I spent my first five professional years in large companies, first at a Big Four consultancy and later at Shopify. Although my learning was not insignificant, I have difficulty measuring my impact.
When you’re running a project for a large company, your stakeholders are usually a team that sits within a large team, within a department, within a billion dollar company.
It became impossible to tell whether I was making a difference or just turning a lever on the machine.
It was around the time of this epiphany that I met Craig Handy and Seb Silva at Shopify.
They both had a side business consulting for revenue operations, and even in the 2D Zoom setting, I guess they had a desire to do something worthwhile.
Sure enough, two months later he sold his consultancy to York IE and became a full-time employee of the firm.
He described a company that was re-imagining the way venture capital firms were incentivized and helping startups compete with the big fish. A few weeks later, I was signing up for my first day.
As a RevOps Strategist, my role is to develop strategies that will help companies optimize the entire customer lifecycle, from the time they see an ad or click a link until they renew a subscription or refer a coworker.
Marketing, Sales, Customer Success: There’s a sea’s worth of material on each of these, but they all together require someone with the ability to see the big picture.
Fortunately, my time working in five different industries – and expertise in Change Management, Product Management, RevOps, CRM, Project Management and Experience Design – gave me this ability.
In my first three weeks I had the opportunity to work with 13 different advisors as service clients coming from various industries. It has been very rewarding to immediately see the impact of helping tech companies reach their full potential.
I’ve also been struck by the mindset of York IE. People here move fast and fearlessly. On my fifth day, my director told me not to be afraid of making mistakes. Only then did I realize that indecision and hesitation equals time that could otherwise be spent solving the problem. It’s a place that’s willing to try something new in the interest of challenging the status quo, and that’s exactly what I’m looking for.
Joining York IE as RevOps Strategist has been a game-changer for me. After spending five years in large companies, I was looking for a place where I could make a tangible impact and help startups grow and succeed. York IE has exceeded my expectations in every way.
From the supportive and collaborative culture to the innovative approach to VC and startup development, I feel like I have found a true home here. In just three weeks, I’ve worked with a wide variety of clients and have already seen the impact of our work. I’m excited to continue contributing to the success of York IE and its portfolio companies and can’t wait to see what the future holds.