Episode 4 Jake Thompson | SimpleNexus
Listen to Episode 4. Jake joined SimpleNexus as employee number 9 and when they were working basically out of a closet.
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-early-years/id1514713085?i=1000477553257
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4R3WgKT3UlXp4vjJgN4qtQ?si=R9YRwcEsTAOaB2kM7gm_8g
Jake Thompson is one of the earliest employees at SimpleNexus, a growing tech company based in Utah. Jake joined as employee number 9 and, how their president put it, when the company was essentially working out of a closet.
Interview transcription:
Jake Thompson:
For the first, like, probably five months, I was still a student. Um, I remember actually stepping out of classes to take sales calls. There's this one specific bench outside the Econ building at BYU that I remember stepping out of my class. Cause I saw a call coming in from the president of this bank and going to sit on this bench and take a call for 15, 20 minutes to hash out pricing. If you went and told these conservative banks in Iowa and Nebraska and whatever, that I, that they were being sold software by a student that was like 21 or whatever at the time, uh, I don't know how they'd feel about it.
Braydon Anderson:
This is the early years, a show about influential early employees at the most successful companies and their stories that have made a lasting impact. I'm Braydon Anderson and on today's show how our guests took a job with a company that has taken the mortgage industry by storm. But when he joined, there were essentially working out of a closet if you've ever applied for mortgage and you know, how complex and exhaustive the entire process can be. There are countless documents required and keeping them all organized and accounted for as a pain, SimpleNexus, a software that maintains everything you need for your mortgage application in one place, primarily selling to banks and credit unions. They are helping make complex mortgage process simple. Today we're joined by Jake Thompson, one of the earliest employees at SimpleNexus, Jake joined as employee number nine and how their president put it when the company was essentially working out of a closet, Jake was introduced to SimpleNexus by a friend and took a position knowing he wasn't going to get paid, but wanting to gain some real business experience during college. He viewed this as a learning opportunity.
Jake Thompson:
Yeah, so I joined SimpleNexus, uh, beginning of 2016. Uh, back when I started, I was the ninth employee. Um, so it was super small operation. It was just kinda starting to hit that, um, upward trajectory of like super fast growth. Um, so I heard of SimpleNexus from a friend of mine at BYU who, uh, had done an on campus internship with them. And then he had really liked the founders or like the product. And he ended up sticking around, uh, as a part time job while he was still in school. And so, uh, at the time I was a student as well. And my schedule that I only had classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. And my idea was that I could get a job that wasn't a call dinner. Wasn't at fast food anymore. I could get a real, a real job. And so I started talking to him about coming in and so originally they didn't have any, any money to, to pay me. They didn't have a spot for me, but my friend was like, Oh, he doesn't care. He'll just come in a couple of days a week and help out as an internship. And they were like, all right, well, if he doesn't mind not getting paid. And so that's how I got my foot in the door and I'd come a couple of times a week for, for a few months before the summer when I came on full time.
Braydon Anderson:
So you take this essentially an internship then, like, why were you so willing to work for free at a company that had so few employees and you didn't know what was going to happen?
Jake Thompson:
Yeah, yeah, it was crazy. And honestly it was really just getting some professional experience in my mind, uh, working at a it's, especially like I've always known that startups and tack were, were super exciting. And so where I could see myself in my career. So being able to get my foot in the door and get, uh, any experience, maybe meet some cool folks, maybe it will turn into something you never know, uh, was worth it for me. Um, and I honestly, I treated it as part of my education. So I, like I said, it was only doing school two days a week. Um, there were two very full days a week, but a few days a week. So the other, the other three, I could put some time into, uh, developing professionally. So that's really how I started started. And honestly, I was, I just didn't want to work and call centers or anything like that anymore. Do they get into a professional environment? Yeah.
Braydon Anderson:
So what did they have you started doing in this internship?
