Turning the Page
Five years ago Ben and I started Skyward, or at least, stumbled into starting something that would define our lives for the past half decade.
We never wanted to grow to become an agency relying on outsourcing & arbitrage while we sit there and take a big paycheck. Instead we said from the beginning we wanted to be the ones getting our hands dirty, to be making a difference in the actual products we were working on.
Our amazing clients recognized this and we quickly became their trusted source for strategy and feedback as they forged their companies. They trusted us to be real. To be brutally honest. And to hold them accountable.
The path wasn’t easy. There were times when we couldn't pay payroll, but ultimately we turned Skyward into something that we could stand behind and be proud of. Our client retention was possibly the best in the entire industry . Our revenues grow year over year. By the end we were generating close to 1Mil (ARR).
As the sun sets on Skyward, I find it both challenging and necessary to share our journey’s culmination. While today marks the end of this chapter, it also opens the door to reflection and gratitude.
The Journey & Acknowledgments:
I want to extend my deepest thanks to everyone who believed in us and all of our amazing clients. To Ben and Adim as Skyward partners. To some of our clients — Julia and Jenny at Grounded, Hillary at Summerbell, Wesley at After.com, Nere at Sanu, Dahlia at Poulin, Liia at CGRC, to Ben at Photofeeler just to name some. So many of them are doing amazing things to help people all over the world.
To the other people that truly helped along the way: including Trevor, our founding spark, Harrison for sales, Kaushik for pushing us, Andy, Julie, Keith, Dan and Fletcher for their mentorship and Adam and Amy for trusting me in the begining.
Lessons Learned
The decision to close Skyward was not made lightly. If I learned one lesson it’s that spending quality time with the people who matter to you, whether it’s your life partner or a co-founder, is the best way to ensure smooth working relationships. So much is lost in virtual communication.
While saying goodbye is always bittersweet, I’m proud of my own personal growth, full of gratitude for the people we’ve worked with, and really excited for the future. We created an Agency model that is repeatable, unique, and nimble. I’ve grown incredibly as a product designer, as a founder, in business strategy, and as a manager of people. I built value in dozens of verticals. I’ve successful managed the financials of a million dollar company.
Looking Ahead
In the coming few weeks I’ll likely be talking about my next moves on here. If you have connections for me, people who need high level UI/UX work send them my way. Or perhaps you know somebody that just need me to step in and make something shiny. I look forward to staying connected and sharing my journey with you all. Follow along at alex-mark.com
Thanks to all,
Alex
APAC Alliance Manager (ANZ) @GitLab - "GitLab is The DevOps platform" - Deliver software faster with better security and collaboration in a single platform.
10moGitLab is highly aligned to AWS premier partners! An opportunity to work together again! Congratulations on the role!