Reflections on a Co-Founder Transition: From COO to Advisor at Hatch Apps
Param and I incorporated Hatch Apps in July 2015. It’s been an incredible journey over the past few years, and I’ve treasured the opportunity to work alongside a brilliant, committed team that strives to make this company more valuable every single day.
Today I’m moving from my full-time operating position into an advisory role with the company. The past several years have been phenomenal, and I’m excited for the opportunity to contribute to the company’s ongoing success from an advisory position.
On why we’re embracing this transition
As one of my mentors said, “the race is long and it outlasts all of us.” At this stage of my career, an advisory role at Hatch Apps is the best path for me and for the company.
Over the past 18 months, we’ve built out a high-performing management team — executives who have built powerful sales, marketing, customer success and ops functions in their past companies, and are well on their way to doing the same here at Hatch Apps. We’ve also built the connective tissue to where everyone is able to work collaboratively towards our shared vision, and we’ve established a strategy for how to get there.
For these and many other reasons, now is a natural moment for me to step back from the day-to-day and create space for our new leaders to step forward in my stead.
Looking back, I’m really proud of what we built together and the role I played in getting us here. But I’m more excited about what’s to come for Hatch Apps. This is, as it always will be, just the beginning.
I’m still on-call and I’m still committed. The team should expect to see me at Friday happy hours and popping into the Slack conversation. I’ll also be active as an advisor and champion for the company. Hatch Apps is still my baby, and I’m going to do all I can to help ensure its growth into maturity.
On my cofounder
I’ve considered Param a close friend for four years now, and we’ve been business partners for three and a half of them. And there has been no other time in the history of our relationship where I’ve had more respect for him than I have today.
This is a tough change, and it’s emotional for both of us. But Param has handled this transition with grace. He’s been positive, supportive, and laser-focused on doing what’s right by our investors, our employees and our customers. In his actions, Param has confirmed something I’ve known all along: He’s going to move mountains to make this company great.
A while back there was a Google doc that was going around called “The Great CEO Within” and what the author said about cofounder relationships really stuck with me: “Find a partner, someone who has complimentary skills to yours. Share the emotional burden with them. That will ease the load significantly. […] Your partner’s purpose is not to be value-add forever. As your company grows, you will likely find people with far greater skills whom you will hire. That’s OK.”
We started out as equals, and now the company is ready for one leader.
Param is the CEO at Hatch Apps. He’s the visionary, and man who drives our product vision, closes our biggest deals, and (most importantly) motivates our team to build something great. He is a natural leader.
I’m so fortunate to have worked with Param for the past 3.5 years, and I wouldn’t take back a single hour. We sold card games together, we built a team together, we brought a product to market together, and we have grown into adulthood together. When we started this company at 21 (him) and 23 (me) we had absolutely no idea what we were getting into, but we’ve taken everything in stride, made a ton of mistakes, and we always trusted each other. To me, Param isn’t just a business partner. He’s family.
On our incredible network of champions
We’ve been blessed to have an incredible network of champions as we scale this company — customers, investors, employees, contractors, advisors, mentors, partners, friends, etc. To all of you who are reading this, thank you. We wouldn’t be in this place if not for you.
Our investors have been remarkably supportive as we enter this next stage of our growth. We’ve had a lot of tough conversations over the past several weeks, but each one verified what we already know: We have a generous, thoughtful, encouraging group of investors behind us. From the earliest angels that believed in us when we were basically a card game company, to the institutional investors that came in over the past year. In every conversation I was blown away by how supportive our investors are. It’s been truly amazing. Thank you.
Our team is next level. I feel so fortunate to walk each morning into an office populated such a brilliant, hard-working group — it’s what I expect to miss most transitioning out of a full-time role. They poured so much of themselves into this company, and leave me newly inspired every day. Thank you.
My mentors and friends (you know who you are) walked me through their own similar experiences, helped us identify the best path forward, and sent so many check-in emails and texts to make sure we knew they were there for us. Thank you.
My mom, dad, and brother have been there for me for 26 years. As many know, I talk to my family almost every day (even electing to live a few blocks away from my parents) and they’ve been daily sounding boards as we navigated this transition. Thank you.
My loving partner has been my number one advisor and champion through this. I’m beyond lucky to have this man in my life. Thank you.
And Param, you are everything. Thank you.
On what I’ve learned during this transition (so far)
Transitions like this are hard. They’re complex both tactically and emotionally, and we’ve certainly grown up just a little bit more through this transition process.
