My time at CoachUp has come to an end
Almost a year ago, I announced the start of my tenure at CoachUp and my departure from Eaton Vance. Today, I am announcing that my tenure at CoachUp is over. If you don’t know the story by now, CoachUp laid off 50% of the company at the end of January.
I was one of the casualties.
(I built something in the last two weeks, click here to skip to that section)
Yesterday, I read my original CoachUp announcement. I was really excited about the team, culture, and technology at CoachUp—and CoachUp didn’t disappoint. My time there was amazing! I learned from some of the smartest people in the Boston startup community and had a great time while doing it. It was sad for that to end. I’m really going to miss everyone at CoachUp and I’m not sure if I’ll ever have as much fun in my career again.
To the other 15 people who were let go, don’t forget that this is only a bump in the road. During times like these, I like to take solace in my favorite story—The Taoist Farmer.
And, to all the folks who are still at CoachUp, I hope to see you all again soon. People often think it’s only tough for the people let go, but they don’t consider survivor’s guilt. Layoffs take a toll on everyone involved – even the people who keep their jobs.
What’s next for me?
I’m still not sure what’s next. I’m in a period of reflection. I’m still processing what happened and I’m exploring new opportunities.
Since the layoffs, I talked to a lot of people and I talked to a lot of companies. I’m learning something new about myself with each conversation.
I’m treating looking for my next opportunity as a full time job. I wake up early each morning and I have a task list. I have meetings with potential employers. I work on improving my Computer Science fundamentals. I work on side projects.
If you’re looking for a software engineer, we should talk – rcavezza[at]gmail.com
Talented people are looking for work
If you’re in the Boston Startup Community, you should know there are a lot of talented folks from CoachUp looking for work.
If you’re looking for a sports-focused content creator, a marketing analytics pro, a video producer, or a software developer, these people are available.
One person is trying to learn how to code. Another is trying to break into the college athletics industry.
There’s an Android developer. There’s a few Ruby developers. There’s a really talented creative director.
If you think any of these people can help your company, let me know and I’ll connect you. Send me an email – rcavezza[at]gmail.com
Since I got laid off, I built something
I fell in love with sales in 2016 – specifically, top of funnel sales. Prospecting and making first contact with potential customers is exciting to me (Okay, I know—that sounds really boring as I read it back to myself, but it’s true!).
While exploring, I found that there’s an interesting tradeoff that sales organizations make with their sales development representatives (SDRs). If you take the time to highly personalize a cold email, you will see a 350% higher response rate. However, due to the time it takes to personalize those emails, SDRs send less emails per day. Companies are trading the cost of personalizing an email for the increased revenue of higher response rates.
I don’t think companies need to make this tradeoff. I built an application that automatically personalizes cold emails with the touch of a button.
Check out the demo.
I’m currently alpha testing this with a few very friendly customers and friends. If you’re interested in joining our waiting list, you can join the waitlist here.