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Talent Overview
Jaclyn Curtis: Results-driven executive with diverse experience in online businesses.
- Background - COO and CEO at Republix, Zopto, and bant.io. B.A. in Communication and Political Science from Michigan State University.
- Experience - 14+ years in strategic leadership, operational management, and client success. Led remote teams of 50+ across marketing agencies and SaaS companies.
- Personality - Adaptable, bias for action, comfortable with ambiguity. Strong operations and process improvement focus.
- Other - Member of Chief, a network for women executives. Experience in scaling startups and managing P&L.
Flags
🟢 Extensive experience in online business leadership and remote team management.
Over 6 years of C-level experience in SaaS and marketing agency environments, with a proven track record of scaling businesses.
🟡 Currently holds multiple executive positions.
Serves as CEO of Zopto and bant.io, and COO for a division of Republix, which may indicate divided attention or commitment.
🔴 Self-described struggle with managing B players.
Admits difficulty in effectively managing and motivating team members who are not top performers, which could be a challenge in scaling organizations.
Recommendation
✅ Advance Jaclyn to a long interview.
Good communication skills. Says she excels at managing high performers but candidly admits struggling with B-players. Likely a good fit for Ellen's team.
Chiefly Recommendation
Jaclyn Curtis is a great fit:
- Helped rapidly scale two companies profitably (at the same time)
- SaaS - zero to $3.7 million ARR in <3 years
- Agency - $100k ARR to $2.5-3 million ARR in ~4 years.
- Grew with both (B2B marketing agency & SaaS) from client success role to CEO (2018-2022)
- Hands-on experience: client success, operations, finance, international team management
- Bootstrapped background - knows lean, efficient growth
Highlights:
- Operational - from daily processes to strategic planning
- Built and managed international teams effectively (US and Romania)
- SaaS growth - client success, product development, marketing automation
- Adapted to multiple roles: Client Success Manager, COO, CEO
Client Success Manager at Bant (2018-2019):
- Joined a small startup (100k ARR) and grew accounts from 15-20 to 110-120 in a year
- Implemented processes and documentation from scratch
"I started to help build the foundation for basically the whole organization at that point, because in order to really like onboard new team members successfully, we had to have the proper documentation, which there was none." [02:00]
Transition to Operations (2019-2020):
- Took on operational responsibilities due to rapid growth
- Implemented key tools like Slack and Monday.com to improve communication and project management
"I felt I wasn't able to do my job within client success if the rest of the company didn't have that foundation." [03:36]
COO at Bant/Zopto (2020-2021):
- Oversaw rapid growth, especially for Zopto (LinkedIn automation tool)
- Managed lean team (55 members) across two fast-growing companies
"We really experienced hockey stick growth throughout that time. So it was a really exciting time within the business, and we were just really firing on all cylinders." [06:00]
CEO of Bant/Zopto (2022):
- Took over after acquisition by Republics
- Faced challenges integrating with parent company and market downturn
"I was really core to scaling the company and setting the company up for scale. As the founders kind of right hand, but at that point, he took a step back in terms of his involvement in the business." [06:09]
Current Role (COO of division at Republics):
- Managing multiple businesses within SaaS and SMB division
- Dealing with financial pressures from parent company
"We've made every change we could have possibly to maintain and grow the profitability at which we're at. But there is really like no license at this point to be able to use our profits to reinvest, and we're kind of like at a standstill." [1:01:17]
Future Aspirations:
- Prefers COO role supporting a visionary leader
- Interested in SaaS or tech-enabled companies
"I really find myself like preferring being on the back end, you know, like supporting a leader... I feel like that is just like not just what I'm interested in, but what I'm really, really great at." [1:04:00]
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100 Day Plan - Document
View in new tabStrengths and Weaknesses (00:00:27 - 05:15)
- Handling both high-level and detailed initiatives
- "I think he would probably say my biggest strength is being able to oscillate between high level initiatives and low level slash in the weeds initiatives." [00:01:03]
Financial Management (17:37 - 23:20)
- Recognizes areas for improvement in financial reporting and forecasting
- "I've come a long way in terms of my understanding of financial reporting and P&Ls and stuff like that, that are more sophisticated. But I would say it's still not like my strong suit per se." [18:59]
Proactivity & Innovation Example (29:34 - 37:49)
- Took initiative in product development
- "I built out an AI roadmap. We were able to implement ChatGPT into Zopto within a couple of days of the API being public." [24:06]
Hiring and Team Management (43:07 - 54:36)
- Experience in hiring and managing teams
- "We put together performance improvement plans. So we do put them on a PIP. We work with them throughout that PIP." [50:07]
Final Thoughts and Next Steps (1:18:17 - 1:25:08)
- Transparency around current employment situation
- "He is aware that I am looking. It might be a little bit of an awkward conversation, but we've been working on a transition plan." [1:21:24]
Skills
Business Strategy
What is your mental model/framework for business?
I think this depends on what is happening at the company. My preference is to be able to plan ahead and establish a workback based on the milestones we are looking to achieve. I think using a GANTT workback naturally helps prioritize based on dependencies of each task to achieve said milestone.
If things are more dynamic, and we don't have the benefit of planning and preparation, I like to do a prioritization matrix based on impact and effort. Things with high impact, low effort can be considered a "quick win" and I would prioritize those first, for example.
