Over the last couple of years, I’ve written year-end reflections (2020, 2021).
I’m late to publish this year’s reflection, because the last few months have been particularly busy with welcoming our second kid into the world and preparing for a new professional journey. So given that, this is really more of a 17-months in review than it as a 12-months in review.
2022 was a year full of rich learning, inspiring people, company building, and a broad exploration of industries & market problems in the pursuit of a place to narrow in.
Here’s the recap…
Operating within growth stage SaaS
For the last 2 years, I’ve worked for Automox, a cloud-native ITOps solution. I joined the company just after it raised its Series C, and the company has tripled revenue during that time. In 2022, I held two roles: Chief of Staff and VP Biz Ops.
In the CoS role, I worked closely with the CEO to establish a clear operating rhythm for the business, create alignment across the executive team, and spearhead strategic projects that had ambiguous ownership. The lesson for me was that making space for key decision makers to consider & write down their perspectives ahead of an important meeting and then debate trade-offs after a pre-read is a worthwhile use of time for a couple of reasons:
it shock-absorbs the standard risks inherent in group decision making (e.g. groupthink, cognitive bias, misaligned incentive, unilateralism, etc)
it creates more cohesion, clarity, and organization around hypothesis-driven execution
The more formal Ops role presented the opportunity to refine & test my perspective on how Ops should mature and be managed as a company scales. I’ve summarized my perspective, which has been informed by many folks, including, but not limited to, Jas Garcha, Jen Ayers, Jon Meachin, Justin Talerico, Molly Pals, Lydia Homan, Matt Guenther, Rachael Harnish, Corey Bodzin, and Jeremey Donovan:
From ~0-100 employees, Ops is about gap filling, while others focus on building and selling products. From ~100-1,000 employees, Ops evolves into a formal department made up of cross-functional teams of highly analytical folks that are responsible for — and accountable to — the business’ operating procedure.
Consistency — not complexity — becomes the really difficult thing about scaling. Ops can drive consistency by thinking and acting like a product team to address system or process problems and should focus on heavy, one-time lifts more than on reactive blocking & tackling.
Success in maturing Ops requires true domain experts in the specific function (e.g. sales ops, marketing ops, etc), clear prioritization processes, and most importantly, a focus on the people. Ops folks are exposed to a business’ most demanding leaders across a surface area of highly analytical, high-risk work than can always break downstream systems and create data inaccuracies that impact deals & conversations at the board level. It’s, therefore, crucial to spend time fostering the careers of Ops folks, so that two things are true: 1) they feel that the business legitimately appreciates them; and 2) they are scaling their competency and their confidence alongside the business.
Going broad to go narrow
Over the last 2 years, I’ve enjoyed working for a larger company, but I’ve also known that I’d like to found another company.
During early mornings and weekends in 2022, I applied a lot of energy across a broad set of ideas and market problems in pursuit of another company to found. This work allowed me to learn a lot about a lot, as well as work with a variety of amazing people. Here are questions I spent time on:
How could healthy food become more convenient & accessible to a mass market?
How could executive off-sites & management consulting be packaged into a service valuable enough to command compensation in basis points?
How could we build an aquaponics farm in Atlanta, GA capable of bringing high yield food production to the doorstep of a massive demand center?
Could a dom-recorder product produce a lot of innovation around how people learn to use software?
Could motion capture technology that was purpose-built for the military be re-purposed across entertainment, professional sports, the built environment, and immersive experiences?
Could a tool for impromptu gatherings and facilitated questions with strangers foster more community & connectedness?
Could Sky Valley, GA one day be a bustling hub of outdoor lifestyle, like its neighbors Cashiers or Highlands?
Could rural second home ownership be made more accessible & affordable through a service that helps people disconnect in the countryside?
How could supporting hybrid-led growth become less expensive for B2B SaaS companies?
Could the ability to iterate on pricing & packaging be easier for companies, and in turn help them unlock more value?
As the last 17 months played out, I challenged myself to narrow in on an idea that I felt I could pursue for the next 10+ years (RootsRated/Matcha from first idea to exit was 9 years).
To do this, I followed an unwritten playbook — if I was thinking about the idea obsessively, I would pursue it until I disproved something about it across one of several dimensions: the problem’s painfulness, the team, the TAM, and the timing.
Moonlighting
Meanwhile, over the last 2.5 years, close friends and colleagues from RootsRated/Matcha have met weekly in what we called “book clubs,” wherein we shared experiences and ideas for new companies.
Toward the end of 2022, we tested some of our thinking via consulting, and by March of this year, we’d become convicted that a significant inflection in the way SaaS companies grow was transforming the way companies operate, and that within that transformation were many expensive problems that we might be able to solve with a suite of API-first products.
Fortunately, the problem space has resonated with dozens of companies we’ve interviewed, as well as with a group of investors we’ve admired and worked with in the past, and I’m very excited that the 4 of us go full-time on starting a new company together this June. If you’d like to read more about our journey up until now, the problem, and solution, here’s a link to a more in-depth post (with great visuals!).
On the personal & another new person
Fourteen months ago, I began what’s called a biologic drug therapy for recurrent pericarditis. The drug requires a weekly injection and was only approved by the FDA 18 months ago. Fortunately, the drug has so far worked, and I have been flare-free since beginning the treatment. This allowed me to start exercising again after a 2-year hiatus in November.
In the summer of 2022, Mary Howard and I lived in Colorado for a month. We’ve always wanted to spend more time out west, and close friends let us house sit, which gave us the opportunity to get out in the mountains on weekends.
We got home to Atlanta in August, and at about that time, Mary Howard started working on a real estate company focused on Sky Valley, and also became pregnant with our second child. On April 21 ‘23, she gave birth to our daughter Nellie.
Having two kids is a big leap from one, but it’s been really special to watch Van interact with Nellie, and I’m really looking forward to watching their relationship develop.
Limited by the Unnoticed in 2023
With recap written, now to Limited by the Unnoticed in 2023.
Over the last 3 years, I’ve tried to write about technology & history, and on occasion, how both of those themes relate to entrepreneurship and company building.
In 2020, my most read piece was Thank you Carlota Perez.
In 2021, my most read pieces were World After Capital & Tell a Big Story.
In 2022, my most read pieces were Tours of Duty and Obsessing over Customer Friction.
And to date in 2023, my most read piece is Lessons from Arsenal for Company Builders.
In 2023, my writing will lend itself more toward company building topics that I’ll be thinking about every day as we launch our new company:
Pricing & packaging — why so many founders struggle with this lever
LLMs — how we’re leveraging as we build our startup
Design partnerships — collaborative building with folks who believe in the problem
Customer selection — putting theory to work in the pursuit of customers who can pull vision forward