Kristin Simonini, the Vice President of Product at Applause, spent the first few years of her career in consulting and human resources. She supported recruiting efforts, helped build software, and used a variety of strategies and products to solve her clients’ problems. Eventually, Simonini realized that she could speed up the entire problem-solving process by placing herself one step further back, getting her hands dirty, and working on the products themselves.

While working at WebHire, a recruiting software company where Simonini had set up a business process consulting team, the product manager went on maternity leave. Simonini saw her chance to make the switch from consulting to product by filling in, but first, she had to come to terms with a reality check.

“When you get on the other side of the fence, you learn that pretty quickly that you can't just come in and execute on every idea you have,” Simonini said. “There are trade-offs. There are new business ventures and strategic initiatives you need to account for. There are considerations that you didn't have visibility into before moving into the role.”

It was the right opportunity at the right time, and Simonini has worked in product ever since. She’s honed her skills throughout her career, working primarily at software-focused companies like Brainshark and EdAssist before moving to Applause.

The company provides crowd testing and digital quality solutions for its clients, which operate in a range of industries, and Simonini’s team maintains the platform that supports it all. This includes the processes to find and match t testers to projects, support integrations with third-party tools like bug-tracking systems, manage test cycles, and process payments to the community.

It’s a tall order, particularly for a team that barely existed just one year ago. Simonini helped create the team from scratch when she arrived at Applause in February 2018 and is now going into 2019 with a fully-staffed and highly-talented group.

The same problem-solving mentality that led Simonini to product helped her tackle the enormous task of helping build a product team at Applause. To her, it’s all part of the challenge -- and reward -- of working at a startup.

“When you're talking about an early stage or start-up organization, you have an opportunity to really make an impact and see the results of your team's efforts,” she said. “If my team can be responsible for coming up with that next market disruptor or new offering to guide sales strategy, those are the kinds of opportunities I’m on the lookout for.”

To Simonini, these opportunities are major breakthroughs that will advance not just her own team’s success, but that of the entire company. She’s always been a problem solver, and impacting a core challenge or initiative wherever she works will always be a top priority.

“The next big step is to do something that’s not just tactically moving the business up the chain, but making 10 big leaps ahead on the chain,” she said.

Rapid Fire Questions
 

What do you do in your free time?

I have an eight-year-old son, so  I spend free time with him doing whatever activities he is interested in and exploring new places together. He’s a Cub Scout, too, and I’m the treasurer for his scout pack.

I'm also heavily involved in a fundraiser called Cycle for Survival that focuses on rare cancer research. We have our r local event a week from Sunday and have raised a lot of money over the years. It’s a special cause for me because my husband had a rare form of cancer that we lost him to. So when I have free time, I like to support that organization through activities and PR and whatever else I can do to help.

How do you typically manage stress?

Stress is almost a constant for me. I take a few minutes at the end of the day to read a book before bed because I find it is a chance to escape to something more mindless. I can disconnect from the day and not go over in my head all of the things that I might be doing otherwise, whether that be work-related or on the home front. I like things that are pure fiction like thrillers. I also find the beach to be great therapy for stress.

How many cups of coffee do you drink in a day?

I have two cups of coffee each day-- one in the morning, and one in the afternoon.

What’s one of your favorite places in the Boston area?

A big favorite of ours is the Museum of Science. It’s a fantastic place for an eight-year-old kid to have in his backyard -- there are so many great things to explore and learn about.

I also got married there, so it’s very special in that regard. We were one of the first weddings they hosted. It’s got an amazing view of the city, great food, and you can’t beat pictures with a dinosaur on your wedding day. I always recommend it for people who are trying to find something a little more out of the box.

What do you consider one of your greatest accomplishments?

I really pride myself in my strengths as a manager, and I think when you're getting started in your career, you don't know if management is going to be right for you or if you're going to have the right skills for it. So a great accomplishment for me was when I was leaving a company, and  I was sharing that news with the folks on my team. One of my product managers kind of welled up and said, “You know, this is really unfortunate on so many levels professionally, but you’re also the most human manager I’ve ever had.” I got welled up with that too. That’s the best thing someone could have ever said to me -- not “Oh, that was a great product release,” or “Customers really loved this feature.”

That's something to hang my hat on, because it's important for me to make sure my team knows that yes, we work hard and we get our jobs done, because we play a critical role in the organization, but at the end of the day we’re here for our family and our health and our life outside these walls. That’s what we’re living for. If the teams that I build and grow over the years feel that they have that balance and that I’m able to support them, that’s my accomplishment.

Is this where you saw yourself 10 years ago?

I’m kind of where I would have dreamed to be earlier in my career. I don’t think I expected product organizations to get to the level they have. Historically, at least in my experience, product was buried deep under marketing or engineering. I feel like it’s really been a turn in the last decade or so that product has elevated and has a seat at the table with the leadership and executive teams. That's so critical, because we always understood that product was the hub and connected to absolutely everything that the business was doing, but at the same time, it didn't really have a voice in bigger discussions. So this is exactly what I would have wanted for myself, looking back 10 years, and what I would have wanted for product managers overall.

What’s your advice for recent college graduates?

I think a lot of people come out of school and haven’t quite figured out what their path is yet. My advice is to find your passion and identify your strengths. Maybe find a mentor that can help bring you up in some areas where you just don’t know what you don’t know yet. Networking and building connections is huge, because that’s how people find opportunities. Depending on yours area of interest, I would say also get involved in related groups for that. If product management is your passion and you’re in the Boston area, you should be part of the Boston Product Management Association and go to some of the meetings, network, and hear about what’s happening. That’s going to spark some area of interest and maybe shed light on things that you didn’t realize were out there but that are great opportunities. The earlier you start the better, because it’s great exposure.

It’s a great time to be in the tech industry, particularly in Boston, and women are leading the charge.

As part of our Lead(H)er series, I’ve had the great privilege of interviewing so many incredibly talented women who are founders or executives at some of the fastest growing companies in Boston's vibrant startup scene.

They’ve told us about everything from the challenges, successes, and surprises of their careers to how many cups of coffee it takes to get through a day, so take a look at our list of the talented women we’ve spotlighted this year.

Each of these stories are inspirational and as we are closing out 2018, we decided to provide one snippet from each interview and a link to read through the full interview.

