As our growth continued, there came a real plot twist. Just when the equity fund was preparing to sell us further, they acquired our number one competitor. With that, a lot of senior leadership changes happened and for me, it turned into an unexpected opportunity.
Out of everyone, I was chosen to fly to India and spend a few days with my former CEO, now CPO, to understand their product and development processes. I still remembered how disappointed I was when I wasn’t included in earlier acquisitions. This time, I was right in the middle of something big.
It was also the first time I got the chance to really spend time with a senior leader like the CPO. And you know what struck me? That he was human too. Jetlagged, tired, yet still pushing through a packed day. For me, it was an important lesson: leaders don’t need to be perfect, they just need to show up.
The India office itself was massive compared to ours with hundreds of engineers, while we were maybe 20 at best. What stood out to me most were the cultural differences. Seniority played a big role, and I could sense that some of them were just as nervous as I was, doing their best to make things look perfect. In those two days, we went through a full product demo, a roadmap walkthrough and saw how they applied Agile at a scale far beyond what we were used to.
When I returned home, my challenge wasn’t over. I was asked to write an Executive Summary. It was the first time I even heard that term. Honestly, it sounded intimidating, especially since it was a direct request from my boss’s boss. I kept thinking: “They invested in me, sent me to India, and now I’ll blow it because I don’t know how to do this.”
I asked my manager if he’d ever written one before. The answer: no. There was no one to guide me. No ChatGPT back then either. So I did the only thing I could: I Googled, found a Word template and started writing. I treated it like a story, almost like a novel, going through my notes carefully. After a few iterations with my boss’s boss, it finally came together.
Looking back, that trip to India and that first Executive Summary taught me something important: don’t let fear of the unknown stop you. No one has all the answers. Sometimes you just need to start, even if you feel unprepared, and figure it out along the way. That’s where growth really happens.