Why Would You Want to Read This?
I’m a playbook guy. I always tell my teams “if you have to say it twice, write it down.” These posts are my attempt to do that. If you are a company-builder (or somewhat involved in company-building) then I hope these posts will help you navigate the high-growth, ambiguous, and complex start-up arena.
I’ve been a startup person my entire life. Some of my earliest entrepreneurial experiences were buying and selling on eBay via a dial-up modem in the late ’90’s. I made money on flipping Jordans but lost it all on importing Sony smartphones. By the end of high school, I was running an underground lunch program for my high school.
College was the same. There was always something. I tried the traditional path, but two summers inside of banks only served to affirm my start-up roots. I ended up taking a year off and working for two start-ups. That year changed my life and set me on my current course.
Since then I’ve earned the following professional bio:
I have built 3 enterprise B2B businesses with a combined value of more than $1B as an early exec and operations leader. I was most recently at Bolt where I partnered with visionary founders to lead 40x revenue and 11x headcount growth (from 15 to 175) over three years. I personally recruited and built the exec and leadership teams from C-Suite to directors.
Prior to Bolt I started, built, and sold an HR tech company. Early in my career I was the first employee at Addepar and partnered with the founders from seed to post Series C.
I’m a leader for high growth environments with significant ambiguity, shifting roles, and changing priorities. I have a strong ability to synthesize complex business challenges and build operational and action-focused plans. I enjoy all aspects of business operations from sales and marketing to human resources and finance but I am particularly passionate about recruiting and building teams.
The bio is fancy for “I love start-ups.” I hope you enjoy some of the writings. Drop me a line either way at hi@im-asl.org