I started my career as a junior data scientist at Leidos. If you had told me then that I would end up as Head of Partnerships at Structify, I might not have believed you.
A little of everything
When the team first founded Structify and I came on board, I did a little of everything. I was Founding Data Lead, then Chief of Staff, then some mix of RevOps, compliance, GTM, and whatever else was needed.
That was our normal. As one of the earliest members of the team, I had context on a bit of everything, so I became the person the team needed me to be.
But as we grew, I started to get stretched thin. I was a jack of all trades and a master of none. I wanted to focus, but I didn't have the bandwidth.
A walk around Williamsburg
Earlier this summer, Ronak Gandhi and I sat down for what was supposed to be our usual weekly sync. It turned into hours of walking around Williamsburg, talking through what I was actually good at, what energized me, and what Structify actually needed.
We decided to clear everything off my plate so I could focus on building out our partnership motion. Huge credit to Ronak for advocating for that.
And it turns out I couldn't love my job more.
Where people and technical work meet
Partnerships is one of those rare jobs that combines people-facing work with technical work.
In a single afternoon, I might be on a call with a partner's sales team helping them position us, then in a sandbox debugging why a workflow isn't returning what someone expected, then writing up what I learned and walking it over to our product team.
I don't have to pick one lane to succeed. The customer conversations make the technical work sharper, and the technical work is what makes me credible in the customer conversations.
What it means to be a good partner
I also get to think a lot about what it means to be a good partner. When a firm puts their name next to your product in front of their own customers, they are lending you trust they spent years earning. That's a big deal.
So I aim to be the person who answers fast, who gets on the call when something isn't working, and who educates and listens instead of pitching.
Since we started this motion, we've signed six partners, with more in progress. You can see who we work with on our partnerships page.
Where I'm meant to be
I get to spend my days with sharp people solving real problems, keep my hands on our product, and use every part of my brain, from technical to interpersonal to GTM.
Thank you to my team for letting me do what I love, and for helping me find where I was meant to be. I love my job.
