Why I Left a Public SaaS Company for BrightEdge
BrightEdge is a company full of success and potential. From the very first minute when I was introduced to BrightEdge, I saw an opportunity to challenge myself while being able to make a true, measurable impact on the business.
Why I Moved - Seizing The Opportunity
At this time two months ago I was finishing up my best month yet at a large, successful SaaS technology company. Conversations were clicking, negotiations were fruitful, contracts were being inked; I was truly at the top of my sales game there, and it felt GOOD and I wanted more. After the high of a very successful month, I took a look back at the accomplishment and something was missing. Yes, I was successful in closing business, and the company was successful and continuing its growth, but I felt that my own personal career growth was lacking.
I wasn’t pushing myself nearly as much as I normally do to grow my skill set, and I’m a motivated and driven person. I felt I had two options: I could comfortably continue on and be successful at the large organization, but I worried about plateauing, or I could start to look around for a smaller and more dynamic company that would put me on a steeper ramp to greater challenge and success. I took the plunge, and here are three reasons why I did so.
1. Company Growth BrightEdge is seeing explosive growth year over year, which is the main thing that drew me to the company in the first place and pushed me to learn more about opportunities here. Because of the size of the company (growing and very agile) and the fact that BrightEdge had doubled to 300 employees and grew to 6 offices globally over the past year, I could only see they had the approach and the drive to keep that success continuing. BrightEdge is VC-funded and continues to secure funding in new rounds due to continued growth – they secured $42.8M in Series D financing just last year. And we’re pre-IPO, which allows me as an employee to invest my time to help the company go public and see the fruits of that new endeavor. This is something not many sales executives get to say.
Opportunity in Chicago
Because BrightEdge is beginning to really grow its Chicago office, this also gave me a unique opportunity to work for one of Silicon Valley’s fastest movers while remaining in the city that I love. I know everyone in the Bay Area is rolling their eyes, but Chicago is pretty wonderful if you can survive the winter!
2. Professional/Personal Growth Honestly, I don’t know if I want to be an individual contributor forever. I really enjoy owning my own business and my own success at this point in my life, but I am also growing to love having the opportunity to mentor others, transfer skills, and help those people succeed. Eventually, I’d like to have the opportunity to direct a team and an office, both from a professional perspective in terms of growing my career and skill set, and from a personal growth perspective. BrightEdge, due to its exponential growth mentioned above, opens the paths for this type of career trajectory much more quickly than an established organization can, just due to that startup agility and mindset. Check out the video below to see just how far you can progress your sales career at BrightEdge
3. Culture You really have to love your work and love those with whom you work. Everyone has had “bad jobs” in the past, and looking back at those in my past, the issue many times wasn’t the work itself but the people. After meeting the BrightEdge team, I knew this was a place that would be an optimal fit for me. I never want to be the smartest person in the room, so I can continue to learn and grow. Because there are so many ridiculously brilliant people here, you never stop learning and growing. Not only are the people here intelligent and innovative, but they’re a heck of a lot of fun, too.
Even in a sales role, we push through obstacles as a team, win as a team, and celebrate as a team, and that competitive-yet-collaborative mentality helps the company on the whole to be successful. That’s a place I want to be. Leaving my last company was definitely not an easy decision to make. When you’re experiencing success with a company that cares for its people, but may not be able to offer enough opportunity, it’s really hard to make the decision to grow your career and move on. However, after taking that leap of faith, I realize that I’ve made the right choice and ended up at my new home for years to come. BrightEdge is still growing and hiring at a tremendous pace. Seize the opportunity and join me and BrightEdge on their journey.
