Five years.
Five years may not seem very long to folks who make their career in higher ed — but for a serial technology startup guy like me — five years represents a lifetime. Over this timeframe, I’ve been absurdly lucky to lead Pathify’s Revenue Team, encompassing our Sales, Marketing and Customer Success teams.
The irony? I felt absolutely certain I didn’t want to work at Pathify.
Let’s take a trip down memory lane — I first met Chase Williams, Pathify’s intrepid CEO and Co-founder, in the early winter of 2017. A mutual friend (Seth Goldstein, Pathify Account Manager, former Mayor of Denver… and now the Prefeito of Lisbon) arranged a dinner, thinking I might impart some level of mentorship to the young entrepreneur. Dinner turned out fantastic, and we hit it off immediately. Yet despite my deep admiration for Chase as a startup CEO, I felt far less impressed with the business he was building. I’ll never forget walking out of the restaurant, looking at my wife and saying, “Great guy, terrible business… dude needs to come up with a better idea.”
Shows you what I know.
Chase and I saw each other socially from time to time and ended up randomly bumping into each other a few years later. At the time, I had spent about six months in a consulting phase, helping tech startups with go-to-market strategy and management coaching. Chase and I met for a beer (which quickly turned into several) and he shared his plans for fundraising, scaling the team and his plans to step back from juggling sales, marketing, customer success, finance and solutions on his own.
“Well,” I thought. “Easy money.” Consulting with Pathify proved easy — my experience aligned perfectly with the early stages of scaling the business. But getting paid? That was a different story. The relationship came naturally. The compensation? Not so much.
At the time, Chase (and the other Pathify executives — James McCubbin, Co-founder and Chris Hagan, CTO) fought each week to keep the lights on. Pathify carried seven customers, about 13 employees and a constant battle to make payroll. Paying me barely cracked the top 20 on their priority list.
Yet somehow, Chase leveraged the same charisma, charm and intelligence that won over those first seven customers to convince me to work for him — essentially for free. Looking back, I’m still amazed a kid from Melbourne convinced a career negotiator to take on what became, essentially, a volunteer gig.
And I’m so happy he did.
Throughout my career I’ve used consulting as a reverse interview process… kicking the tires on startups to identify if I’d want to work there full-time. As months passed and I got deeper into Pathify, several things impressed me about the business — and one major thing repelled me. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t shake my bias against selling to higher ed. Across the thousands of deals my teams closed over the years, maybe 3 or 4 involved higher ed — and every single one turned into a nightmare. Decision by committee… no budget… unclear project priorities… lack of urgency. Selling to people focused on making money often proves easier than selling to those focused on increasing students’ capacity to learn. So I kept telling myself — I might help Pathify… but I’ll never work there.
Three things changed my mind.
First, I started spending time with Pathify’s customers — and people like Joe Mancini at Montgomery County Community College (MC3) impressed me beyond belief. The amount of care, compassion and dedication people like Joe put into their partnership with Pathify surpassed anything I’d ever witnessed. I’ve worked for companies where customers hated us… so the fact Joe got up on stage at EDUCAUSE and sang Pathify’s praises to the world left me completely floored.
Check in the yes column.
Second, I conducted an exhaustive analysis of Pathify’s competitive landscape and quickly realized — I’d never seen a weaker group of competitors. These companies’ websites look and feel like they came straight from 2001, their customers openly despise them and their apps look like the fingerpaintings my 18-month-old daughter brings home from school. In other words, the bar was — and still is — super low.
Check in the yes column.
Finally, I spent time with Pathify’s Board of Directors and investors. As a startup guy, I’m well-versed in the venture capital and private equity networks spanning from San Francisco to New York to Boston. What stood out about Pathify’s Board (outside of their funny Aussie accents)… they’re people I’d genuinely enjoy having dinner with. They’re the individuals who provide the agency, latitude and freedom to do what I do best — find, win and renew revenue.
Check in the yes column.
Over the past five years, we’ve grown from supporting 7 schools to partnering with nearly 250. We’ve increased revenue by 4,300%, and for the past two years, we’ve proudly earned the distinction of the fastest growing higher ed tech SaaS company — in the world. We finished 2024 12% ahead of our revenue target and slightly below our budget spend goal. We also completed a successful $25M fundraising round with the incredible team at Five Elms Capital, throwing gas on the growth fire. It’s important to add this minority round ensures Chase, James, Chris and I continue driving the mission, partnership and relationship our customers deserve.
I’m endlessly grateful Chase convinced me to join Pathify. I’m beyond excited we’ve reached the end of the beginning, and stand poised to take the business from great to incredible. I’m continually inspired by people like Joe Mancini (MC3), Rene Eborn (Utah State University), Loren Malm (Ball State University) and the customers found across the pages of this magazine edition who constantly engage and challenge Pathify with curiosity and boldness.
Every day, I’m honored to work with some of the most amazing people in the world. Thank you for making this the best job I’ll ever have.
To the next five years.