Param and I gave ourselves some time to process and think through things before announcing any formal transitions. That was among the best decisions we made for ourselves. Our first conversation was emotional and disorganized — we met on a Sunday in our conference room, and our only conclusion was that we had a lot to figure out. Over several weeks, however, I talked to my mentors and trusted advisors who helped me understand my personal position and identify what was in the best interest of the company: We need to be honest with ourselves to have any hope of being honest with others. That time also gifted us space to process so that we could remain calm and organized when presenting to and discussing with our key stakeholders.
On a connected note, messaging matters. We’ve had dozens of conversations about this transition over the past several weeks, and we’ve realized that you can say the same thing in a different order or using different words and experience completely divergent reactions. Param and I rehearsed our messaging before every call or meeting to make sure that we were able to fully explain the transition, and ensure that everyone felt comfortable asking questions. Our later conversations were by far the most productive, likely because we were more organized going into them.
We’ve also been surprised to realize how often this happens in companies. I’ve now spoken to six friends who experienced similar transitions — and all six companies are alive and well. That’s actually a big part of why I decided to draft out some of what we’ve learned: It’s a hard thing to talk about, and it’s a really isolating process to go through. But even if it’s the first time we at Hatch Apps have gone through this, it’s far from a rare occurrence. The folks who have similar experiences (and our investors who had helped other founders through these transitions) were incredible resources for us. We’re so lucky to have such an honest, generous network of supporters, and I hope to one day pay these folks forward for all they did to guide us over the past several weeks.
Tactically, a solid transition plan helped to ease anxiety on all fronts. When you have everything written down alongside a concrete strategy for handoffs, there’s less room for folks to worry about things falling through the cracks. We created a multi-page spreadsheet outlining large responsibilities, small tasks, reports, contractors, tools, contacts and more. For each line on the spreadsheet, we indicated who would be the new owner, and would check off once a formal handoff had taken place. We already had the bare bones of a transition plan in place before speaking with our management team. Initially, I had planned to wait a few days before walking people through the plan to give space for them to process the change before getting tactical, but the first question everyone asked was, “How is this going to work? Who is going to take over from you?” I was very glad to already have a plan in place to guide these conversations.
In addition to structured handoffs, my enthusiasm for staying on as an advisor has done a tremendous amount to ease the transition. That’s not an option for everyone, but in my case it’d be painful not to: I owe so much to this company, to this team, to our investors and to our customers, and I hope to be a positive contributor to the Hatch Apps journey for many years to come. That said, when we first shared that I would be staying on as an advisor it was perceived as rhetoric, not as a concrete commitment. So we solidified my role by outlining hours that I would drop by the office, and had our management team outline a specific advisory position that aligned with our transition plan.
Finally (and most importantly) I’ve been reminded of how critical it is to work with people you trust — it makes hard transitions like this so much easier. When it came to conversations with Param, our management team, and our investors (all people I trust without bounds) we were able to have productive, focused conversations. I knew that we were all working towards the same thing: A stronger company. And we were all willing to have the tough conversations to get there. I’ve been fortunate to work with thoughtful, constructive people who care about me, about the company, and about each other.
On what I’m doing next
First, I’m taking some time off. I have a lot of loose ends to tie up in other parts of my life, and I’m also really psyched to take a real break. I’ve been giving everything I’ve had to this company for 3.5 years, so I’ll likely need a little time to step back and think about what my next adventure will be.
I’ve learned a lot about myself in the first few years of my career, and I’m looking forward to figuring out what I want out of my late 20s. I’ll certainly look for an opportunity where I can continue to learn and to grow as I have at Hatch Apps. I’m also hopeful that I’ll continue to have mentors in my workplace and peers that demand rigor, intentionality, and results.
I’ll also be focusing some energy on a few personal priorities. I’m getting married in October, and am looking forward to bringing a bit of order to my personal life.
On answering questions
I hope this gave you some insight into where we are and where I am, and I hope you share the confidence I have in this next stage for Hatch Apps. Thanks to Param, our investors, and our incredible team, we’re able to take this great step forward. As Param said in his letter to our community, “this is just the beginning.”
If you have questions for me, please do reach out. I’m around ☺
And thanks for reading this, and for being a positive contributor to the Hatch Apps journey. It means so much to us.
On keeping up with what’s next
Definitely subscribe for the Hatch Apps newsletter, follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook.
As many of you know, I also send out a personal update about once per month. I’ll likely be keeping that up. If you’d like to be added to the list, do so here. Or just follow me on Twitter. I’ll start posting my updates there.
