To all of Crystal’s customers, users, and supporters,
I am thrilled to share that last week, we appointed Greg Skloot as our CEO. During his tenure as our President & COO, Greg has led Crystal’s transition from a small, lean startup into rapid growth, more than doubling the company’s revenue since starting.
I will be continuing in my full-time Founder role at the company, focused on our core technology and product innovations. After 6+ years in a business leadership role, I’m excited to refocus and dive back into the creative and technical side of our business.
Why did we make this change?
Crystal is deeply rooted in DISC theory, which clearly explains behavioral differences between people and allows us to build a self-aware, self-correcting, and self-scaling culture. One major part of this culture is being fully truthful and forthcoming about individual strengths, weaknesses, motivations, and desires.
Our leadership team is no exception to this way of thinking. We are ruthlessly honest with each other about our own flaws, and we do our best to highlight each other’s talents. Sometimes, one person may be energized and passionate about a particular task, while that very same task might be stressful, draining, and difficult for another.
For the task of leading our company to the next level of scale Greg is the much better fit to be CEO. His personality, skills, and track record all indicate that he should be in the captain’s chair in the scaling stage, while I am far better suited for the startup stage.
Here’s what Crystal has to say about us…
As an Architect (Dc), Greg provides the focus, organization, and attention to detail that a company needs as it grows from 20 to 200 employees. This is a tough, complex process that is difficult to get right, and we need an intensely disciplined, execution-minded leader to steer the ship.
My Initiator (Id) personality type makes me wired for disruption. I’m a non-linear thinker with a high tolerance for ambiguity, risk, and change. This makes me strong in the first 3 years of a startup, when speed, agility, and creativity are the only things that matter. However, at later stages those strengths can become blind spots; the company needs more process, steadiness, and predictability as it grows.
How will this impact our customers?
We value transparency, so we wanted to share this change and the reasoning behind it with our customers, supporters, and broader community. Our product, sales, marketing, customer success, and engineering teams are all full steam ahead expanding our capabilities and serving Crystal users.
What's Next?
Hawaii, baby!!!
Just kidding. Though it is tempting.
In all seriousness, Greg has made an enormous impact on Crystal since he took his leadership position, and I have full confidence that he’s going to succeed in this new role and take us to new heights. Our roadmap is ambitious, and we have some potentially game-changing innovations coming down the pipeline.
As for me, I will likely have some more flexibility in my schedule for new conversations, so please feel free to reach me at [email protected] if you have ideas, feedback, or any other insights for us.
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