-engage with work. The time Dad spends as primary caregiver lays the foundation for a more equitable split of family responsibilities in the future. Subsequently, Mom is more likely to stay in the workforce.

This heterosexual example is not coincidence. It’s a much more common dynamic in male/female relationships than same sex ones.

💡✨Are your company policies supportive of working parents which directly and indirectly provide tremendous support for working moms?

💡✨ BONUS ✨💡 Did you take your full paternity leave? If you do it, it’s easier for the moms in your organization to do it too!

4. Make intros to mentors, especially women.

If you meet someone awesome who could be helpful to an up-and-coming woman in your organization, see if they’d be open to an intro.

Meeting experienced folks who feel “like me” – similar gender, ethnicity, role, disposition, or background – can be transformational to someone’s motivation, growth, and career trajectory.

If you don’t have many women in leadership currently, this is a great “hack” to provide mentorship to your future women leaders who you want to retain and develop.

💡✨ Could you make a meaningful intro?

5. Widen the hiring pool.

When you hire more women, the effect starts to snowball. Women recruit other women. Having women at your company attracts other women. Getting to critical mass of 30% will happen faster than you think.

The place to start… have more women in the candidate pool!

💡✨ Do you have at least two women as finalist candidates for each role?

6. Be mindful of social activities.

Outside-of-the-office social interactions are a great way to build rapport and network. Are these activities interesting, welcoming, and appropriate for the women at your company?

Coffee and lunch are fantastic networking for all. Group dinners are also good. Book clubs, bowling, and volunteer activities are also pretty universal.

If it’s a casual, typically “guy” event like a fantasy football league or sports bar after work, be intentional about inviting the women. They may be interested – in the event or the bonding.

💡✨ Can you adjust a social or networking opportunity to make it more welcoming to women?

Share other ideas!

These are just a few of many ways male CEOs or leaders can support women in their careers.

💡✨ What other ideas or experiences can you share to build on this list??

Special shout out to Craig Hyde, Rigor CEO, who inspired several items on this list. Thanks for initiating these things before I even knew I wanted them!

Startups + Career Growth = Magic

One of the most powerful things about a startup is the career and growth potential. You’re learning constantly, things are moving fast, the work changes daily, and the trajectory is unlimited.

I often get asked, “How did you become XYZ Role at Company ABC?”

Or, put another way, “How do you leverage the fast pace, flexibility, and chaos of a startup to turn it into a role and career that you love?”

Not every company has a Make Your Own Role option (love this, Laudable!) but if you’re intentional, you can build your own ideal role by doing work you enjoy that benefits the company.

7 Steps To Create Your Ideal Startup Role

1. Do your current job well.

Work hard. Do good work. Have a great attitude. You will build credibility, good will, and relationships across the company.

2. Identify company pain points or opportunities.

What could drive more revenue? Save money? Make customers happier? There’s usually at least 1,496,382 things a startup could improve.

3. Pick opportunities that interest you.

What problem is most interesting? Where do you have aptitude or experience that might be helpful? If you’re going to invest time, make it something you enjoy or want to learn.

4. Work it.

Start with a low effort, high value item. Think about revenue and what your company’s priorities are. Double check with your manager if needed. Then off to the races. Plan a user group, make a pipeline report, build a self-serve tool -- whatever you’ve picked at the intersection of company need + your interest.

5. Assess.

What did you learn? Did you enjoy the work? How was it received by the team? Use this analysis to determine your next foray.

6. Double down.

Continue experimenting. Figure out what you like. Do more of that. You’ll start to build an informal portfolio of projects and be the go-to person for those things.

7. Voila!

You’re doing great work that you enjoy while solving company problems. You’ve set yourself up for a custom role, possible promotion, and a meaningful career long term.

But Wait! 5 Things That Could Derail Your Ideal Startup Role

1. You’re too far ahead.

You love to lead sales trainings but you only have 2 sales reps. You want to sell to enterprise customers but your product is currently $100/mo. You want to deep dive on security protocols but the app is still in beta.

Keep the faith! Startups move fast and things could change quickly. A colleague of mine wanted to work internationally. At the time, we were a 100 person company in Atlanta so this seemed pie in the sky. In less than a year, we had been acquired and needed her skill set abroad. Startup dreams coming true!

2. What you want to do doesn’t drive revenue.

Or save money. Or help a LOT with efficiency or team morale. Make sure it’s valuable. Your passion for cat gifs, cooking, or yoga may be awesome but if it doesn’t help the bottom line, you probably won’t make much progress.  

3. Not doing your day job well.

I cannot emphasize this enough:

**Doing your current job is table stakes for future promotion or customization.**

Gotta do excellent work on the task at hand to have internal credibility. If the current role is truly not a fit, at least show you’re working hard, have a great attitude, and highlight what you are good at.

4. Waiting for an official job opening.

The best way to get a job is to already be doing it.

Position yourself to be top-of-mind when your company starts thinking about that role. It’s faster, easier, cheaper, and happier to hire from within!

Better yet, companies will often create unique roles because of a person on their team. They may not post online for a new hire operations specialist who also does lead gen but if you’re awesome at it, you’ll be the next Lead Gen & Onboarding Specialist.

5. Wanting it right now.

Startups move fast but there’s no time warp worm holes. Six months or a year can feel like a long time but in the grand scheme of things, it’s nothing! Starting over at a different company will take even longer. Don’t let impatience cloud your judgement or cause you to miss a rocketship ride.

This is one of my favorite topics and I’m often chatting with up-and-coming startup stars who want to understand how to maximize the opportunity. What other advice would you offer? What has worked for you?

Learn by doing

“The most effective way to do is to do it.”

It’s a favorite Amelia Earhart quote.

And life reminder.

I like to do pre-work. I clean my room before I study. I do laundry before I start projects. I manage my inbox before I eat the frog.

It took me a long-ass time to get this blog going. I was worried about the tag line, topics, tone. Am I funny? Serious? What do I write about?

All things b̶e̶s̶t̶ only figured out by actually writing.

Do the thing you want to do

You want to start a company? Don’t get an MBA, then join a startup, then be an investor. Just start a company.

You want to start a blog? You don’t need to learn to code, take a writing course, hire a branding expert. Just start a blog.

Experience is a great thing. You get experience as time passes. Isn’t it most helpful to get experience in the exact area you want experience??

The fastest way

When I ask my husband, a running coach, how to get better at running, he says, “Run.”

I want the answer to be:

• work on running form
• buy new shoes
• eat more vegetables

Can’t I get good at running without running??? Pleeeeeease.

But there’s no substitute for lacing up your shoes and putting in the miles. Or sitting down and writing. Or launching your first business.

The only way is through.

The fastest way is through.

Shout out to iwantthatmountain, founded by Ashley Gattis, where I found the gorgeous Amelia Earhart quote. It’s in our kitchen so we see it every day.

How did Ashley start her company? By starting it ;)