Click here to read Jan's story

Michelle Burtchell, VP of Marketing at Buildium

Samantha Costanzo Carleton is a Contributor to VentureFizz. You can follow her on Twitter @smcstnz.

“Don’t tell me you’re a people person,” Julie Hogan’s college career counselor said to her during their first meeting.

Hogan panicked. That was exactly what she was going to say, and as a freshman who still hadn’t decided on her major, being comfortable talking to people seemed like a valuable skill. She eventually settled on an English degree, which combined her love of people, reading, and writing with the high possibility of graduating with a good GPA that would open doors for her.

When Hogan graduated, she took a job as an analyst at Deloitte. An internship at the Make-A-Wish Foundation had taught her that she would prefer fast-paced work, and one at Boston’s NBC affiliate taught her that a job in a true office setting would be ideal. Deloitte offered both, along with the opportunity to learn how to work.

To Hogan, who was raised in a family of people who were proud of their hard work and who had held jobs as soon as they could, Hogan was thrilled to enter the working world. She still remembers her first business trip – a Thursday flight to Detroit – with happiness.

“I was the only person at Logan Airport with a smile on their face,” she said. “I was so excited to be flying to Detroit on a Thursday afternoon because I was an adult on a business trip. I was very proud that I had a purpose and a job and I was going to make my own money.”

Hogan spent three years at Deloitte, taking on every project possible and accepting every opportunity that came her way until she realized that maybe she didn’t want to make partner or climb this particular corporate ladder after all. If she was going to make a change, she reasoned, now was the time.

A fellow Bostonian had left Deloitte to work at a small startup called HubSpot, which was still in the incubator phase, and Hogan decided to join him.

“He was the only friend who was genuinely on fire in a good way about what he was doing,” she said.

Hogan stayed at HubSpot for just under eight years, traveling all over the world with her husband and children to help set up the company’s offices in Dublin, Sydney, Singapore,  Latin America, Japan, and Germany.

“We live in a world of ‘no,’” Hogan said. “A lot of people say no to things that seem hard to do. I’ve heard people say that your default answer should always be no. I don’t operate that way. I'm going to say yes to those things because hopefully, I learn something from them.”

HubSpot taught Hogan to take risks, but when the opportunity came to join Drift and build its customer success team, which consisted of customer success, services, and support functions, people told her not to leave her current job. HubSpot was a stable gig, with the fast pace she craved and a good working environment.

“I think as a woman, especially now as a mother, there's this expectation that you should stick with stability and shy away from risks that could impact your flexibility somewhere else,” she said.

But Hogan was losing sleep over the idea that she would be missing out on an opportunity to learn while making a real impact somewhere, and eventually, she took the leap.

The stress was worth it. Hogan is now the Vice President of Drift’s customer success team, working to take care of customers while supporting the company’s growth. Her main goal is to help make SaaS feel like a world-class service, and a strong team bolsters those efforts. When it comes to hiring, Hogan focuses less on technical abilities and more on the ability to learn.

“If they naturally and genuinely enjoy solving problems and engaging with other human beings and building relationships and helping people grow, they are more than likely have the capacity to learn a new technology,” Hogan said. “We’re really shifting and not trying to lead and hire technology first, but lead and hire and think service first.”

Customer success is a difficult industry, but Hogan is, after all, a people person. While others may shy away from the idea of constantly talking to people, Hogan said that customer success is a perfect match for her precisely because she enjoys making those connections.

“You have to stretch yourself in ways very quickly that you didn't think you would be capable of,” Hogan said. “In my mind, I always thought that because I don't have a pedigree or an MBA, I’m not even set up to do this. It's just where I landed and where I really thrive.”

Rapid Fire Questions

What do you like to do in your free time?

I think because I lived away from New England for a decent period of time, I'm obsessed with the beach. So in my free time, you will see me spending almost all of it with my sons with a soccer ball on one of our local beaches.

How do you manage your stress?

I like to figure out what tools other people use and see if they could work for me. A piece of advice I got from a former colleague of mine was that when he feels stressed he leans into something he heard Beyonce does, which is, you have to mentally translate that stress into positive energy. So, when you're feeling stress or worry or anxiety or butterflies, it’s because you are passionate about the thing that you have to accomplish. I think just making that mental transition makes a huge difference for me.

How many cups of coffee do you drink in a day?

I have had a love-hate relationship with caffeine, and so as of now I have one cup in the morning and I try to keep it at that.

What is one of your favorite spots in the Boston area?

Provincetown, Cape Cod. I got married there, grew up staying down there. It's amazing. It's the best place.

What would you consider one of your greatest accomplishments unrelated to family?

There are two things. First, I'm very proud of the teams we built at HubSpot when we were getting the international team going. I look back sometimes and just think, wow, we learned a lot of things, we certainly made a lot of mistakes, but what a what a ride to go literally around the world and start up those teams and build businesses.

What's disappointing -- and this is just the world we live in, and I think it will change -- when the opportunity was there to do it, I was on maternity leave with my first son. Someone made the comment, “Oh, isn't it a shame that that didn't happen before you had kids? Obviously, you can't do that, you have a baby.” It lit a fire under me because I knew I absolutely could do this -- anybody can -- it’s just a little bit different.

The second thing I’m really proud of is building our customer success team from scratch at Drift. This past year has been the most challenging and rewarding career opportunity I’ve ever had.

Is this where you saw yourself 10 years ago?

No! I had no idea. I knew or hoped that I would be working. I dreamed that I would have a job that would allow me to keep learning and that I would get exposure to all sorts of people. That has been the one thing that I've loved so much about these roles -- you meet different people from all over the world, from your customers to the people you hire, and it's incredible. You learn something almost every day because of the diversity of people and being part of a global team.

I wanted something that was fast. I knew it had to be fast-paced for whatever reason. That's how I operate. I knew that in ten years if I'm sitting in a cube where no one was talking I wouldn't be thriving. I'm grateful that it's been what it's been. I can go home every day, put in hours that are hard and focused, but go home and say, yeah, I like what I do. I really like what I do.

What is your advice for recent college graduates?

