As of today, I’m going to be stepping down from day-to-day leadership of BlogMutt.
This news is big for me because I love everything about the company: the staff, the writers, the customers. Even the goofy name. BlogMutt is an exceptional operation.
So, why leave?
Well, we all have our strengths, and it’s clear to me that my strengths are more in starting things… in creating something out of nothing. That and working out of 100-square-foot offices on a desk of a piece of plywood, like in the picture of me above in BlogMutt’s very first office.
What BlogMutt needs now is someone who is good at:
1. Operations. Managing everything from sales to health insurance to product.
2. Growth. Understanding how to reach into new markets, reach new audiences, and build great partnerships.
For the short term, I’ll be spending most of my time looking for someone to do that.
We need someone who can manage KPIs, EBITDA, CLV, etc. and not get MEGO (My Eyes Glaze Over). I’m not that kind of CEO. As much as I love BlogMutt, I am just not that person.
Together with Wade Green—BlogMutt’s other founder and technology head (who is staying on)—I’m now looking for that person, someone who can move us forward on all that management stuff, but also someone who can understand the magic we’ve created here.
Me, Courtney & Wade in the world’s shakiest selfie, in BlogMutt’s second office.
Qualities of this individual include:
- Someone who is delighted to help small agencies be able to compete with much larger agencies because they have the power of BlogMutt behind them.
- Someone who is moved to tears, as I am, by our writers. I spoke about them here, and we’ve shared some of the stories on our blog here, here, here, here, here, or really just about anywhere on our blog.
- Someone who loves loves loves small businesses and understands the battle they face is almost always time, and how much BlogMutt can help them.
- And someone who recognizes that the greatest assemblage of talent in any one office anywhere in the great state of Colorado is found on the second floor of an otherwise-boring building behind the PDQ gas station and convenience store in south Boulder, BlogMutt’s fourth office.
Do you know that person? If so, please be in touch. See below for more.
(Most of) the aforementioned assemblage of talent, complete with my
wrangling of the mascot mutt, Buddy, in front of BlogMutt’s third office.
What comes next?
So, with BlogMutt getting some new management, what’s next for me?
Well, you’ll still see me around plenty. I’ll still be on the board of BlogMutt, and will come by the office with my mutt, and hang around in the writer forum. I may even write a post or two, like I did in the earliest days. I’ll probably still do public appearances, like the one I’m doing about man vs. machine at Denver Startup Week.
Speaking from the heart, at Sum and Substance in July 2016.
I’ll continue to do the #TechTuesday spots on 9News.
I’ll keep mentoring at TechStars and elsewhere.
I have a book idea.
I’ll also be spending more time on my plan to fix Daylight Saving Time.
And I may be starting something new. What would that be, you ask?
Well, six or seven years ago I was fascinated by “crowdsourcing” in the loosest possible sense of the word. After a lot of conversations came the world’s best crowdsourced blog writing service, BlogMutt. Now I’m interested in “food.” I read stuff like this about our broken food system and I find myself interested. Or maybe I’m just hungry.
In other words, it’s time for me to sit under my own vine and fig tree. I’m no George Washington, but I am inspired by what he did, stepping down. That really had never happened before. And now we all get to live in a world where “no one can make us afraid.”
And like Washington, I’ll be able to show the world that I can step down and the company will thrive because BlogMutt is so strong.
I’ve been lucky to have grown up in that world that Washington envisioned.
Really, I’ve been lucky my whole life. I had a great childhood, and I have a great family now.
I was lucky enough to work as a reporter and writer for years in New York City and all over Colorado.
And in a world where most startups fail, I’ve been lucky enough to create three of them that have all succeeded.
Thanks for joining me on this journey.
And by the way, before I can do any of the new stuff, I need to know that BlogMutt is in good hands. So if you know of someone who might be a good fit for the CEO job at BlogMutt, please contact me at CEO [at] blogmutt.com. That won’t be my email much longer, so write soon.
