Career Path of a CEO at Digital Transformation Platform Company

Sure. I actually started my very first real job at Fred Meyer. I worked on the floor, helping customers in the domestics and toy departments.

The following summer, the general manager chose me to help open a brand new store. I received the planogram and, halfway through the summer, he made me assistant manager of that department. This experience really made me love retail and see the behind-the-scenes process of how people shop.

I then interned in finance the summer after that, as my initial degree was in marketing. I worked as a small loans officer at Beneficial Finance. Through that, I learned I didn't want to work in loans or banking, especially in consumer finance with high interest rates and customers with credit issues.

I felt I wanted to counsel people to save their money rather than take out loans. This role didn't align with my values. During my junior year of college, I also served as treasurer for my sorority.

This involved managing a quarter-million-dollar budget for our house, which had staff. Members paid thousands of dollars in dues for room and board. When I graduated, I got a role as a financial analyst at Intel.

They mentioned that my experience as treasurer likely helped me get the job. I spent 18 years at Intel in various finance roles, including expense management, capital support for wafer factories, product divisions, and supply chain.

Ultimately, I moved into business unit management, focusing on profit and loss. I fell in love with the Internet of Things division. Years later, I became a general manager of one of these business units.

From there, I spent six years in product, innovation, and launching new products, particularly in retail technology. This brought me back to my very first job. My last role at Intel was as the sales leader for the United States in Internet of Things.

My reasoning was that I didn't want to stay at Intel forever. I realized that if I ever ran my own business, I needed to learn how to close sales, live on commission, and understand how to run a business. I had experience in all other aspects but sales, so I decided to tackle that.

After a corporate reorganization, I decided to leave Intel and move into the startup world. I founded three companies over six years, growing them from an idea to $5 million in revenue.

Last year, I decided I was done with the "small ball" of startups and wanted something bigger. I am now in the private equity space, working with what's called small-to-mid-cap companies.

These companies have revenues in the tens of millions of dollars annually and are already profitable. Our goal is to grow our current business and acquire other companies. My charter is to grow the business 20 to 25 times in the next four years and then sell the larger company to a bigger firm.