Jake Thompson:
Yeah, and so it was one of those things where it was super unstructured. I came in and it was, it was help out wherever it was needed. We all were tons of hats at the, at the early days. And so it would be chipping in to help support team when they needed help. It would be doing research projects to see what industry groups would be worth joining and putting investment in. And one day, uh, it was sitting next to our president who told me, Hey, I'm, I'm double booked for meetings right now. And I need you to hop on and demo our product to this, this user who's thinking about buying it. And I was like, uh, you know, Ben, like, I really don't think I, no, what I'm doing enough for that. He's like, well, it's fine. If you run into anything, just put it on mute, ask me, and then not get back to him. And if you blow it up, it's not the end of the world. It's just a single user deal. All right, man. Sounds good. No kidding. Yeah. That's how it started. So let me get this right. So Ben is doing a lot of cells and he's just double booked. And so he says, Hey, go jump on this call. Yeah, Ben, our president, he seriously, it was like, Hey, I'm going to set it up here. I'll be doing my call over here. You do your call there. And literally just mute it and ask me if you run into anything or tell him to follow up or something. I was like, all right, man. Like a, I don't know if this is the right thing, but Hey, I'll, I'll jump in with both feet.
Braydon Anderson:
And had you done sales prior to this, or was this your first exposure?
Jake Thompson:
First exposure to B2B sales for sure. Uh, closest thing. I mean, doing sales, I worked at a call center and DirecTV would, uh, do a little upselling there. Um, I've been doing some sales my whole life back when I was a kid, I owned a lawn maintenance company and I was always trying to sell my services, get some commercial contracts paid away, but it was definitely my first real sale. Yeah.
Braydon Anderson:
And how did it go? Did you close the deal?
Jake Thompson:
Mmm, probably not. It's like, I always tell people this when, when we've had new hires or, um, anything, if, if you're in an opportunity where you can get in there and blow stuff up and it's kind of be the end of the world, it's, it's a single user deal or whatever it might be. Uh, that's a great way to learn. And so that's exactly what I did learn is, you know, you blow up a couple of accounts and it is what it is.
Braydon Anderson:
But, and that was your path to sales and I'm sure it was a great learning experience in that process.
Jake Thompson:
It was, it was. And so I still wasn't a full sales at that point. I didn't have anyone that was a full time full, solely focused on sales. Um, but yep. I was doing some sales at that point. I was trying to do some upsell campaigns internally. Um, in fact this one time, my, uh, my good buddy who got me the role in the first place and I, we were trying to do an upsell campaign and we had a list of customers that we had about 1500 emails or something like that, that were people that were paying for a platform. They were on the maximum plan. They were, they were, they were, uh, yeah, paying for them like a smaller feature set. And so we, um, wrote some emails and we were super nervous. We didn't, you know, it hadn't done anything like this before. So we got a bunch of our email lists together. We didn't have, uh, we were using sales forces, like essentially package at the time, which didn't have any automated email stuff. We were, I think we had survey or a MailChimp or something that we didn't know how to use. And so we figured out you could do this in Google. And so we were, we were trying to figure out and Google, and I just remember that our first email campaign, we totally messed up a, uh, like a placeholder and it literally sent out, hi, first name, 2000 people. And we were like, Oh man, it was, it was so embarrassing. And then we were like, it's okay. We set up a quick follow up email that was like, Hey, sorry about that. Like everything's being responded to. And we actually had great open rates and response rates, but it was super funny.
Braydon Anderson:
So the mistake turned out to be a good revenue producing opportunity.
Jake Thompson:
Yeah. We made the most of it and at the very least it turned into a good story.
Braydon Anderson:
Yeah. That's awesome. I love it. Um, well tell me a little bit more what it was like in the early days, um, uh, of this company, you know, they've grown quite a bit over the last five to 10 years. So tell me a little bit more about what it was like working in the early days there.
Jake Thompson:
Yeah. The early days were crazy. I remember we used to take Uber's around to client meetings, even our own city, uh, because I was a college student with a beater car, the president and CEO, and loved their cars either. And so even if the meeting was just a few blocks away, we would take an Uber to not show off our beater cars, uh, but rolling with some style. And so I remember this one time we took one, it must've been like three or four blocks. Well, we didn't have enough time walk. And our Uber driver was super confused why he was driving us like 300 feet or something. It, uh, we thought it would be better to leave a good impression that way. It's what you gotta do.
Braydon Anderson:
I like it. Um, and then I understand that you actually left the company for a few months. What was that about?
