Fortune 500 to Founder

About two months ago, I left my job at Visa to build a two-person sales recruiting business with my brother - here’s why I did it and what I’ve learned. 

Let me start by clarifying that I genuinely enjoyed my time at Visa. I learned a lot about a unique industry, met some very smart people, and overall established a strong foundation for a career in payments. The situation I was in at Visa was a good one and the negative traits of the role are less a reflection on Visa and are more a reality that persists across all large corporate environments - so let’s get into it. 

I think most people get their energy at work from two key things: purpose and recognition. We want to believe in what we’re working on and we want to be rewarded when we perform well. Unfortunately, at most large companies, these key attributes cannot be adequately supported across most roles. 

First, the purpose. Many organizations can make a legitimate case for why they benefit the world at the company level; however, at the individual employee level, the contributions to society are heavily diluted (if they exist at all). Take someone who works in finance at a fortune 500 company - yes, they are contributing to a company that in some way benefits its clients, but their day-to-day contributions are not directly benefitting society. The vast majority of roles fall into this category - you can make an indirect case for how your work benefits the world, but its likely heavily overstated and a few degrees of separation from your direct actions. This inevitably leads to a loss of passion, energy, and interest as time goes on - and results in us simply going through the motions. 

The reward systems are equally demotivating. Through years of corporate evolution, companies naturally implement systems that very intentionally make it hard to get promoted. There are established timelines, levels of approvers, and deliberately vague requirements for achieving your next title change. Unfortunately, the most important factor in receiving a promotion tends to be how long have you been meeting the bar in role. High-performers are no more likely to receive a title change than adequate performers because timeline is the most important factor. This leads to an incentive system that encourages people to “meet the bar” rather than to “exceed the bar” - if additional effort doesn’t change the outcome, why put in additional effort? 

These realities lead to an ongoing loss in motivation and a massive level of complacency as you spend more time in a business. This is what I began to feel. I was lucky enough to find a pocket of Visa’s business where there were highly motivated, energized, and inspiring people - but as I reflected on my 5-years with the business, I could see that the spark I had come in with as an intern had faded as I settled into the corporate culture. 

So what came next?

In part, I was quite lucky. I think almost all of my friends and colleagues have experienced some form of the burnout that I’ve described above, but most people don’t have a great alternative immediately available - I did. 

TopSDRs began as a sales consulting business that evolved into a pure recruiting model just as I began to experience some doubts about continuing at Visa. In conversations with both Andrew and my boss at the time, I began to recognize the rarity of the opportunity that I had in front of me and the decision became almost a no-brainer. 

Since the transition, it’s been an unbelievably positive experience. Much of what I’ll share about the benefits of working in an entrepreneurial setting won’t sound revolutionary. It’s incredibly freeing, rewarding, and fun to see the direct results of my work. The level of energy I wakeup with everyday has significantly increased because the level of responsibility has significantly increased. I feel a very strong sense of purpose, and perhaps most importantly, my success is directly tied to my contributions. The stereotypical benefits of entrepreneurship are real and they are incredibly energizing!! 

Additionally, I was lucky enough to avoid many of the early struggles that are also characteristic of an entrepreneurial career pivot. Andrew went through the majority of the growing pains (over the course of the last 2.5 years) associated with having no brand, no revenue, and no strong product market fit. He navigated TopSDRs to the point where I joined, which was a cash-flow positive, well-respected, fast-growing one-man business. Credit to him for enduring through that level of uncertainty.

Though a lot of my early learnings have been predictable realities of an entrepreneurial environment, one of my strongest takeaways from my first two months is less commonly discussed:

The bubble of your current seat is probably more isolating than you think. We get so consumed by the team/company/industry that we operate in that we become blind to what is going on outside of our world. Every company (and team within a company) spreads the narrative that they are in one of the most interesting, fast-growing segments in the world - the harsh reality is that they are probably not. The best test for this is to compare your domain to the fastest growing industry(s) in the world - as an extreme example - Lovable went from $0-$100M in revenue in 8 months. Obviously they are an outlier even amongst their peers, but the the top AI players are growing well over 100% YoY, so if your team/company is struggling to achieve the 20% YoY growth that you promised to investors, you’re probably not in the “game-changing” space that your leadership has suggested you are (sorry). 

The takeaway from that finding - go seek out the highest growth companies/industries in the world. This is a particularly unique time in history to move into early stage environments - we are currently witnessing the fastest growing companies EVER. They need great people and are rapidly hiring from all industries. If you’re still early in your career, do everything in your power to situate yourself in proximity to the highest growth companies in the world. Don’t be a bystander! This won’t last forever!