God’s Perfect Timing

In March 2022, I decided to return to my favorite festival of all time, SXSW in Austin, TX. I attended my first SXSW in 2012 and it was life changing. As a dreamer, innovator, and entrepreneur, SXSW combines all of my passions into a tangible experience. I could hear about the latest innovations, see the outcomes of dreams becoming realities, and think creatively about solutions to different problems. This time around was even more special because both of my best friends were coming with me. My friend Linh’s birthday was happening during the same week we were in Austin so I tried to make the whole week special. We went to a lot of events that I normally wouldn’t go to simply because I wanted them to get the full SXSW experience and not miss out on a thing. 

One of these events happened to be a small intimate happy hour that was hosted by a venture capitalist. When I get to the event, I notice my long time friend Ofo Ezeugwu, the founder of WhoseYourLandlord (WYL), at the back of the venue. I go over to say hi and he seems super amped. “I actually have been wanting to talk to you about something!” he says. We end up talking for quite a bit as he runs through some research initiatives his company was working on. I give him some feedback, which he seems to appreciate a lot. At the end of our conversation, he asked me if I’d be interested in consulting for WYL. I love the concept for WYL so it was a no brainer for me to say yes but I expected it to be some kind of uncompensated advisor role. 

The following week, Ofo extended a proposal for me to join WYL as a market research contractor. The proposal was honestly 4x higher than what market rate was for a market research contractor. Personally, I would have consulted for WYL for free because Ofo was a good friend and I see the value in what WYL was trying to build. However, I was deeply appreciative of Ofo being incredibly fair to offer me a contracting position that paid me higher than market rate since I did bring a lot of other skill sets and experience. I felt grateful that he thought so highly of my background.

Around the same time that I took on this contract role at WYL, things at PopCom started to become extremely unstable. The company was having issues with fundraising and generating consistent revenue. We had a lot of sales but being in the hardware space meant we needed a lot of capital to execute on the contracts and deliverables. Without a lot of cash on hand to pay for machine deliveries and operations, things became really chaotic. It didn’t help that we had a dual-side business across multiple fronts. We were selling both hardware and software. We were selling to both retail locations and CPGs. It became exhausting and overwhelming to try to manage all of the different logistics and business development. In hindsight, I think we had an amazing business but we didn’t have the people to support what the business needed. At some point PopCom was unable to make payroll so the contract role with WYL was essentially covering my living expenses. I was amazed by how good God is. He knew months before the payroll disruption that I would need a new income source and set up the WYL role to cover my basic needs. 

By October 2022, things at PopCom had become dire. It was clear that I needed to resign from the company. However, I didn’t have the guts to do it. I didn’t want to resign because I really loved what we were building and loved my team. I felt like resigning would be letting everyone down. Fortunately, the decision was made for me. Early November, HR let me know that I was being let go. The ship was clearly sinking and I would have stayed aboard and drowned with it if it was up to me so I was grateful that someone stepped in and made the decision for me. 

Later that week, I let Ofo know that I had more time on my hands now if he wanted me to work more hours. His response surprised me: he informed me that he would like to make me an offer to join WYL as a full-time employee. I was speechless. I didn’t even consider that WYL was interested in having me join full-time. It made sense given that the company needed a sales and business dev person but for some reason, I never even considered they’d want me to fill that role since I was currently serving in a researcher capacity. I had always considered that if things didn’t work out at PopCom, I’d go back to the corporate world and join a big tech company. As I looked around the job market, it seemed like every big tech company in November 2022 were doing layoffs. I heard from several highly qualified friends that had been searching for jobs that they had applied to 50-100 jobs but nothing seemed to work out. They were still unemployed. I felt so fortunate and grateful that God had somehow worked this out so I would have a new job without having to search for it.

While I consider the WYL job a huge blessing for me personally, I also think I was the exact right person that the company needed at that time. The role was for Business Development but my experience as a researcher was actually what the company really needed. Unbeknownst to all of us, WYL would get an opportunity to meet with the federal and state agencies to discuss creating a standardized scoring system for the housing industry and I happened to be highly qualified to design a research study to support the work needed to prove it out. My experience building Voice of Customer surveys and standards helped me guide the company in that direction, which has helped it grow tremendously over this last year. It was like I was exactly where I needed to be at that moment.

As I look back on this time, I am reminded that God’s ways are not our ways. His timing is always perfect and He sees things that I don’t see. He knew long before I knew it that I was meant to go to SXSW to reconnect with Ofo and start that contracting role. He also knew that the contracting role would become a full time role. He has provided for me in every season of my life, and has sustained me in ways I never expected. I have no doubt that He has a plan for my life and all He requires of me is to have faith and be obedient. 

Today, I am in a season of my life in which I’m wondering what’s next. I feel like I’ve outgrown the startup ecosystem and want to find a new opportunity in the corporate world where things are much more stable, much less volatile. Unlike the previous times in which opportunities found me and jobs just fell in my lap, I don’t have any indication of where I should go from here. I have no idea what’s coming next. And I think in this season of unknowns and uncertainty  is where God can do His best work. He will get ALL of  the glory because I literally have no plans and no sense of direction. My day consists of me praying 5-10 times a day begging God for direction and to make the next move. Whatever happens next in my career you will know that it is God and not me because I have no plans at all. Let it be God’s will, not mine. I am fully expecting Him to do what only He can do. I look forward to you all reading my next blog about the next chapter in my career, which is how God placed me in my Dream Job.