Jake Thompson:
Yes, I did. So in those early days it was super fun and I still was looking at it as a college job and, and really looking to get, you know, early professional experience that was going to help make me qualified for a real career in, you know, a bigger company or, um, or in management consulting or investment banking, something like that. And so I did, I left for the summer to take an internship in Chicago. So I went and I did my consulting thing for a few months. And while I left, I came back and they had moved offices from that small office up on the Hill that we had jam packed with probably 20, 25 guys to a bigger real tech space in a Thanksgiving point with more like 40 to 50 employees. And I remember I walked in, I was on great terms. I was, I told them, I'd be leaving for a few months. Then we could see where things were going when I came back. And when I came back sure enough, it was, I mean, I remember the first time I walked in, I saw all the people, all these folks, I didn't know these big vaulted ceilings and glass office space. And I was like, man, this is, this is a real company right here. And, um, yeah, sure enough. They had, at that point over the summer while I was gone, started up the sales team. And so when I came back, they told me they'd love to have me on the sales team, or I could look at an entry role in marketing or a few other things. And I decided that sales was the best fit for my passion and what I care about and what I was looking to do. And so even that, when I took that first job, I still was not totally sure if I was going to go back to consulting if I was going to do something else. And ultimately after trying it for a few months as a student, uh, decided that, you know, a tech startup was the best place for me to start my career, really get awesome experience, get, um, be able to have real impact and the skills that I actually care about rather than, you know, my PowerPoint decks or doing some other entry level stuff.
Braydon Anderson:
Interesting. So, yeah, I love that answer. And like, I'm just curious, like you have this great opportunity to do management consulting it's everyone's dream, right. Or it appears to be everyone's dream. Like, why do you leave that for this? You know, I guess how big was the company that point it had? Was it still 10 individuals or how big was it when you came back?
Jake Thompson:
Um, so I think when I came back, we were like 40, 45 and over the three or four months before I graduated, uh, we were probably like 55 or so it was, it was growing at such a rapid pace. Um, so, so
Braydon Anderson:
From the time that you left a grew 30 to 40 individuals or four X, just in that short time period.
Jake Thompson:
Yeah, it was, was crazy. It probably doubled while I was gone over the summer. And then during the, the, uh, from when I came back, like say September 1st or so through the end of the year, we, we probably added another, you know, went from 40 to 60 people. So it was, it was growing at such a rapid pace that, that really sucked me in. I was like, man, this is somewhere that I could really have an impact and, and get in early enough to where I could really grow my, um, my, uh, skills and my influence better than, than just being another cog in a giant machine. You know, there's a lot of great things to be said about starting your career and consulting work or anywhere else that has a very defined track. But I honestly just didn't think that that was, for me, I've always been more focused on startups and entrepreneurship.
Braydon Anderson:
Yeah. And why sales, you decided to go back to cells? Um, what, what really led to that decision?
Jake Thompson:
Yeah, sales man. It's in my blood. Like I, my, my dad started his career in tech sales. Um, I've just, it's always been somewhere where I feel like you can control your own destiny and be good part of your success. I've learned that there are a lot of amazing things and, and a lot of struggles that salespeople share then, and that's just how it goes and that's great. But, uh, sales was definitely somewhere where I felt like I could gain the skills I needed that are gonna be, you know, vastly important throughout my career negotiating, um, have being driven to, to bring business in the door and, and, uh, meet with people face to face, all that kind of stuff.
Braydon Anderson:
Yeah. So when you come back, so are you still in school when you do sales?
Jake Thompson:
Yeah. That's a great question. And honestly, it's crazy. And some of these companies, like if you went and told these conservative banks in Iowa and Nebraska and whatever, that I, that they were being sold software by a student that was like 21 or whatever at the time, uh, I don't know how they'd feel about it, but I'm sure they're happy now cause they, they love in our software. But yeah, I, I was, so those first, like probably five months I was still a student. Um, I remember actually stepping out of classes to take sales calls and I would try to schedule all my demos on, on those days when I didn't have classes. And it was crazy. I don't think many people are working deals that are, you know, $25,000 to 50,000 monthly recurring revenue or annual recurring revenue, excuse me, as a student. So it was an awesome experience.
Braydon Anderson:
So wait, so did I hear that right? You're leaving your class to go negotiate sales deals.
