By many accounts, 2013 was a disaster for Microsoft. Here’s what you can expect to see in 2014.
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But the “no sales people” mantra isn’t what I’m here to take on. It’s the second belief system that is even more engrained and even more wrong. Many young startups are being advised not to have a professional services business and in my opinion this is a big mistake.
“One of the Biggest Mistakes Enterprise Startups Make” by Mark Suster.
When I first joined Microsoft ten years ago and started to build software in the Office group, I spent some time learning about how we actually sold the software to enterprise customers. I setup some coffees with “Field Sales Managers”, “Technical Account Managers”, and even got to listen in on a few sales calls with big enterprise customers.
My eyes couldn’t have been opened wider; the complexity of sales channels, SKU’s, and VAR’s made me quickly realize and appreciate the importance of a dedicated sales group. At the same time, I was concerned by how far removed I was as engineer from the actual customer – how do you balance out the complexity of selling to various, complex customers while not slowing down development?
Thankfully Office has a long history of rich and consistent interactions with its big customers. One of my favorite activities was participating in an internal conference each year where some of our biggest enterprise customers came to Microsoft campus for a few days. It was part networking event and part product demo fair, with the goal of getting critical feedback from our customers about what we were building in Office while we were still coding. It was incredibly helpful as an engineer to learn about the unique technology challenges they faced inside their companies (i.e. amazingly complex deployment topologies, geopolitical issues that dictated purchasing policy, governmental regulations, etc.).
I learned quickly that building and selling products to enterprise customers was complex, but more importantly that the best enterprise products are developed via great relationships between the product team and the individuals that will use it.
MiAffron v2.0 – my Microsoft goodbye email
This was the goodbye email I shared inside the company in October 2013.
I’ve never been shy when it comes to sharing and talking about the passions in my life that bring me happiness. Oversharing does have its benefits, right? Each day it’s easy for all my friends to see crucial updates about our life: the different places our cats like to nap, that I am still the mayor of my own house, or that I successfully made another paleo frittata for my wife and I. 😉
Aside from keeping track of the various food and feline details in my life, the moments that I’ve captured, blogged, tweeted, instagramed, or posted over the last nine years at Microsoft make a few things abundantly clear: I’ve loved every minute of my job, my life here in Seattle, and the amazing relationships I’ve made with so many of you. It’s often hard to tell where the professional and personal parts of my days separate; work is not quite “work” when you’ve been fortunate to enjoy it as much I have.
This makes change even harder, especially when you are leaving a company that you love and saying goodbye to those colleagues who have become your best friends and family.
So, after some intense personal soul-searching, talking with my wife Amy, and the consumption of approximately 1.75 liters of single-malt scotch, I have decided to begin a new chapter in my life and career and will be leaving Microsoft to join an early-stage startup in New York City. My last day at Microsoft will be Friday, October 18th.
As some of you know, almost all of my family is in New York and we have always been extremely close (think the family in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”, only the Italian version). When the opportunity came up to work in a space I’m passionate about, help start a company, and most importantly be closer to our family, Amy and I decided it was the right thing for us (and the cats) to take the plunge and move to NYC.
I cannot write or say enough to fully share my gratitude for the wonderful achievements, challenges, mentoring, friendships, and fun I’ve experienced with you all over the last nine years. I have grown so much, as a professional and as a person, because of the fortunate opportunity I’ve had to work with all of you.
Please keep in touch, and if you’re ever in NYC let me know and I’ll take you by my family’s store for a sandwich.
You can find me on all the various internets via my site, www.michaelaffronti.com. My personal email is m@michaelaffronti.com.
Thank you, friends, for everything.
-m
#neato 