New beginnings in 2020
Feb 28th 2020 marked the end of my tour of duty at FTD. In many ways, this job has been about a series of superlatives. The most rewarding job I've had. The most stressful job I've had. The most growth inducing job I've had. The most emotional job I've had. And in many ways, possibly the best job I’ve ever had. When I joined FTD in 2017, it felt very much like a start-up. A 109-year old start-up with ~$1B in revenue but a start-up nonetheless. We were a new, scrappy team looking to do big bold things to transform and modernize the company by starting from scratch. In his book, 'Entering Start-up Land', Jeff Bussgang has talked about three stages of a start-up : the jungle, the dirt road and the highway. "In the jungle stage you have no idea where the paths are. You’re surrounded by a tangled mess; you grab a machete and hack away. Many use the term “preproduct/market fit” to characterize this nascent period. In the dirt road st...
