Milestones

Last Friday, Via—the company where Drew and I met before founding Intelligems—went public on the New York Stock Exchange. 

It was a milestone that caused a reunion of sorts (lots of text messages and, for me, FOMO seeing old colleagues taking pictures on Wall St) and a bit of romanticism about the journey. For a week or so, I’ve been thinking about it, about the pride I feel in having played a role in it, the friends I made there, and … how, come Monday morning, everyone who works at Via still had to get up and go to work. 

In every type of business, we end up chasing some form of milestone. 

In recent years at Via, it was chasing that IPO. But early on at Intelligems, it was the idea of our first X number of customers, raising our Series A, hitting a particular revenue milestone. Nowhere near close to the scale of an IPO, for sure, but the magnitude of each of those early milestones for us felt bigger. For some of our e-commerce customers, it’s the idea of becoming a nine-figure brand.

And, in those moments, there’s a feeling of accomplishment. It’s important to feel that and celebrate that and recognize the work that went into that.

But then what? The work continues. 

This past week has given me an opportunity to reflect on what made the whole thing feel so inspiring, and it’s that these milestones (be it an IPO or something else) are sort of like a feedback loop for the work that you want to be doing: If you get to one, it usually means you get to continue doing the thing you want to be doing. Others believe in it enough that they want to be part of it and support you in doing it. That could be an investment, that could be employees. The resourcing means you have the option of continuing. That’s validating!

Still, the goals and milestones in-and-of themselves can’t be the goal, I feel, or you’ll end up disappointed. Having raised funding and hit various revenue targets, I know there are no magic moments but instead months of build up, anticipation, and hard work. Then, the milestone passes and you’re doing it all over again.

So it’s important to find a moment in there to celebrate, pause, and reflect, because there’s going to be yet another milestone to work towards.

There’s a potentially interesting analogy to “Ringing the Bell” and winning the Superbowl. Sure, there’s a party, confetti, a celebration. And it’s a tremendous accomplishment, for sure!

Having never taken a company public myself (or having won the Superbowl), I’m projecting, but I imagine that the euphoria of the celebration fades and now there are new goals, targets, another “season” to play. That milestone becomes something you think less and less about.

Which I think is why I felt a sense of romanticism over the last week, too.

At Intelligems, I’ve celebrated the milestones, sure, but it’s also about the people and the work. It’s helping brands improve their profitability by giving them the tools they need to make better marketing and merchandising decisions. 

The coolest thing, I think, is that, to date, a lot of people have wanted to work on this with Drew and me (including some people we worked with at Via!). Having that shared experience makes the harder work a little easier and the celebratory milestones more enjoyable, but we’re here more for the days where nothing “big” happens, because the big stuff is happening those days, too; we’re building toward the mission.

And it’s those moments, as much as the milestones, that I feel sticking with me. Because the milestones weren’t the goal to begin with.