What exactly is a technical alliance? Technology companies create alliance relationships to support product integration and to increase revenue by creating multiple avenues for selling a product. But as Brad Pinkston knows, alliance relationships between different companies can become quite complex.
This week in episode 305 we’re rejoined by Brad Pinkston to hear his story of pursuing a role at a startup while at the same time making the move from people manager to individual contributor. We’ll define go-to-market strategy and how that related to Brad’s role at the startup, discuss what happens when a new job turns out to be different than what we expected, highlight some thoughts on evaluating startups from a different lens before joining, and listen to Brad reflect on his experience interviewing for a second-line manager.
Original Recording Date: 11-21-2024
Topics – Brad Pinkston Returns, The Allure of Startup Life, Go-to-Market and an Expectations Mismatch, Technical Alliance Relationships, Returning to Individual Contributor, Managers and Interview Expertise, Running Away from Something
2:!7 – Brad Pinkston Returns
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We last spoke with Brad Pinkston back in 2020. What has he been up to since? You can find our previous discussions with Brad here:
* Episode 83 – The Path to People Management and Early Lessons Learned
* Episode 84 – Management Interviews and Transitions with Brad Pinkston
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Brad decided to leave a big company and try out life working for a startup while at the same time making a move from people manager to individual contributor. Eventually Brad transitioned out of startup life and has returned to a big company in a technical presales role.
3:21 – The Allure of Startup Life
* What attracted Brad to startup life, and what makes it alluring when you work for a big company?
* One reason to join a startup is the potential for a very large future payday from stocks.
* “Fundamentally what I really like to do is I like to build things from the ground up.” – Brad Pinkston
* Before moving to the startup, Brad was in a first line manager role at a big company. At the time, Brad did not feel he had the amount of control he would have liked over what he was building.
* Moving to the startup was a chance to go and build an organization. Brad’s role was going to be leading the relationship between his past company (the big company) and the new company (the startup). The startup planned to have an OEM relationship with the company he was leaving.
* More specifically, Brad was going to…
* Help the two companies work together
* Develop sales strategies
* Teach salespeople at the startup how to work with sellers at the former company
* Teach sellers at his former company about the startup’s new technology – something much more security and networking focused and out of the area of expertise of his former company
* Nick sees Brad’s move as an adjacency with some good relatable experience.
*Brad was a people manager who had built and led teams. He would be building an organizational structure in terms of processes and ways of working together. And he also knew the technology from his former employer. With solutions from the former company being integrated into the startup’s technology, Brad wasn’t starting from nothing. His base of knowledge was very relevant to what he would be doing...