My first encounter with the team
After two years as an SE at Netscape, I was seeking different gigs, with bigger upsides. A recruiter told me of "an amazing startup in Austin, with brilliant people", and after some phone interviews, the next step was:
Lunch with:
1. Gary Wright, judo master of sales reps, who always makes it look easy.
2. Nate (Woodstock) Hess, the best listener I've met; and my first VIGN SE leader.
3. Stu Leibowitz, an early SE manager who departed later that year.
Foolishly ordering a salad, I tried to appear smooth while answering/asking questions, and battling my meal. The difficulty of each question seemed correlated with how likely the present lettuce would fall. Afterward, we shook hands excitedly, with genuine smiles.
(two days later)
"Just show up" -- Nate Hess, when I asked him "What do I need to do to succeed with Gary Wright?"
(two weeks later)
"Texas BBQ is fantastic!" -- me at The Salt Lick during my first week.
(two years later)
"Returning to the scene of the crime?" -- Gary Wright, on learning I chose the same restaurant for interviewing subsequent sales engineers to join my team.
(twenty years later)
HUGE thanks, to all here, for our wild Vignette ride! More memories to follow.
A reference to Kill Bill is accurate, especially when Nate showed a sly smile at certain junctures during a "meeting". True savoir faire, from each of them Ross, and I was lucky to learn from the masters.
Gary and Woodstock were a once in a lifetime duo. Your west coast team were such a machine. I don't remember if I ever went on a sales call with both of them, but I can imagine Gary as the innocent church choir boy, and Woodstock as the gentle purple distracting guy.. and the two of them acting out a Kill Bill scene before the customer knew what happened to them. -- Thanks for sharing, Matthew.