The last two-plus years have been crazy. As a leader, it has been challenge after challenge after challenge. And it hasn’t let up in 2022! I have been in the clean tech space with Sunforge LLC for the last 7+ years and one thing I’ve learned is that it is really special to be able to succeed in the world of hardware. Especially these days with the supply chain and engineering challenges we have faced just keeping our products on the shelf. It has been TOUGH, and I’ve been feeling over the past year or so that I want to spread my wings and have a different kind of experience and a change of pace. Namely, I’ve been thinking about an experience at a larger company with a larger executive team and a different set of problems. As someone who values loyalty, I struggled with even talking about these feelings for a long time. I love Sunforge and really want to have a hand it its success going forward, but I finally decided that I needed to step back a bit from my roll as CEO there and take a leap in a different direction. Enter Animalz. Over the past couple months, I have had the privilege serving Animalz as a fractional COO. I can’t say enough about how much this has energized me. It’s a totally different industry (B2B SAAS Content Marketing) with a whole different set of challenges: bigger business, more personnel, new business model. But I’m having SO much fun with my executive team of Devin Bramhall, Tara McGeachey, and Cassandra Naji. Moreover, the rest of the Animalz family is amazing and creative and awesome. My new role has given me the chance to see if the management skills and leadership approach I have developed over the past 7 years at Sunforge can scale, and early returns seem good! I’ve been shy about talking about this new role publicly because I haven’t wanted to appear disloyal to Sunforge or as if I’m somehow splitting allegiances. But that’s not what this is. This is my career and my journey and I’m going to own it. And have fun with it. So I decided today to make it LinkedIn official and publicly embrace adding another hat to my collection as Fractional COO at Animalz.
I think that's awesome, and hey -- you still have fewer jobs than Elon Musk! :)
Both organizations are lucky to have you!
Congratulations on the new challenge, staying true to your principles, and in touch with your passions to ensure you are enjoying the journey.
So proud of the self-awareness, integrity, and intelligence you bring to everything you do. The team at Animalz is amazing, and I know they’re going to grow and thrive with someone as amazing as you on the team. Huzzah!! Also, this post is phenomenal…way to lead by example on the authenticity front!
Congratulations and good luck
We’re lucky to have you!
Ian Lavery
2y
Also, you take your employees out for oysters. How cool is that!?
Congratulations Jared! You are amazing and this sounds like such an awesome new opportunity for you and Animalz - Excelsior my friend!
Growth Advisor for executive leaders. Former CEO of Animalz (3x revenue growth in 2yrs to $11.5M) and Marketing leader in B2B (Help Scout, Cisco) Co-host: Don't Say Content.
2yJared, you have been a gamechanger for this team! I'm smiling in this picture because you, me, and Tara had just solved some pretty thorny problems and I felt better than I had in months. You and Kristen are introducing a new Craft legacy in Boston, and Animalz has benefitted immensely from your transformative contributions. Thank you (both) for supporting me, too. You've heard me repeat the phrase "it's not what you do it's how you do it" a lot lately, but I'd add that the WHO matters just as much. Whenever you and Kristen take over the world, which is just a matter of time, you know I'll be you most loyal subject 😎