What’s Next?

August 30, 2023

After just over 5 years, I’ve made the very difficult decision to leave Jottful.

Why was it a difficult decision?

When I joined Jottful, I said this:

“I want to find an owner whose values I share to help them build a company from the ground-up, building the kind of team and culture we both want, eventually getting to do the work again that I love most.”

5 years later: I did find an owner whose values I share. I have helped her build the company from the ground-up. 1 customer at a time; well past 700 now. Our team and culture is what I’m most proud of, and what was by far the hardest for me to leave. 

So, why leave? 

It’s the last piece of the statement above that didn’t manifest: getting to do the work I love the most. 

I believe strongly in helping people find and do the work they love, whether that’s helping my team members design their jobs to cater to their strengths, helping managers do the same for their teams, or helping friends leave jobs they hate and find jobs they love.

⭐️When we operate in our strengths - doing what we love, where we are most competent, yet challenged by our work, and still constantly learning, we thrive, and the companies we work for also thrive.⭐️

In 2014, I changed my career from non-profit (arts) leadership to people operations (HR) in tech companies.

❤️ I realized what I always loved the most in my jobs was:

  • Leading and managing people
  • Helping them grow and succeed
  • Hiring, onboarding, & training
  • Internal communication
  • Career coaching & leadership coaching, and
  • Strategic organizational development.

I found this work best fit into people operations roles, or COO roles with a strong people leadership focus. ❤️

When you join a start-up, you know you’re taking a risk. I remember thinking that the work at hand: marketing, sales, & customer service was work that I had moved on from, BUT, I knew I could do anything for a little while, and, I figured we’d grow quickly. We both thought that. But like so many owners learn, it is HARD to build a company. Everything takes longer (far longer) than you imagine.

While it took longer than we’d hoped, Jottful is successful.

  • We have more than 700 customers
  • We are finally cash-flow positive
  • We’ve grown steadily and have been super capital efficient
  • The team and culture shine.

We grew quickly in 2023, but it was a hard year for fundraising. Bank failures, and the debt ceiling debacle externally, coupled with the challenges we already face internally of being a female-run company and serving the very small business market, made raising a larger round of investment not in the cards for us this year.

So what does this mean for me?

I led our sales for the first 3 years, and have been leading our customer team these last 2. It’s work I know well; it’s very similar to fundraising and donor relations in the world of non-profit. 

But, when I:

  • Onboard new hires
  • Create or run trainings with our team, or 
  • Think about how to structure our team to get the highest productivity and happiest humans…

I always forget where I am and what time it is because I’m working in my optimal zone, doing the work I love. We only need that work 5% of the time at Jottful because we’re still quite small. Jottful won’t need this kind of full-time higher level strategic people role for another 2-3 years.

I know I haven’t been thriving, operating at my best, or contributing the skills I most want to contribute to an organization. That doesn’t feel good. 

And, although I’m an equity owner (and will remain so) there is always the question in a start-up - will that matter? It will matter if we keep growing and get acquired someday. So, the question for me was, how long do I stay?…doing work I don’t love, instead of doing work I do love, to see this through and hopefully get to the financial payout in the end? I’ve never been motivated purely by money. So, my answer was..it’s time to move on. 

Jottful is a GREAT company offering an amazing website solution for small businesses. I still have and love my own Jottful website for the real estate business I started 2 years ago. Jottful will do well. It’s big enough and doing well enough that I felt that I could leave and it will still thrive. I’ll stay as connected as I can, and help where I can. If you know a small business owner who has website woes, Jottful is THE BEST solution out there, so have them book a call here: https://www.jottful.com/

💎What’s next for me?💎

➡️ I’m looking to do the people ops work I outlined above for a more well-established company. That may be in a strategic, lead people ops or HR role.
➡️ Or I’ll seek out a strong leader who needs a strategic, people-focused number 2 in a COO role.
➡️ *Have you got an interesting idea on a role that might fit my skills and interests? Awesome - let’s grab coffee, zoom, or lunch!*
➡️ I plan to stay in Michigan, likely working remote or hybrid
➡️ I will continue to run my vacation rental business, and will expand it. Still an entrepreneur at heart!!