Jake Thompson:
Yeah. Yeah. I remember there's this one specific bench outside the econ building at BYU that I remember stepping out of my class. Cause I saw a call coming in from the president of this bank and going to sit on this bench and take a call for 15, 20 minutes to hash out pricing. And I still, I remember him because I still owned that account for years and they still use our software. And so it's, it's super funny to think about that. I absolutely was stepping out of class to talk to this guy that, you know, try to convince him why he should trust us with, you know, 30, $40,000 every year and sign a multiyear agreement with us. Um, so wow. That's, it's crazy to think about now.
Braydon Anderson:
That's nuts. Um, you gotta love the hustle. Uh, did these people know, like you kind of alluded to this, but they do they know that, you know, the person that was selling to them was this young kid or did they, was that an issue?
Jake Thompson:
Uh, I don't know if I'd say it was an issue, but it's definitely something that, uh, would come up, especially. I mean, mortgage industry, it's a little stodgy, it's a little old school for the most part. Um, and so I definitely would get questions about, you know, so how long you've been in the industry or, or what was your experience like before SimpleNexus and really, it was so important for me and I, I had an early, uh, boss and mentor who really pounded in that, you know, the first thing a prospect evaluates is their salesperson and they evaluate the company. Then they evaluate your product. So you gotta be super strong and sell yourself as a, a resource and an expert, even if, you know, you're, you're young, you don't have a ton of experience, whatever it might be. And so he helped me hone in my story on my value. And that was, you know, Hey, I might sound like I'm 15 or whatever on this phone call, but I was the ninth employee at this company. I've trained people on our software. I've helped them implementation. I've helped with, you know, customer success. Like I I'm an expert on what we do. And so I absolutely have value even though I'm, you know, this young kid who's, doesn't have a college degree yet.
Braydon Anderson:
So do you feel like that affected the outcome of your deals? Like you're, you're this young kid essentially I'm working on these really big, important sales deals. Mmm. Do you feel like you lost deals at times, or were you able to convince these people that you we're valuable enough to their organization and what you were selling was valuable enough to their organization?
Jake Thompson:
Yeah, I think it, it did not hurt me. And honestly, the great thing about our industry is we're primarily selling to salespeople, selling the mortgage people who were selling mortgages, you know? And so at their heart, I think they all love the hustle. And so being like, Oh yeah, I'm the young guy or whatever, but one I'm willing to bring in experts. If we've got our organization is chock full of experts. I'll bring people in. If we need someone to talk the talk on, you know, mortgage compliance or whatever it might be. But to selling it as like, look like I'm, I'm going to do whatever it takes to make sure you have a good experience. And then I care about you and, and I'm an expert, um, that I think people really liked that. And um, if I lost any deals because of my inexperience, it was because I wasn't a very good salesman yet. It wasn't because I, uh, and I hadn't learned enough yet. It wasn't because, you know, they, they judged me poorly.
Braydon Anderson:
Gotcha. Uh, so you're going to school and, you know, in sales, there's typically a lot of travel. Um, how did you manage that during your school years?
Jake Thompson:
Yeah, it was, um, pretty crazy, cause I, I did go to a couple of conferences while I was still in school. Uh, we were smaller, so we weren't getting as much in, you know, in person sales as we, as we do today. Um, but yeah, I remember our first conference, um, Mar our, my president of the company told me that he needed someone to come with him next week to this conference in Vegas. And I was like, man, I am here for it. Like, let's, let's go, you know, get it. And I was always willing to hustle and make it work. And I, I think I rescheduled a task or something at school. And I went out to Vegas with them and it was crazy because we had scheduled, well, this conference where at least me to go to this conference only a week in advance. And so the hotel was completely booked up and I was like, man, I could stay at a different place, but I'm going to be my first conference trying to figure out like Uber is getting across, you know, the city and all this crazy stuff. And he's like, Oh no, just come on. We'll, I'll make sure they get me double Queens and stay in my room. So we did, we shared a room at our first conference. I was my first time jumping in.
Braydon Anderson:
How was that? Was that awkward? Like, you know, I know it's a small company, but it's still the president of the company.
