Onwards!

Last week I closed a big chapter of my life. Leaving ThriveHive wasn’t easy; looking back, this journey is filled with memories of success and struggle that have deeply marked my professional career. I feel happy about what I helped build and confident in the lasting future of a company that will continue to help business owners for years to come. At the same time, I’m sad to part ways with a team of passionate people that I have truly enjoyed working with. 

More than eight years ago, we started off as an unproven startup, navigating the ups and downs of the early stage rollercoaster. With that it became clear that the glamorous founder stories that you read about were nothing but a mirage - building a company is hard (recommended reading: The hard thing about hard things) and in my opinion only possible when you're surrounded by the right people.

For us, that started with an amazing lineup of early stage investors and advisors who backed us and helped us along the way; thanks to each and everyone of you for believing in us and in our mission. And a special thank you to our board members Sundar S, Madhav A, Carl H and John K, for setting us on the right track early on and for your continued support over the years.

As ThriveHive continued to grow, it didn't take long for one of the lines from an angel investor to become my mantra:

"It's all about people"

Arthur Epstein had it right when he told us to focus on the team and on the customers, everything else follows.

Talking about people. I was lucky to have my partner Adam B next to me every step of the way, helping design and execute our strategy, from fundraising to go-to-market and beyond. He's one of the smartest people I have ever worked with and I don't think ThriveHive would exist without him, but more importantly he was there to pick me up every time I was down and for that I will be forever grateful. Right next to us were our other two co-founders Nic M and Bryan P who were the engine of our product and development team. The two combined have a superhuman ability to iterate, build and problem solve that is just amazing, they kept blowing my mind time and time again with what they produced. Both have become good friends and I owe them a big thank you for making this dream possible.

I would be remiss without thanking the rest of the team, from early folks like Maria B, Chris W, Jason D, Pratik S, Erik H, David M, Ransom C, Susan L, Nick B and Sara G to those that joined later in engineering, product, data science, systems, sales, marketing, success and IT as well as all the students that worked with us through special projects, classes or internships. Also, thank you to Pat M and Harley B from Cooley and to Karl B who were always there to help. And finally, a big thank you to Raffaele C for his unwavering friendship and support.

Through persistence or stubbornness, we held on through the years, making progress in the sometimes elusive SMB market. We kept improving our products, helping more customers and growing the team. What was once a small startup, became a group of more than twenty passionate people aligned behind a single purpose: "To help small business owners realize their dreams”. In 2015, we were accepted into Techstars and with Semyon’s mentorship and surrounded by other awesome founders we changed the trajectory of our company. That was the boost that propelled us into the acquisition of our company by UpCurve, Inc. which led to yet another stage of our company’s history.

For the last three years we’ve built ThriveHive inside a much larger organization. We have achieved many milestones that in the past seemed unimaginable and we have greatly expanded our footprint across the United States. Throughout these years I got to wear many hats, including product, engineering, systems and M&A. In 2017 I was on the other side of the table, leading the acquisition of Closely, which allowed us to expand our product suite and to bring a super talented team onboard. All of this has been a tremendous growth experience as I’ve seen our company morph and reimagine itself multiple times coming out stronger with each iteration. At the same time, we've continued to attract great people to our team, which is now in the hundreds and together we have achieved more than I ever dreamt of.

Now, it’s time to move on. Building ThriveHive has been truly rewarding and the lessons from that journey will be the foundation upon which I build my next venture; always focused on people and looking to have a positive impact in the world.

I feel proud for all the thousands of business owners we've helped but more than anything I am proud for the hundreds of jobs we've created and the careers we've launched. I wish everyone at ThriveHive continued growth and success!

Finally, I want to take this opportunity to say THANK YOU to Einat R, who fills my life with positive energy and is the best partner in the world. You've been there alongside from day one, thank you for being the biggest supporter of all of my crazy ideas!

Stay tuned for what comes next.

Onwards!

Max