High Alpha

Tl;dr: I’m now CMO at Visible.vc! A new season is here. As Fall is here in the Midwest, we see the most beautiful scenes of our landscape in the form of vibrant leaves. That beauty, unfortunately for the leaves, is found at the end of their life. They’ve now mostly fallen, are turning into nutrients for the trees from which they came, and empowering next year’s leaves to have a better beginning - because of their end. I know of no better picture to describe the season I’ve been walking, filled with bittersweet experiences of difficult endings and exciting beginnings. In late April, Demandwell - the business I and so many others poured life into and helped so many people grow for 5 years - entered an ABC process due to many factors, but primarily, the combination of market forces and internal decision-making along the way put us in a position of being unable to weather the storms we faced. This was and is really tough to process. But, as with the changing leaves, this ending and every ounce of learning throughout that chapter of my life, has led to a much stronger and brighter beginning. I’ve been intentionally offline since then to work through a lot of emotions, spend time with my family, cross off a ton of house projects (from 1,000+ feet of fencing to a shipping container office conversion), get very off-road in my RZR, and evaluate what’s next for my professional journey. After a lot of reflection, I’ve landed on a mission that I believe will make up at least part, if not all, of my day-to-day for the rest of my career: To Help Founders and CEOs Grow. For a long time, my personal mission statement has been to “Help Others Grow” but as I’ve progressed in my career, I know that the “Others” I enjoy helping the most are at the helm of a business because 1. They impact every part of the org and sometimes you simply need to have that reach to effectively grow (it’s not always about more leads) and 2. Having first-hand experience of how the decisions of that role impact the lives and families of everyone at their company in significant ways, helping the tip of the spear be better leads to an exponential growth factor for everyone on the team. So that’s my calling in this new season, now what? This will take shape in many ways, but for starters, I’m excited to share that I’ve joined the incredible team at Visible as CMO to push forward their mission of equipping Founders and Investors to thrive! They've built an impressive suite of education, insights, and software that 5k+ Founders and Investors are using every day for things like fundraising, investor updates, and portfolio reviews. I’m thrilled to join and be able to help so many business builders grow with such an amazing team! Lastly, quick shoutout to everyone who’s been so unbelievably encouraging to me in this season. There are far too many to list here, but I am so incredibly thankful for each of you. Old leaves are gone, new ones are here, but as I’ve always said, LET’S GROW!!