Content MarketingEcommerce and RetailSocial Media & Influencer Marketing

I’m Leaving A Great Job and Heading To A Content Management SaaS Platform, Compendium

Marketing and e-Commerce for RestaurantsThe last year I spent with Patronpath has been an incredible roller coaster ride. The company is in a tremendous growth spurt and is hugely successful!

  1. We won the Techpoint Mira award.
  2. We completed the development of 4 POS integrations – Micros, POSitouch, Comtrex, and Aloha.
  3. We redeveloped the user interface to maximize conversions for our clients. We added redundancy and security features to the application.
  4. We even threw in a Restaurant Location site for our multi-unit chains.

Friday was my last day at Patronpath. It was tough to leave a company that I poured my heart and soul into has the financial backing of some of the most successful Internet companies in Indianapolis.

On Leaving Patronpath

I don’t doubt that I left the company in great shape. My only concern is whether or not the investors are okay with the move. A key reason why I went to Patronpath was to get to know their investment team – composed of some of the finest Internet entrepreneurs in the region. The last thing I wanted to do was leave them after so much success. I’ll continue to advise and assist Patronpath whenever they need, to ensure my departure doesn’t impact their success.

The growth and results were the highlights at Patronpath. I had an opportunity to work with some incredible people. We worked some miracles over the last year with little resources. I’m proud of what we’ve achieved.

Working with World Class People

For the last 6 months or so, I had the pleasure of working with Marty Bird – someone I had known from my early days at ExactTarget but never had the chance to work with directly. Marty is an incredible marketer with a knack for building world-class marketing programs from scratch.

Marty walked into Patronpath to assume a fledgling national email program just signed for a multi-billion dollar corporation. Within two days, he assumed the project. Within a couple of weeks, he built a program and process around the project. Now, the program continues to grow and blossom under his leadership. What a great guy! Little known fact: Marty is also a master mechanic with a passion for the Audi TT.

The rest of the team was great as well. Mark Gallo and Chad Hankinson were awesome to work with professionally and personally. They’re both great Christians that helped counsel me through some challenges. I’m indebted to both. They also have an Account Management team who are tenacious fighters dedicated to helping their clients succeed. I got to work with Tammy Heath for most of the year and she was amazing, juggling dozens of clients every hour and still able to produce.

On the tough side this year was the demands of the job and how it pulled my full attention. This blog suffered as did the attention I was able to provide some of my pet projects. Being on call pulled me away from regional networking events, too. The rare times that I did show up, folks were in shock!

The drive from the North side of Indy was something I cherished at first, but as gas prices skyrocketed and my daughter needed me home more, a couple of hours a day on the road started to hurt. I’m thankful for my son – while juggling a full load at IUPUI and tutoring privately and in the Math Assistance Center, he still found time to take Katie to and from events and get her fed. I’m thankful for my incredible kids!

Heading to Compendium Blogware

So… when Chris Baggott called from Compendium and said there might be an opportunity to work with them, I was ecstatic! Compendium started with Chris and I working on weekends back in 2006.

I stayed with ExactTarget, and Ali Sales came on board. Ali’s leadership with Chris’ passion have skyrocketed the company into an incredible Corporate Blogging platform. I’ve maintained a close relationship with the company over the last year and evangelized the platform. We just brought on law firm Bose McKinney about a month ago and they’ve already said they’re reporting great Search Engine leads!

white blogware logo150

On Monday, I assume duties as Vice President of Blogging Evangelism at Compendium. I’ll be reporting to Ali and assisting all of our teams and clients to educate, evangelize, automate, integrate, etc. My job is to assist in getting clients up quickly and helping them to fully leverage the platform to maximize its impact throughout their marketing efforts. That’s a tough position to turn down given my work the last few years. I’ll also be working down on the Circle in Indy again, so I’m sure I’ll run into many old colleagues!

It all started with Pat Coyle and me reading Naked Conversations a few years ago is pretty amazing.

Douglas Karr

Douglas Karr is CMO of OpenINSIGHTS and the founder of the Martech Zone. Douglas has helped dozens of successful MarTech startups, has assisted in the due diligence of over $5 bil in Martech acquisitions and investments, and continues to assist companies in implementing and automating their sales and marketing strategies. Douglas is an internationally recognized digital transformation and MarTech expert and speaker. Douglas is also a published author of a Dummie's guide and a business leadership book.

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