Jake Thompson:
Yeah, no, I wasn't. Uh, it was, well, it was a little different than anything I had done before, but he's an awesome guy. We got along great. Uh, we had a good time and, and it was nothing but nonstop learning for me, especially I learned that traveling for work is, uh, not always fun. You know, you're going to Vegas for work. You're thinking you'll, you'll have some fun, but it's conference time from 7:00 AM to after parties and everything at 11:00 PM midnight. And it's a lot of fun, but it is, it takes a lot out of you. So we'd go back to the car or back to the hotel room and, and crash, get up and do it again. So, uh, no, not, not weird, just a little different than anything I had done.
Braydon Anderson:
Yeah. So speaking of speaking at conferences, you told me a story once about you having to fly out last minute to San Antonio for a conference. What was that about?
Jake Thompson:
Yeah, this was, this was crazy, but I, um, in my, you know, one thing about being on a small team is you gotta be nimble. You gotta be ready to jump in with both feet and, and drink from the fire hydrant. And so one time our, our chief revenue officer called me into his office and he said, Jake, uh, what are you doing tomorrow? And I was like, well, I've got, you know, a demo and I've got some calls scheduled wherever he's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, gotta move all that. I'm like, okay. He's like, cause I completely forgot about a speaking engagement that I'm supposed to have at a credit union conference in San Antonio. So I've knocked me able to make it, so you gotta go for me, Jake. And I was like, all right, man, like I, this is crazy. I'll do it. And so it really was like, I sat down, I thought the rest of the day, working on my slides and working with him to get everything they needed my bio. And I'm like, I don't have a bio. I don't have headshots. Like I figured it all out. Um, give sense of my LinkedIn picture or whatever. And the next day I got on a plane that very same night to fly out to San Antonio. My flight was delayed. So I landed at like one o'clock in the morning. I forgot my belt at home. So I had to go to Walmart, buy a belt. Like I was speaking at this conference at nine 30 in the morning and I got there and it was, it was like me, our biggest competitor, a bunch of industry veterans. I'm like, all right, like I'm just gonna do it and do my best. And I'm sure enough, as soon as I got up there, um, I like gave my presentation. I sat on a panel with all these guys that had 15, 20 years of experience in the industry and, uh, it went great. It was, you don't get that kind of experience at, uh, many companies, you know, postgrad within a year or so graduated.
Braydon Anderson:
And I'm curious, you know, being such a small company, you have a lot of exposure to, again, the president and probably the founders in a lot of these other individuals. Um, how have those relationships developed and has that been valuable for you?
Jake Thompson:
Yeah, absolutely. And honestly, that was one of the biggest reasons for me to come to SimpleNexus to begin my, my post-graduation career versus going to, you know, a bigger tech company. And we're going into consulting was the really being able to sit down with people that they're doing exactly what I want to do with my career later. Like I would love to run a company. I want to be in a position to, uh, to be an entrepreneur and have the impact like they do. Um, and so being able to, you know, even to this day, text them on their cell, call them up, go to their houses, full pool for a pool party or whatever it might be and just be completely candid about, you know, uh, what I, what I need and what I'm looking to add to my skill set, what I should be doing. It has been totally invaluable. And it's something that I think is, um, sometimes undervalued by, by folks that are coming out of college that want to, you know, get into, uh, some high powered career. Is that when you started a small company, it may not have the same name recognition, but your impact can be huge. And your influence on your, your, the amount you're able to learn from experts or Mmm. Or mentors is, is really immense. And so that was, that's something that I highly valued to this day.
Braydon Anderson:
Yeah. So tell me a little bit about where SimpleNexus is now and what you're doing as SimpleNexus now.
Jake Thompson:
Yeah. So we're about 130 employees now or so, um, my role has grown. So when I, when I first started sales, I was taken West of the Mississippi. We had, we had two sales reps, uh, once or East one West, a our VP and our one BDR. And so I really started with the small companies. I w if it was a big demo, I would make sure to have a VP on with me or something like that, or the president or somebody. And then it's just one of those things where you keep getting more specialized. I did some, some market sales in the last year and a half. I've been focused on enterprise. So companies of all sizes and up to some of the biggest banks and, and different things that you would, you would know. Um, but yeah, I cover, I'm a territory sales rep, so I cover Pacific Northwest the Rocky mountains, but in the Midwest. And it's a lot of, uh, traditionally outside of, you know, crazy COVID-19 times, a lot of in person meetings, a lot of conferences, um, doing whatever it takes to get these deals start to finish.
Braydon Anderson:
What has SimpleNexus done right early on?
