I annoyed my leadership team, got fired, then started my business
I annoyed my leadership team, got fired, then started my business
Wes Bush, the founder of ProductLed.com shares how losing his job at Vidyard opened the door for him to start a business and eventually become one of the leading voices in PLG.
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Getting fired might be the best career move Wes Bush ever made.
It wasn’t obvious at the time. And it didn’t feel good in the moment.. But in retrospect, it is definitely the case.
Wes described what happened in a LinkedIn post:
I got fired for challenging my leadership team’s approach. I was fresh out of college. I was eager and constantly questioning the status quo … And my creativity and questioning didn’t mesh well with a more experienced team.
Wes elaborated on the situation during our conversation.
The company — Vidyard — had just received a big round of funding, and was betting on a sales-led playbook to double year-over-year revenue. Wes had other ideas — other product-led ideas. He saw the huge potential upside to improving the onboarding experience. His instincts were right, but he lacked the experience (and communication skills) to make a persuasive business case to their execs.
In the end, Vidyard let the sales-led playbook drive the product roadmap, and let Wes go.
“Initially it sucked,” Wes shared. “It was a close team, so I definitely felt a little bit hurt. And it also wasn’t obvious what the next step was.”
Wes was out of a job, upset, confused, and feeling like a failure. But that didn’t last long. Getting fired pushed him to start his own business. Wes is now the founder and CEO of productled.com, and has become one of the world’s leading experts on product-led growth.
Wes echoed this in our conversation, “I’m so glad I got fired because it wasn’t the right environment. I thrive in a much different environment, and now I can craft that for myself.”
In addition to this story, Wes also talked about:
How he prepares for difficult conversations like firing a client or giving tough feedback to a team member
His approach to balancing building and running a business with extensive travel
The journaling strategy that helps him deal with anxiety
Watch or listen below 👇
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