My First Taste of Startup Life
When I graduated with my MBA in 2007, I landed in sales in a pharmaceutical startup. During my time there, I wore multiple hats, developed high-level marketing strategies, and reported directly to the owner/entrepreneur. I helped grow that company to over $100 MM in annual revenue and gained confidence in my ability to run my own business.
Although I didn’t know what that business would be, I was determined to find out.
While I enjoyed success in my pharmaceutical career, it never felt like my forever path. I vividly remember attending an industry conference with a fancy, seated dinner. As a highly-influential, Fortune 100, C-suite, female executive took the stage, I wondered why I had no desire to follow in her footsteps. I realized climbing the ladder in that industry would not feed my soul. Still, since my salary was well above where I ever imagined it would be in my 20’s, I stuck it out, telling myself that fulfilling work would emerge later in my career.