Think about what you what you enjoy doing already, and don't back into a job title. Don't just say you want to be a social media marketing manager. Instead, start with a list of things that you genuinely enjoy, and don't let anybody tell you that any of those things are stupid. Knowing that I liked people and enjoyed communicating, working with people, and knowing that as my truth has been the foundation of things I've gone after and roles I've taken on and have seen success in. Start there. I think often, people go on job search sites looking for titles but don't even really know what those jobs mean or what their day to day life would be.

The other thing I would say is, stalk your network. Don't be shy about asking someone, “Could I go with you to work for a half a day just to see what the office environment is like?” I took small, unpaid internships that were only a few hours a week so that I could still work full time during the summers. These taught me a ton about what kind of work environment I wanted to be in, which eventually led me to the world of startups, and I’ve never looked back.

Cindy Klein Roche spent years in the book publishing industry until her husband advised her that print was dying and suggested she make a career change. Roche, who graduated from Princeton with a degree in English language and literature, decided that the suggestion had merit and turned to the Web.

Initially, she worked in digital community development and information design but soon realized that, while she enjoyed those jobs, she’d much prefer to be in marketing. Roche made her way into a marketing strategy group at Fidelity, and the rest was history.

“I decided that marketing was my calling because it was the practical application of being customer first and customer-centric,” Roche said. “It's a sure way to tap into the customer and make customer insights actionable when you do marketing.”

From Fidelity, Roche worked on brand creation and brand marketing at TripAdvisor, a move designed to help her jump into the startup world.

At the time, TripAdvisor consisted of around 500 employees, and it would expand to more than 2,500 employees by the time Roche moved to her next job.

“I like being in places where there isn't a drawn path, and where you're doing ‘firsts,’” Roche said. At TripAdvisor, there had evidently been marketing efforts before her arrival, but the size and scope of those efforts continued to grow, giving Roche the perfect challenge.

She found her next challenge working on demand and lead generation at athenahealth. At the company, Roche oversaw all of the company’s marketing efforts, from demand analysis and brand building to website design.

Like her first marketing role, the job at athenahealth gave Roche another revelation: this time about the exact type of marketing she wanted to pursue for the rest of her career.

“I realized that B2B marketing was so much more rewarding because you were chasing something that was tied to the bottom line,” she said. “So at athenahealth, I decided that I never wanted to do B2C again. ‘Never is a big word, but I feel as if B2B is where the center of gravity is for marketers in general.”

Armed with this knowledge, Roche has quickly climbed the ranks to Chief Marketing Officer at Cybereason, where she oversees the cybersecurity startup’s ever-growing range of marketing campaigns. The marketing team has tripled in size since Roche began as Vice President of Marketing in November 2016, with revenues up an astounding 500%.

The other secret ingredient in Roche’s success, aside from her industry know-how and ability to distill the spirit of a company into its brand, is her knack for assembling the right team for the job.

“I like a really hard puzzle, which is what I have in cybersecurity, but I only like it when I get to lure other people who are smart and unafraid to do it with me,” she said. “I love starting from scratch and then tracking people from past lives to come join me in whatever problem I’m trying to tackle.”

Like many, Roche has caught the startup bug, and it’s safe to say that she’s perfectly happy with that turn of events. Her sweet spot, she says, is a company with between 100 and 1,000 employees – small enough that she can have an impact on the company’s developing vision, with plenty of twists and turns still to come on the road.

Cybereason, with just under 450 employees, will be just Roche’s sizes for several years. When it’s time to go, though, Roche has a good sense of where she’ll land.

“Boston has such a vital, energetic startup community with so much possibility,” she said. “I never want to go back to corporate marketing.”

Rapid Fire Questions

What do you like to do in your free time?

I love to run. I run every day. I love to read, which I often combine with running in the winter when I’m on the treadmill with my Kindle. And I love to make desserts. I don’t make main courses – I stink at making savory food – but I love to make desserts.

How do you typically handle your stress?

Definitely running, and exercise in general,is a stress reliever. If I haven't gone for a run and I'm cranky, my family will literally force me out the door to go running. I also think laughter is my stress reliever. I am fortunate to work with people that I really love, in part because I hired a lot of them. I would say in the little free time I have, getting together with women friends and sharing the stress among mainly working women has been helpful. I have the most in common with them because I've been juggling kids and career for years, so those are my people.

How many cups of coffee do you drink in a day?

It matters not how much as long as I have one venti dark coffee in the morning, always. And then maybe a second or a third, but one venti dark coffee for sure. I describe it as the reason to get to work because I don’t have it until I get there. It’s the prize for coming in.

What’s your favorite spot in the Boston area?

The Charles River is my favorite spot. I love walking and running along it, I love sitting at it, and I love seeing it. I work in the Hancock Tower, so I stare at it all the time. It runs through the town that I live in and through the town I work in. It's sort of everywhere. I went to grad school for a short time in Boston, and I lived on the Charles, and now I live in Newton which the Charles goes through, and I work overlooking the Charles, so it is, for me, a defining location.

What do you consider one of your greatest accomplishments?

Tied for one are three things. People that I have managed to attract to whatever work project I’m doing. I have a lot of people who have joined me in some new crazy pursuit that I’ve convinced them is the crazy pursuit they should make theirs. I view that as a real accomplishment because creating great teams may be the best thing you can do for a company.

I also am extremely fond of a brand campaign, mostly involving video advertising, that we did for athenahealth. We did a set of ads aimed at burnt-out physicians to help them know that athenahealth empathizes with them. We got an incredible amount of response in the numbers but also other data telling us that we had made a real connection.

The third is from the past. I discovered this author named Jhumpa Lahiri who has gone on to enormous fame. She went to BU, so she sets a lot of things in and around New England and Boston. She had published in very small literary magazines, and she was actually doing a yearlong grant at the Provincetown Writers’ Workshop. I got three of her stories published in The New Yorker, which was really her breakout. Then we sold her story collection and her novel, and that was really her beginning as a writer. It was thrilling. It's pretty amazing just to be in her aura.

Is this where you saw yourself 10 years ago?

Definitely not. In brand building and marketing, yes, but in B2B and particularly in enterprise B2B marketing – that is a big surprise but also a delight. I think what I’ve realized, mainly once I went to athenahealth, is that the bigger and more challenging the puzzle, the more I like it, provided I can hire plenty of smart teammates to work with. I think I honestly could never have predicted that this is where I was going to be. I’m so grateful that I have found my way into the hardest possible B2B enterprise marketing that there is. There’s something really thrilling about making a go of this.  

