Indent Corporation, exactly the company I expected
On January 1, 2023, I got the offer from Indent Corporation, the company behind VREVIEW, a video review marketing solution.
I'd be leaving useB, where I'd grown a lot as a marketer, and from mid-January I'd get to keep taking on challenges in a new environment.
While preparing for the move, the things I was hoping for from Indent did of course include "better benefits and pay," but what felt far bigger was being able to take on dense, focused challenges in an environment with role models.
As recently as last year, I never imagined I'd end up working at the same place as Jinwoo Kim, the CRO, and Yedam Lee, whom I'd known through the B2B marketing community B2B Hustle, which made the move all the more meaningful. I figured that being able to choose, to some extent, who you work with if you put in the effort is one of the perks unique to startups.
Indent, which I joined in mid-January, was exactly the company I expected.
It was growing even faster than I expected, and I started spending days that were dizzyingly busy.
And I came to feel that my job was to accelerate this company's growth.
In an inbound sales system, the marketer is the point guard
Maybe it was because I watched Slam Dunk in January, but I started feeling sure about an idea I'd had for a while: "a marketer is like a point guard."
On the growth team I belong to, results differ dramatically depending on how smoothly marketing, where the first point of contact with a customer happens, carries and passes the ball (the potential customer).
What was truly lucky was that at Indent, marketing and sales sit on one team, and the salespeople are capable enough to create opportunities and deliver results on their own.
If creating good leads, qualifying them and handing them over closes contracts with a high probability, that means I really just need to do marketing well.
So I needed a way of working that would save the sales team's time.
As Mark Roberge of HubSpot describes in The Sales Acceleration Formula, I decided to build a marketing plan that optimizes how salespeople use their time.
If the term for that, "inbound sales," becomes a reality, VREVIEW and Indent could grow even faster.
My goal for the first half of the year is to build out an inbound sales system, and if that succeeds, I expect tremendous growth as a B2B marketer as well.
January's goal: onboard faster than anyone
With my strong appetite for results and growth, I didn't want to spend January as just an adjustment period.
My goal in changing jobs was to walk in with a deep enough understanding of the product and the market to be put to work right away.
I think I got about halfway there, thanks to researching and asking a lot beyond just interview prep. I owe it to a kind colleague, Yedam.
On top of that, Indent generously has the PMs of each product run onboarding meetings for new hires in the first week. Clearing up the questions I'd been carrying in those meetings helped a lot in understanding where each product currently stood.
Lastly, when I joined, Indent was about to raise its Series A, so through a town hall meeting I got to reconfirm what role each product plays under the vision Indent Corporation is pursuing as a company.
All in all, I think I joined at a good time. February gave me the momentum to run even faster.
A January made richer by great benefits
Indent offered the widest range of benefits of any startup I'd seen. Unlimited remote work and vacation, meal and transportation stipends, even yoga and English lessons.
The lunch and dinner stipend in particular meant I could stop thinking about living expenses altogether, which was great. I realized that having one less thing to think about every day makes a big difference.
The yoga class with instructor Yeo Dong-gu makes me look forward to Mondays and Wednesdays. Sure, there are painful, miserable moments, but my arms and legs feel so light after class. Being able to get a little better every day seems to be good for my mental health too.
A great start!
Leaving behind a hectic but fun January, I have to get back to running hard from February. I've met great teammates and a great environment, so now I need to be someone who can keep up with them.
The people from my book club and study group, and my family and friends, all cheered on my new start, which made me even happier.
It was a January full of gratitude and joy.
People I'm grateful to
- The growth team, for the warm welcome and for helping me settle in quickly
- The Indenters who helped so much not just with onboarding but with the work itself
- Everyone who congratulated me on the new job and shared both the ending and the beginning with me
