I’m sad to share that we made the tough decision to wind down OpenContext. This is not the blog post I anticipated writing when I started the year but that’s the way of it sometimes. It was an absolute pleasure to be part of the founding team with Brian Walter, CEO and Alice Chen, CTO. We went from a big idea to a functional product in a short period of time. We grew, made mistakes, survived a bank collapse, and learned a whole lot about this thing called startup life.
A huge thanks to you both for taking this journey with me!
I wanted to take the opportunity to reflect on what I’ve learned over the last several years but honestly, that's a series not a single post. Instead I wanted to take the time to thank the people who were so amazing and supportive along the way! So, I’m going to dedicate this blog to all the folks I had the opportunity to meet and work with over the past few years.
We had the best team. It was small but mighty. A team of not only employees but contractors. I can’t speak highly enough of these folks
Chris Barker was our sales enablement contractor. I’ve had the privilege of working with Chris before when we were both at Puppet. Chris came in with the difficult task of teaching non-sales folks how to sell. Chris has extensive knowledge in the space and frankly breaks down the steps to the point that they make sense. While I still had anxiety about the process, Chris was there to keep me grounded. While, the team decided to wind down the company before I was fully able to utilize his expertise, he is an absolute recommendation.
Chris Jones and his team were our UI/UX experts, they created our look and feel, and created our super cool logo! We were a few weeks from being able to realize the new UI effort. Including the most gorgeous Operational Excellence dashboard!! Chris and team were incredible to work with. They were collaborative, patient, and were able to pull the big ideas out of my head. I can not recommend them enough!
Chris Schnaidt was our first sales person and does startup sales consulting. I would recommend him! He is easy to work with, kind, supportive and no nonsense which is precisely what you need. Not only that, Chris was the voice of OpenContext in our videos and we brought him back to work with Taylor Street Collective. It was a delight to partner with Chris again and talk OpenContext. Absolutely recommend working with Chris.
Now onto the non-Chris folks.
Heidi Waterhouse stepped in to help when I was struggling to map out and execute a GTM strategy, marketing plan, and build out sales enablement. Having never done this solo, she was a breath of fresh air and walked me through like no one else could have. She is a calm in the storm of uncertainty. Not only that but her thought leadership pieces and ability to name the pain point and frame it in a way that is approachable for the audience frankly felt like magic to me. She makes it look effortless. I could not have pulled together all of that without Heidi. I can not recommend her enough!
Nay Morris came in to help me with copywriting. Her research on the space we were looking to create, SEO recommendations, and copy were brilliant! The creativity were spot on for the internal discoverability space. Nay brings an energy to the engagement that left me feeling like, it’s going to be ok. Another recommendation.
Taylor Street Collective helped us with video production. Together we mapped out a plan to create 2 videos a month. One that centered on product content, the other centered on industry content. Melissa is detail oriented and thorough. I needed someone to keep me on task and she did so in a no nonsense way that was absolutely perfect! Her finished product was fantastic. Another recommendation.
Throughout our time growing and shaping the company, the team stepped into so many different roles. From Audrey, our Director of Engineering helping me create investor updates to Jim, our front end dev doing a revamp of our docs site to Alice diving into the world of GAI, podcasts, and hobnobbing with VCs. I was constantly amazed by this team that was willing to dig in to do what needed to be done.
Last but not least, all the connections we made along the way. I had the absolute delight to meet countless founders and CEOs in the space. I am beyond grateful for the time and advice all of you shared with me. I didn't know what to expect but this level of support and cheering each other on was beyond anything I could have imagined!!
But wait there is more, we also had the opportunity to work with incredible advisors like John Willis and Julian Dunn. We met, collaborated with, and partnered with amazing VCs in the space. We talked to hundreds upon hundreds of folks who shared their pain points, taking time out of their day to help us, and provide feedback on our product. I am beyond grateful for all of you!
My last day of work at OpenContext is April 1st, no joke, Alice and I will be working on a YouTube series to continue discussions around the Next Wave of DevOps, LLMs, and some of those thorny issues that come up on the daily for all of us. I'll share more about it soon!
With that, consider this my #opentowork notification. I am actively looking for a Product role. If you or someone you know is looking for a Product Manager, please keep me in mind.
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