What’s your advice for recent college grads?

I feel like it is such a luxury to spend your college years exploring and being creative and being the opposite of practical. It may be the only time to do it. That's my wish for college kids, for sure. Don't settle or be practical. Choose to be creative and to explore, because you have the rest of your life to be practical.

“I love how anyone at EverQuote can have an idea and execute on it. I think when you’re working somewhere and you’re new, especially when you’re right out of school, it can be very intimidating to speak up. Working here has taught me to be more vocal. I’m thankful to work in an environment where expressing ideas is part of the culture!” Alana Aubin, Vice President of Life Business Unit at EverQuote, exclaimed.

Originally from Canada, Alana moved to Taunton, Massachusetts when she was nine years old. She attended Taunton High School where she excelled in academics, played trombone in the band, and served as swim team captain.

Although she now runs a successful business unit at a tech company, she initially sought out to be an actuary.

“When I was a senior in high school, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do for my career or even what major I wanted to pursue. However, I was really interested in math, so my AP Calculus teacher encouraged me to look into becoming an actuary. That suggestion helped inform my college search.”

Looking to attend an engineering school focused on science and math, Alana attended Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). She liked their top-notch academics and the fact they were NCAA Division III for swimming.

“I started as a regular math major and then transitioned into actuarial math. The actuarial math advisor was excellent, and the classes were interesting. After junior year, I got an internship at an insurance company. Over the course of the summer, I realized that the actuarial work moved too slowly for me and the corporate environment felt stifling. It was a great experience overall, but it showed me that I needed something more fast-paced,” Alana explained.  

At this point, Alana was almost done with her actuarial degree, so she decided to finish and stay at WPI for another year to get her master’s degree in financial math.

“WPI had a great master’s program that I could complete in just one extra year, so I got my master’s of science in financial math. I learned a ton about portfolio analysis, which I found really interesting, but I also knew I didn’t want to work for a bank or on Wall Street. Towards the end of my program, I still wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, but I got lucky. One day I ran into my study-abroad advisor from junior year and he asked what I was doing after graduation. When I told him I didn’t have a plan, he connected me with a WPI alumnus at EverQuote (then called AdHarmonics). I came in, interviewed, and was hired as a quantitative analyst!” Alana said with a smile.

When Alana joined EverQuote, they were only about 25 people. She worked as a quantitative analyst on the search engine marketing (SEM) team where she was responsible for getting consumer traffic from Google and Bing.

“I didn’t know that quantitative analyst was a job you could have! I loved it! I thought it was so exciting to do something today and see the impact tomorrow. It really played to my skills of data analysis, problem-solving, and coming up with new ideas and questions, like how can we optimize this, how can we do that better, how do we get more volume, how do we pay less for this? I enjoyed it.”

Since she first started, EverQuote has grown significantly. After spending two years on the search engine marketing team and being promoted to Senior Quantitative Analyst, Alana became a manager.

“At that point, there was one other person on my team, so he started reporting to me. I was a little worried about the transition from a peer relationship to a managerial one, but he was great at his job and a fantastic teammate, so we did it more like a partnership. We had a lot of trust in each other. A couple of months after that, three new college grads joined the team, and that’s when I realized, ‘Oh wow, I have to teach them everything I know.’ It was completely different from anything I had done before.”

When I asked Alana if she had always envisioned herself becoming a manager, she explained that it was a path that she’s still wanted for herself.

“I hoped I’d make a good manager because I had taken on many different leadership roles in the past and was the captain of the swim team in high school and college. I felt like I’d been preparing my whole life to lead people, coach them, and get more out of the group as a whole.”

After her time as a manager, Alana was promoted to director. Initially, mobile and desktop SEM were split out, but she took on the entire department in her new role. She also had to think bigger picture and longer term.

“To think more critically about how my department fit in with the rest of the company and figure out how to expand my sphere of influence was very challenging. I felt like I’d been on the ground level doing campaign management or directly supervising campaign management for a long time and it was hard to develop that new perspective. It didn’t come naturally to change my mindset like that.”

Last year, Alana was promoted to Vice President of SEM. In addition to added responsibilities, she now was responsible for a team of managers.

“Two of my team members became managers themselves, so they had their own direct reports. It was much different because I was trying to give advice and help them develop their leadership skills, which is more nuanced than teaching technical and analysis skills. I also wanted to give them freedom but also make sure they felt supported, which was challenging at first.”

After working as VP of her department for a while, Alana realized she’d been on the SEM team for about four years, and she wanted to try something new.

“Last summer, I went to my manager, and I told him I was starting to feel restless. We have a lot of automation to help with repetitive tasks, and there are always new problems, but it seemed to me like I was continuously solving similar problems and I just wanted to try something different.”

This past November, Alana moved over to head the Life Insurance business unit. She loves doing more cross-functional coordination and working with the consumer acquisition, business development, and product teams, helping them with different analysis and projects.

“Our CEO calls me the CEO of our Life Insurance vertical. It’s very cool. I feel like I’m super busy but also very engaged. I’m glad that I spoke up and said that I wanted to do something different because I am happier at work now and more excited about what I’m doing. Since it’s a new position, I’ve been able to help define the role of a vertical lead as well. It’s fun! I feel extremely fortunate to be a part of EverQuote. I can’t believe it all goes back to that one professor and his amazing recommendation!”

Rapid Fire Questions

BS: What do you like to do in your free time?

AA: I spend most of my free time focused on swimming. I swim on a masters swim team called Charles River Masters, based at Harvard. I practice several times a week, race in meets periodically, and have been doing a lot of open water swimming the past few years. I’m looking forward to the weather warming up so I can swim outside more! I also coach once a week and volunteer for US Masters Swimming as the Communications Chair for New England and on a national committee.

BS: How do you manage stress?

AA: Swimming is a such a good stress reliever. Generally, I default to various fitness activities to help with stress. I like to bike a lot, do yoga, and lift weights at the gym. That physical release is really important for me. The New York Times crossword is a great mental break for when I can’t get outside.

