The First Dart
What do I have to offer?
Well, the answer to that question is everyone’s favorite: “it depends”. But first, let me provide some background. In 2013 I was working for Corus360, which was a technology company owned by Mark Metz, a serial entrepreneur in the city of Peachtree Corners, GA. One of my old colleagues had been recruiting me to come start a sales team at the company that he had recently joined. I was eager to transition from direct sales into more of a team leader type role as I was itching to do something entrepreneurial and when the opportunity to build something from scratch came along, it was too good to pass up. After many discussions and soul searching, I decided to take the leap but first I had to talk to Mark to let him know what I was doing. After all, it was him that recruited me to Corus in the first place.
I told Mark what my plans were and he looked at me funny and said, “No way you are leaving. I am about to start another company, I want you to come start it with me.” I asked him what the company was going to do and his reply was classic Mark, “I have no idea”… but “we’ll figure it out along the way”. After a few more questions and some negotiating, Mark gave me an offer written on a post it note and we shook on it and began an incredible 5 year journey that ended in a successful exit to a company backed by Blackstone, one of the largest asset management companies in the world.
Mark wrote a blog not too long after we had our exit where he talked about the secret to his success, which ended up being just a little bit of a spin on an insane game from the 70’s, but this time he called it Drunken Lawn Darts. Fondly, I look back and realize I was the first dart at the soon to be named Relus Technologies. Mark lived up to his word and over the course of 5 years, we built three businesses under one roof, and much like many startups, had several pivots and changes of courses along the way.
During those years building Relus, we learned a lot of valuable lessons that were a result of good decisions, bad decisions, luck, timing, taking risks, and just good old fashioned “winging it”. We hustled our tails off and took advantage of several breaks that can be attributed to a variety of reasons but always ended up being mostly because of our people and our culture.
After spending a year with the acquiring company, I realized that I was more of a builder and less of a manager. I took over the North American business unit for the new company, which was a team of about 400 people from all different types of backgrounds. I realized that managing the day to day of a larger business was not something I wanted to do. Instead, I missed the days of taking risks, discussing the pros/cons, and then just getting on with the decision and if it worked, great, but if not, we’d iterate and figure it out. I soon gravitated back to a small startup software company based out of London, UK, and was able to spend a year helping them build up their go to market team and strategy for the Americas.
My career has spanned marketing, sales, leadership, coaching, high growth, professional services, software sales, and everything between. Even though I said the answer to what I have to offer is “it depends”, the reality is that I have untold amounts of experience helping start a company, and as with many folks, have the scar tissue that not only helps guide you where to go, but also is there to remind you where not to go.
In our early days at Relus, we had a saying. Any time something good or positive would happen, or even if we had a set back, we would always point back to our motto, which was “North Bound Train”. Didn’t matter what we were doing, we just knew we were heading upwards and for some reason, we determined that heading upwards meant heading North!
It is with great excitement that I am heading off on my own to help other technology minded individuals build their companies through a variety of means and offerings. Please reach out to me and let me help you with your journey on the North Bound Train!
Michael