The Drift Magnet - One Month In...

"I'm curious. Why did you choose to join Drift?" 

It's been a common question throughout my first month at Drift. Family members, friends, past/present/future co-workers have all asked different forms of the question above. As with any major life or career decision, there are many ingredients that create the recipe for "why," but some are larger than others. The largest ingredient for me in choosing to join this fast growing company can only be defined as the "Drift Magnet."

Andy Raskin recently tweeted "I mean this as the highest praise possible. Drift isn't a vendor. It's a reality tv show." The comment captured how Drift as a company has separated itself from traditional marketing playbooks. Zig when the world zags. Be different not for the sake of being different, but because it's what people are more interested in. Most importantly, it captures who we are at our core. We strive to be different. We are different. 

Boston has emerged as a technology super-hub. East of the valley, we rank #1 in the US when you consider the ingredients of salary, funding, growth, commutes, and cost of living according to Expert Market. There are some great places to work in this town. I feel very fortunate to have spent 3 years of my early career at Sophos where I learned how to be a professional salesperson, 10 years of my career at LogMeIn where I learned how to lead, and more than 2 years at CarGurus where I learned the pace of hypergrowth. Those three companies have helped shaped my experience in different, but necessary ways. In my mind, those 15 years were all spent preparing for a company like Drift. But I only recently began to understand why. 

Now, there are a number of primary factors to address when looking at an opportunity with a new company. There's the stuff you can see and measure. The stuff that fills your left brain with answers. Then there's the right brain stuff that fills you with creative excitement. And then, well, see below:

1. People: I believe the #1 reason for choosing to work somewhere are the people you're going to be surrounded by every day. The people who lead the company, the people who help the engine run, the customers who use your product and provide feedback, the builders, the artists, the sellers, the marketers, the operators, the coordinators. All of them. They all matter. They all impact how a company conducts its business. And there are hundreds of really good companies in Boston with incredibly good people. But how many are great? How many are truly elite? Not many. A handful, maybe. The collection of people we have at Drift - from employee number 1 through 220 through the people we are going to hire soon - is different. I view Drift as an old Greek, Roman, or Viking galley ship - lots of oars in the water and every single one of them is rowing in the same direction with a tremendous amount of repeatable force. It's unlike anything I've ever experienced. The people make this place go.
2. Product: There are so many cool technology products on the market. In the sales and marketing stack alone, we're approaching 7,000 different technologies. SEVEN THOUSAND! Holy schnikes. That's a lot of tech. So how do you find something that works - that actually makes a difference to the business buying it? Well, I'm a sales lead. I enjoy technologies that help buyers make informed decisions quickly. Simple concept, right? Drift actually eliminates friction in the buying process. Gets rid of it altogether. That is something I can get behind. The number of use cases we have where we've been able to transform previously stagnant lead & meeting conversion rates is infectious. We want to talk to everyone about it because it works. It really freaking works. Guess what our top lead source is at Drift? Yup - the Drift product itself.
3. Market: This is the first company I've been a part of that was focused on creating a space. Yes, we're disrupting traditional funnel technology, but we've created a space unto itself in conversational marketing. And there are other technologies looking to do the same, which speaks to the need our marketing and sales customers have to provide their buyers with relevant info as quickly as possible. Conversational marketing is new. It's the concept of giving our B to B customers the ability to meet their buyers where they are today. No more waiting for form fill responses, lead scoring, Salesforce routing logic, BDR/AE workflows, etc. There is simply too much time that passes by with traditional funnel processes. And with the amount of information buyers have access to online today, why would they wait for a traditional funnel process to take place? That's not what they experience in a B to C buying process anymore. Companies like Amazon, Zillow, OpenTable, Vroom, and Lyft have changed our expectations from the time we initiate to the time we expect product or service fulfillment. Well, these same B to C buyers are B to B buyers. And they want a better way to do it.

And then there's the intangible stuff. The soul of the company - how it "feels." That...that is where Drift is different. Ultimately, that's what sealed the deal for me. It's hard to explain, but here's my best attempt:

• The Magnet: Some companies call it "culture." But most cultures are manufactured inorganically. In many instances, they are what companies want to be - not what they are. They are aspirational in concept, but not in practice. Culture is overused and superficial. What I experienced before, during, and after joining Drift is different. There is a gravitational force that pulls you toward the business. It's a honeypot. Why? Because it's real. It's human. It's imperfect. It's openly striving to improve, learn, and develop. It's transparent - and not in the "we'll only be transparent when it's convenient for the executives" kind of way - but actually, truly, transparent. It's authentic. What Drift looks like on the outside - from our Hypergrowth events to the Seeking Wisdom podcast to the DG LinkedIn videos to the brand-centric belief in marketing - is exactly how it looks and feels inside. It's the very first job I've ever had where there were no major surprises after officially joining as an employee. Paraphrasing Coach Dennis Green from his famous podium rant with the Arizona Cardinals "They are who I thought they were..." The soul of the company is real. We have "Monday Metrics" to kick off the week and shake out the weekend's cobwebs. We have "Show and Tell" on Fridays to talk about all of the accomplishments from each function during the week. We recognize people for being awesome. We all sit together and don't care about titles or diplomas. We care about each other. We care about making each other better and learning from everyone. It's constant. It's amazing. It's different. In a month's time, I feel indoctrinated (stick tap to Eli Lederman for the terminology). The strength of The Drift Magnet is only growing. I've been pulled closer to the center of the force and couldn't feel better about it. 

The type of growth we're experiencing presents it's own challenges, but man. That's the fun stuff. That's why I want to be here. We get to fix stuff, break stuff, and fix it again. We get to innovate, expand, design, implement, and execute. We get to build. We get to create an enduring company that helps customers get better at what they do. We get to expand the magnetic field. 

To answer the question at the top, I joined Drift because I had to. The Magnet pulled me in.