BS: How many cups of coffee do you typically drink in a day?

AA: I drink one cup of coffee a day. I keep trying to wean myself off of caffeine completely but I can never stick with it. We have cold brew on tap, too, which is extra potent and extra delicious.

BS: Where is your favorite spot in the Boston area?

AA: I might say the bike lane. I love cycling, and especially cycling to get around. I picked that up when I was in Copenhagen my junior year; everyone there bikes everywhere. There are definitely some areas of Boston where it’s not that nice or safe to bike, but there are also a growing number of decent bike lanes. It’s usually faster than driving or taking the T, plus I love being outside.

BS: If you had to choose one thing what would you say is your greatest accomplishment?

AA: That’s a tough question! I guess I don’t really have one big thing, but I’m really proud of how I’ve been able to continue swimming and improving after college. I’ve been able to beat most of my personal best times from college in Masters swimming, which is pretty unusual, and I continue to challenge myself with different events and open water races. This summer I’m competing in the Boston Light Swim, an 8-mile race in Boston Harbor, which will be my longest swim to date.

BS: Ten years ago, is this where you would have seen yourself?

AA: I don’t think so, no. Let’s see, 10 years ago I was graduating from high school. At that time, I knew I was going to major in math, maybe actuarial. I didn’t even know that this job existed, but I’m really happy with how it’s turned out.

BS: What one piece of advice would you give to a recent college graduate?

AA: I think I would have to say, in life and especially at your job, if you have an idea that you think is great then you should try to make it happen. Have confidence in yourself because there’s a good chance that nobody else has that idea. Believe in yourself and speak up about your ideas. Go for it!

“When I started college my plan was to become a doctor, plain and simple. So I started down that path, and it was just after I finished all the pre-med requirements I decided to pivot. I realized that there were other ways to get involved in the healthcare industry that didn’t involve a white coat,” Kate Shamsuddin, Senior Vice President of Strategy at Definitive Healthcare, said. 

Originally from the greater Boston area, Kate grew up in Hamilton. After high school, she enrolled at Emory College for her undergraduate degree down in Atlanta, GA. 

“Like many others, I instantly fell in love with Atlanta when I started college in 2004. Both my parents were pretty shocked when I chose to go relatively far from home, yet they were thrilled to see college was off to a good start and that I had the chance to be part of a community outside of Massachusetts. While college served up no shortage of fun, I was there to study and graduated with a major in anthropology and a minor in public health. At the time both degrees felt a bit random, but they worked well together and were two things I found equally interesting.” 

Although she loved her time in Atlanta, Kate decided to make the move back north after graduation. Upon arrival in Boston, she prepared for and attended a series of job interviews with the rest of grads of ‘08 and was lucky to land an offer from RTI International. 

“Keep in mind 2008 was a tough year. The job market was anything but strong, and it was the first time I had to find myself what they call a “real” job. Things were a bit tense. It wasn’t the first time the economy dipped, but it made for an enduring process,” Kate explained.

As a Health Policy Analyst, Kate focused on research projects centered around the Medicare program. During her time at RTI, she enjoyed applying the public health curriculum that she learned at Emory and learning more about the healthcare system and many of the things that needed to be fixed.

About one year into the job, she started thinking about going back to school for her graduate degree.

“I wanted to figure out if healthcare was going to be the mainstay, or if it may be fleeting. The idea of returning to school meant I needed to think long and hard about the opportunity cost of taking myself out of the workforce. It felt like one of the biggest decisions in my life, granted I was just shy of 24, but I ultimately decided to go to public health school. I started my master's program at the Harvard School of Public Health in 2010.”

Kate describes her two years in graduate school as remarkable years in her mid-twenties. She loved the university, who she was surrounded by, and the chance she was given.

“The academic programming was everything I expected it to be and even a bit more, but school marked a really nice chance to continue to build out my Boston-based network. My program hosted people from all different walks of life. Everyone had their own unique story and their own excitement about what lay ahead, whether that was professional or personal. It was nice to stitch together the experience, weaving on my own. A significant portion of the value in going back to school was the people I met while I was there.”

When Kate graduated in 2012, she decided to pursue a position at the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. With the help of her connections from a prior internship, she jumped into a Strategic Services position at the association out in Chicago.

“I moved out to Chicago and worked on the product development team. I got to work on a lot of great programs that helped service the customers of Blue plans across the U.S. For example, I got to work on the national telemedicine strategy and following program development. Telemedicine wasn’t new in 2012, but we got to think about how you reimburse for it and market it to consumers since it is a great way to receive care.”

While at the Association, Kate liked that she had a bird’s eye perspective. She found a big part of her experience was learning how to come up with clear value propositions and how to effectively communicate strategies.

“In order to get 37 plans to listen and buy in, you had to have a pretty tight story around recommended action and why it was compelling to move in that direction. The biggest takeaway was making sure you had an intention behind every decision and a story supported by values to succeed in making a change. It was also important to make sure you had the ability to influence key stakeholders alongside the political will.”

After a few years in Chicago, Kate felt she’d tapped out on her opportunity and was itching to make a move back to the east coast to once again be close to her family. In the fall of 2014, she moved on back to Boston.

“When I came back to Boston, I connected with an old friend and colleague from RTI who had taken on a key role at Definitive Healthcare. He encouraged me to come in and meet with the CEO, so I interviewed at Definitive. My motto at the time was to take all interviews, but this one struck me right off the bat. I quickly learned about the business they were in and what they were looking to achieve. My initial conversations felt really good, and it was in my gut that Definitive would be a solid match. The decision was easy. I joined the company right after the interview at the start of 2015.”

When Kate first started at Definitive, there were just about 30 employees. She originally joined to help think about product strategy. Today there are more than 200 employees across the company.

“At that time I joined, we needed another member of the team who could build out the product pipeline. That meant thinking about core questions—what new data was important to bring into our database and what new products did we want to include in the portfolio—that would support our effort to win new business and capture market share while also maintaining our client relationships through renewed partnerships.”

Since the start, Kate’s role has evolved pretty significantly. Although she still supports product strategy work, she’s shifted to think more about corporate strategy for Definitive Healthcare at large.