Jake Thompson:
Yeah, that's a great question. Um, there's so many things that, that really, I mean, are going to take a company from 10 employees to 130 and growing out, growing tremendously. I'd say the company has focused really, uh, itself on the customers our CEO loves to say that we love our customer, not our product. And it's not to say that we don't love our product and what it does, but it's not. The goal is not to build the best product. The goal is to solve the problem for the customer and the product is how we do that. So it's really focused on, you know, not being the shiniest object that, or the company that invests the most in, in marketing to try to get people, and then we'll figure out the product later, but it's always been do it right.
Jake Thompson:
Do what our people care about and be authentic? And that's something that I personally really believe in it. And it's one of those things where I talked to folks that maybe aren't in sales that have told me, you know, like, Oh, I don't think I could do sales. Something like cold calling people all day, or try to convince people to do something I don't want to all day. It would be terrible. And I'm always like, you know, I agree, man. Like if I was selling something that I didn't believe in, like trying to trick people all day, that sounds like hell. So we able to be in it somewhere where it's like, you know, I we're selling something that is legitimately helping people grow their businesses and help them, I think, is the mantra that has been deep in our company's bones. And, uh, it's, it's really gone a long way for helping you SimpleNexus. We've also been very conservative on, you know, growing. Absolutely. And we've been on the inc 500 and merging 5,000 fastest growing fast, 500, all this kind of stuff. And that's awesome, but doing so in a way that's sustainable and it's not over leveraging the company. It's not putting us at risk to lose out, um, has paid dividends, especially when we start seeing, you know, the market contract, um, as things get crazy right now with coronavirus sword or, you know, whatever it might've been. Um, they, they look very smart right now. So that's something, those are, those are two things I think have really they've done well.
Braydon Anderson:
Coming up, Jake shares his advice for those that are in the early years, but first scenes from an upcoming interview,
Josh Robbins:
Rags had shortly before that gone on Shark Tank. And so there was some kind of interesting, compelling things going on with the company camp point where she's like, Hey, I am going to fill this role. So we've been talking about this role for a time for like 18 months, but she's like, Hey, I'm actually ready to pull the trigger now. So we need to decide if you're, if you're interested or not, you know, she's like, Hey, we're going to, we're going to offer you the COO role. And at this point, you know, I struggled with it because I liked tech. I liked Lucid, but, you know, and so I thought about it for a long time. I actually had several discussions. Is this a bad move for my career? Am I closing the door on working in a tech space if I do this? And there was a lot of debate going back and forth of, is this, is this a good move for me? I think we ultimately concluded, Hey, there is some risks that if you do take this role, you might not be able to work in the tech space again.
Braydon Anderson:
You know, as we kind of wrap up here, Jake, I think a question I'd love to ask is what piece of advice would you give to someone that's currently in the early years of a startup?
Jake Thompson:
Yeah, I would say, always look for where you can have the most impact and think about where you're growing your skills. So I saw early on that while I really honestly, I enjoy training folks on our platform and owning companies from like a customer success standpoint. Um, those were, were very good things to do, but it wasn't where I saw myself having an impact. And it, wasn't where I saw myself growing my skills in the way that I personally wanted to grow them and meet my goals later in my career. So I pivoted on to the sales team and, um, really focused there. And that's been where, you know, I've seen that there's nothing that gets the company pumped more than closing a big deal, whether you're a developer or a product or marketing or anybody everyone's in there, you know, pounding the chest and excited. And I love that having that impact. And it's put me in a position where I feel like I'm gaining skills that are going to be invaluable later on. So I would say, look for those opportunities, um, don't be afraid to, to really get your hands dirty and learn by doing trial by fire is that's the name of the game and early stage startups where you're going to be outside your comfort zone. Um, but once you do something that's outside your comfort zone, a couple of times suddenly your comfort zone has moved. So it's, it's one of those things that, you know, you, you got, you can't be scared to do something that you're not ready for it, but you gotta be ready to own it and do your best and, and get better every time you do it.
Braydon Anderson:
That's Jake Thompson, one of the earliest employees at SimpleNexus, thanks for listening to today's show, subscribe wherever you get your podcast fill. And if you know someone that you think we should interview, email me at braydon@theearlyyears.show. I'm Braydon Anderson and this is the early years.