“I now think about how Definitive Healthcare can position itself for continued growth by working across each of the functional groups to ensure the scale with our explosive business. Together we think about short, medium, and longer-term strategies that tie directly to our company’s goals. That might mean a focus on how marketing can build up the funnel to support our growing sale team or the ways in we need to evolve our customer success strategy to support 1,600 or so marquee clients on our product platform.”

“Definitive Healthcare is such a special company for so many obvious reasons, and I’m lucky to have joined when I did. This company created a space for me to grow up in, professionally speaking, and I am so grateful to call it home for where I really built up my career. I’ve learned a ton. I’ve learned how important it is to be nimble and responsive to the market. I’ve learned how critical it is to really walk in the shoes of your buyers and more importantly the shoes of your clients. I’ve learned what it means to be part of running a hugely successful business and all of the blood, sweat, and tears that go into it!”

Rapid Fire Questions

BS: What do you like to do in your free time?

KS: I love spending time with my family, in particular, my two nieces and nephew. My elder niece is just shy of four and the other two are 8-month-old twins (my sister definitely has her hand’s full). The little ones are like the Three Stooges and always put a smile on my face.

BS: How do you manage stress?

KS: By going to the gym. I’ve always made a commitment to regular exercise since it gives me a true break from the day where I don’t have to think about anything. Whether it is a 20-minute run or a fun spin class, working out is a good way for me to release stress. I keep it on my calendar and make it a priority to follow through. When the gym doesn’t do the trick, a nice martini now and again will.

BS: How many cups of coffee do you typically drink in a day?

KS: When I’m on my best behavior, three. When I’m feeling ambitious, I’ll drink four cups. My only cardinal rule is no coffee after 1 PM.

BS: Where is your favorite spot in the Boston area?

KS: One of my favorite places is Crane Beach. It’s up on the North Shore, pretty close to my parents' house. The beach is part of larger conservation land, so it makes for a beautiful scape almost all year round.

BS: If you had to choose one thing, what would you say is your greatest accomplishment?

KS: My greatest accomplishment is the collection of small things I have been able to squirrel away over the years that influence who I am and how I conduct myself. It was the feat of financing grad school, moving to the Midwest, running fun road races, building great teams, and getting feedback that I have helped someone in their career. Perhaps one day all these things may be trumped by one large event, but I imagine my collection will continue to grow, and that I am grateful to look forward to.  

BS: Ten years ago, is this where you would have seen yourself?

KS: Absolutely not. Ten years ago, I was probably at the point of figuring out if I wanted to go to medical school, which is clearly quite different than working at Definitive Healthcare. Ten years ago I would not have imagined I’d be where I am today, but I would not rewrite it at all.

BS: What one piece of advice would you give to a recent college graduate?

KS: Don’t put pressure on yourself to think you need to know exactly what your career is going to look like. The reality is you’re going to try out a lot of different jobs. Some of them are going to be great and some of them may not. Figure out what it is you like and what it is that you don't like from a professional perspective and carry that with you. While it may feel stressful and like the weight of the world is on your shoulders, keep in mind that life is all about trial and error and everyone will ultimately land where they’re meant to be. Also, don’t be afraid to work hard. It will bring you great things when done well.

“Water has always been an important and constant part of my life. Growing up outside of Boston, I spent a lot of time sailing out on the ocean. As a result, I was naturally interested in sustainability and ocean stewardship,” said Eliza Becton, Co-Founder and Head of Product at Bevi.

But Eliza’s path to founding her own company wasn’t directly from sustainability. She grew up loving both art and science and graduated with a Bachelor's of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Yale. After working in New York for a few years at an engineering firm, Eliza quickly realized that she wanted to work on something with a mission while also utilizing her creative skills.

“Fortunately, I soon discovered industrial design and went back to school for a masters degree at the Rhode Island School of Design. It was completely life-changing. It taught me how to ask the really hard questions like why are we doing what we’re doing? As a result, it was not just about creating things for the sake of creating them. It was about purpose and people and user-centered design,” Eliza said.

During research for her masters thesis, Eliza learned about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an ever-expanding, floating mass of plastic waste in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

“That was really shocking to me and got me thinking about how I could design a product that could eventually replace those plastic bottled beverages. How do you create something that’s easier to use, more convenient, and more enjoyable for people?” Eliza asked.

She completed her master thesis with a product design concept that aimed to eliminate bottled beverage waste. After graduation, Eliza went back to Boston to work for startups as a designer, but she always kept this concept in the back of her mind.

And then plastic water bottles started showing up in the news. The town of Concord, Massachusetts, banned bottled water as did many school campuses. Eliza realized that this was the time to pursue her project, if she was ever going to do it.

“About this time, I was introduced to Sean Grundy, Bevi’s CEO, through mutual friends. He was an MBA candidate at MIT Sloan but also a sustainability nerd, like me. We met for coffee one day and spent hours chatting about our ideas. He was crazy enough to work with me and together we began entering business plan competitions. We eventually convinced Sean’s roommate and close friend, Frank, to join as our third co-founder. Sean and Frank Lee met in China before they even started at Sloan, both while working on water-related projects abroad,” Eliza said, describing the catalyst for her future company.

Bevi incorporated in August of 2013. By then, they had proven to themselves and others through several successful business competitions that it was possible to use design and technology to change user behavior from relying on bottled beverages. When they first started out, the Bevi team was doing really crude market tests with cardboard boxes and trying to get people to pay for things as early as possible.

“It was really embarrassing and we failed a lot, but we learned and moved on to the next idea or iteration. Those small failures were very important to understand and learn from,” Eliza remembers.

In the spring of 2014, Bevi was accepted into the Techstars Boston program, which became their early big break. With access to amazing mentors and peers, the team felt really lucky to learn what they did there. Techstars pushed the team a lot and they came out of the program finding Bevi’s product market fit—commercial offices.

“Once we figured that out, our first product, the Standup Bevi, started to take off in sales. People actually liked it -- they wanted it and were willing to pay for it. It felt like things had finally clicked. Our next challenge was figuring out how to scale. We kept improving our product for performance, reliability, and costs,” Eliza said.  

In the fall of 2017, the company released their second product, the Countertop Bevi. Launching a product with a more established, bigger team was a much different experience, than the original product which was built with a team of just five people.

“Moving forward, we will have to constantly ask ourselves the same question -- how do we work smarter and move faster? It’s a lot to do, but it’s a great challenge and fun to think about the sustainability impact that we are making. Right now, we’re saving about 2.5 million bottles per month. I feel lucky everyday that I get to work on something that I truly care about that has a real impact,” said Eliza.

Rapid Fire Q&A

BS: What do you like to do in your free time?

EB: Well, I have a two year old son so I like to spend my free time with him and my husband. I also enjoy cooking a lot. It’s kind of my new creative outlet these days, since I’m not doing as much design as I used to.

BS: How do you manage stress?

EB: [laughs] Not very well! I mean again, creativity is a great outlet for that. I think when I’m really stressed, I also try to make an effort to exercise or be outside. Additionally I enjoy seeing friends. Everyone has their own challenges in life so it’s nice to be able to talk to someone, be there for them and forget about your own stuff.

BS: How many cups of coffee do you typically drink in a day?

EB: I’m actually pregnant right now so I try to limit my coffee for hydration purposes. On a regular day, though, I drink maybe three to four cups.

BS: Where is your favorite spot in the Boston area?

EB: I love being on the water so I really enjoy the seaport. Sitting at a restaurant on the water is pretty amazing. The smell of the ocean, the fresh air—I love it.

BS: If you had to choose one thing other than family, what would you say is your greatest accomplishment?

EB: I’m really proud of Bevi, everything we’ve done and all the amazing people I get to work with every day.

BS: Ten years ago, is this where you would have seen yourself?

EB: No way! In fact, I would love to meet someone who fully anticipated where they were going to be in ten years and congratulate them on that. But I almost feel like I would be doing something wrong if I were living up to all my plans in life. I don’t know if I had even thought about where I wanted to be in ten years, ten years ago. I knew I wanted to be doing design. But other than that, I didn’t have any plans. I just wanted to feel like I was making an impact on the world and I feel like I am.

BS: What one piece of advice would you give to a recent college graduate?

EB: I feel like I’m lucky to have found what I want to do in life that also makes me happy. I’d recommend finding whatever that is for you and to consider paths that maybe aren’t as conventional. I’ve seen too many people take the safe route and do what their peers are doing, and one day they wake up realizing that their job isn’t fulfilling for them. If you have a vision for the career that will make you happy, go for it and work hard to get there. If you don’t yet know what will make you happy, take the time to understand what you really care about and find fulfilling. The saying is true: life is too short to waste your time doing something that you don’t love.

“I realized I wanted to be in customer success after I realized the impact customer success can have on relationships, both internally and externally. It’s interesting just how powerful relationships can be - it leads to customer expansion and transforms how a company views its customers,” said Jennifer Hogan Mahoney, Vice President of Customer Success at SmartBear.

Jennifer grew up in the tight-knit community of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. After graduating high school, Jennifer went to Assumption College and pursued a degree in communication and education.

“Halfway through college, I changed my direction and thought I wanted to be a teacher. Although I was uncertain where my life would lead me, upon graduation I decided to take a teaching opportunity. This was a great experience, but ultimately I realized I wanted to be in a traditional business environment.”

She moved on to start her career as a sales support person for a private healthcare system in Waltham. Moving on from sales support, she became an account manager at Tufts Healthplans where she first got to experience the impact of relationship management. Once she spent several years in the space, she decided to switch things up.

Ultimately her career in Customer Success truly started when she was recruited to Picis, a high acuity software used in operating rooms. She was their Client Service Director and the main relationship point of contact for the customer.

She went from managing a single software platform at a 600 person start-up vendor to managing multiple platforms and technologies across an 80K person corporation when the company was acquired by Optum. Jennifer’s role expanded into managing larger customers at an executive level. She learned how customer success can benefit an organization by allowing for expansion and growth opportunities.

“I managed the Boston market. I love Boston so it was great because I spent a lot of time in the city working at a lot of hospital systems such as Partners, Boston Medical Center, Hallmark Health, Stewart, Cape Cod Healthcare—all the major health systems. Additionally, I was also part of the pilot program evangelizing one point of contact for the customer, across all products and technologies. This gave me an incredible amount of insight into the importance of continuity for the customer, and continues to drive my strategy today.”

Again, Jennifer’s role expanded when Optum divested their clinical applications to Harris Computer, a Canadian company owned by Constellation Software. Looking to put various healthcare companies together with a set strategy, they asked Jennifer to develop a customer success platform and program that was built with scale in mind.

“I started with the Picis business unit and rolled out a customer success platform that included customer success managers that were located in North America and Europe. I managed the strategy from net promoter program to leads, sales pipeline, and managing customer relationships. Once I had the program solidified for Picis as part of Harris, that program was presented to more of Harris’ businesses as a proven method not only to retain but also to improve customer adoption.”

After almost three years with Harris, Jennifer joined SmartBear, where she is currently the Vice President of Customer Success.

“I took the opportunity to come into SmartBear and develop the customer success organization, which is growing in scale and scope internationally. After just under a year, we have global customer programs in support of our strong customer-first strategy.”

“Our customer success teams engage with every functional area of the company. They are the champions of the customer internally, working with support, product management, leadership, and development. We’re able to operate with a feedback loop, being the voice of the customer for feature requests, product enhancements, and overall customer requirements. We also work with sales and marketing, having developed strong relationships with our customers to showcase our product portfolio and support the brand.”

Jennifer is known for having mantras that she instills in her team, a few favorites are “bad news doesn’t get better with time,” “come with solutions not problems,” and “do something amazing.”

SmartBear is currently 375 employees and growing. They have a fast-paced collaborative culture and seven offices worldwide. Their global HQ is located in Somerville at Assembly Row with beautiful views of the river.

Rapid Fire Questions

BS: How do you manage stress?

JHM: I have an acoustic mix on Spotify that I listen to. When facing a stressful situation, I put my headphones on, take a step back before addressing the situation at hand.

BS: How many cups of coffee do you drink a day?

JHM: I do a double shot of espresso and that’s it!

BS: What do you like to do in your free time?

JHM: Spend time with my two boys. As you can imagine they have very busy schedules with school, sports, and friends; so if we have any free time I just like to snuggle and watch a movie or take a walk around the pond.

BS: Where is your favorite spot in Boston?

JHM: Anything Back Bay, sign me up! From the architecture to the local coffee shops, even just a stroll by the river is enjoyable.

BS: If you had to choose one thing, what would you say is your greatest accomplishment?

JHM: My greatest accomplishment is being a mom! I am lucky to have two amazing boys and a supportive husband who enables me to balance it all.

BS: Ten years ago, is this where you would have seen yourself?

JHM: Surprisingly, yes. Ten years ago I was well into my career in Customer Success and had the vision of running the team.

BS: What one piece of advice would you give to a recent college graduate?

JHM: Stay focused, keep an open mind and take all opportunities that come your way.

Brianne Shelley is a Contributor to VentureFizz and an Account Representative at BlueGrace Logistics. Follow Brianne on Twitter: @MuddleandMix.

Images courtesy of SmartBear.

“I was an officer in the Israeli Defense Forces for four years and at the age of 19 commanded a team of twenty people who worked 24/7 to provide support for various operations. This was the beginning of my career because it opened my eyes to many possible career opportunities when my military service ended,” Emmy Linder the Global Head of Operations and Chief of Staff at Cybereason explained.

During her adolescence, Emmy routinely split her time between Israel and the United States, due to her father’s job. Years later upon graduating from high school, she was recruited by the Israeli Defense Ministry into Unit 8200, the elite intelligence group within the Israeli Defense Forces. This is the norm in Israel as every Israeli from the age of 18 is required to serve a minimum three (men) or two (women) consecutive years in the Israeli army. The best of the best end up in Unit 8200. Throughout its history, the Israeli army has stood for many things that translate to the business world, including its commitment to resourcefulness, diversity and technological innovation.

After four successful years of military service, Emmy decided she wanted to pursue a career in the field of software and technology. To further her education, Emmy attended IDC Herzliya, an Israeli university that emphasizes initiative, leadership and community service and received a bachelor’s degree in computer science, attributes that would help Emmy in her professional career.

“After fulfilling my military service and receiving my computer science bachelor’s degree, I embarked on my professional career and worked in product management roles at several tech companies in Israel, including Optibase and 888.com. My third stint was with a company Verint where I learned a lot about the operational side of businesses. It was the experience I gained at Verint that led me to apply to business school at MIT’s Sloan School of Management.”

Upon being accepted at MIT, Emmy packed her bags and moved to Boston. “I wanted to go to Sloan because it marries my two passions: technology and business.” At business school, Emmy focused on entrepreneurship and consulting. She was interested in gaining diverse experience outside of product management and working at a consulting firm.

After getting her Masters of Business Administration at MIT, Emmy accepted a job at Boston Consulting Group. “I worked at BCG for over five years. It was an amazing company and a really great place to gain firsthand experience with the day-to-day business challenges routinely facing companies. I learned how to solve complicated problems by working across many departments in the company to find the best solution available and making it stick by working with the people who have to touch it, implement it, and bring it through to all levels of the organization. It’s not the easiest thing, as you might imagine. This learning and training were second nature to me due to the extensive, hands on, military training I had received,” she said.

As Emmy climbed the ranks at BCG, she felt like she could continue to grow and learn but something was missing. She dreamed of finding the right technology company to work for and she would eventually be introduced to Lior Div, Cybereason’s Co-Founder and CEO. She would be offered a job at the fast-growing cybersecurity company.

“For me, there were many different factors that affected my decision—the market, the people, the product, the huge opportunity and the stage of growth that the company was at. I was also excited by the pace by which the company operated and the potential I could have helping to grow the business.”  

Cybereason is the leader in endpoint protection, offering endpoint detection and response, next-generation antivirus, managed monitoring and IR services. It employs 300 talented people across the globe. Its headquarters are in Boston with offices in Tel Aviv, Tokyo, and London.

Emmy handles day-to-day business operations at Cybereason, making sure that everyone in the company is on the same page, no matter where they’re located or what department they’re in. In addition to overseeing operations, she also works with Div on strategic planning and implementation, where a lot of both short term and long term goals are created and mapped. “We are constantly evolving as a company. If we want to change our offering for a certain product or service, that touches every aspect of the business and the organization. We can pivot quickly to meet the needs of customers and the fast paced environment is like riding a rollercoaster because of the speed by which we move on a daily basis,” said Emmy.

Rapid Fire Questions

BS: How do you manage stress?

EL: Stress manages itself. Life is pretty stressful across the board. Normally, I don’t have time to properly manage stress, so I don’t worry about these things. I just go with the flow.

BS: How many cups of coffee do you drink a day?

EL: Two to three. Maybe four depending on the day and what’s happening. I should mention that I have three small children. I have a five-year-old girl, an almost three-year-old boy and a ten-month-old girl, so coffee helps.

BS: What do you like to do in your free time?

EL: Beyond the obvious, “What free time?” I love spending time with my kids. Getting them outside either at a park or on a hike is always fun. If I have the luxury of actual free time, I love to find a quiet corner and read.

BS: Where is your favorite spot in Boston?

EL: The different parks of Cambridge. Our kids love running around all of the parks and playgrounds in Cambridge, it’s an easy break from the day-to-day for me.

BS: If you had to choose one thing, what would you say is your greatest accomplishment?

EL: I have a lot of things that I’m very proud of. On the personal side, I’m proud of my kids. I am also very proud of what I have accomplished in my career. In the end, when I have a day that I feel like every part of my life is getting the right amount of time, attention, and achievement, that makes me feel great.

BS: Ten years ago, is this where you would have seen yourself?

EL: In broad strokes, sure. I knew that I wanted to go back into technology. I knew I wanted to have a leadership position at a company. I don’t know if I would have envisioned myself at such an entrepreneurial company, that interest was something that evolved as I got more and more involved in the startup scene here in Boston. Overall, my career has not been a huge departure from what I would have expected.

BS: What one piece of advice would you give to a recent college graduate?

EL: I know you might have a set plan in your head. I think a lot of people do. But you should jump on opportunities as they come, be open to things that will take you off of your path. When I was finishing up my bachelor’s and planning on going into a development role, I got an offer to be a product manager. It wasn’t the role I was looking for but I took it, and it set my path to be much more customer and business oriented.