I learned the importance of having a strong work ethic from my father early in life. As an immigrant from Malta, he lived through World War II and eventually was able to build a life in the United States. His determination to give us every opportunity for a better life made me appreciate every chance I was given. Through my time in school, the U.S. Navy and every work environment since, I was determined to work as hard as I possibly could and learn as much as humanly possible from every situation.
This determination has afforded me the opportunity to work with some incredible people at some incredible companies over the past 30 years. During my 12 years at Autodesk where I most recently served as VP of Worldwide Customer Success, I worked side-by-side with great leaders like Carl Bass, Andrew Anagnost, Amar Hanspal and Steve Blum. As a team, we were constantly pushing the edge, digging for new ways to help people look at the world differently, design differently, and solve problems differently. It was with this team at Autodesk that I first experienced MURAL.
Changing the way we work
As Autodesk started to adopt MURAL, I was amazed at how our globally distributed teams began acting as one, creating together and solving problems together so much faster than before. The system was flexible enough to be used in every situation, from large workshops to small, one-on-one brainstorming sessions. In the back of my mind, I knew we were changing the way our company worked and imagined new solutions forever. After you experience the benefits of globally distributed visual collaboration first-hand, there’s no going back.
I wanted to be a part of helping more companies like ours experience the same transformation. So after 12 incredible rewarding years at Autodesk, I chose to come to MURAL to serve as Chief Revenue and Customer Officer for three main reasons:
- The People. In my early discussions with the leadership team at MURAL, I saw the same qualities — strong work ethic, deep curiosity, and genuine passion to improve the way people work together — that my father taught me, qualities I had aspired to my entire life. Mariano, Pato and Agus shared their vision for the future of putting imagination to work, and it directly aligned with what I’ve envisioned throughout my entire professional career. I talked with MURAL team members who not only shared the vision, but also knew the importance of customer and partner engagement for creating long-term success. In addition, I welcomed the opportunity for me personally to architect and carry out a customer engagement model from the ground up.
- The Solution. As I looked around at all the larger players in the collaboration space, there was really nothing like MURAL out there. The ease of use of the solution breaks down the traditional barriers to technology adoption, empowering every person to contribute their ideas and perspectives using visual collaboration. MURAL is intuitive and invites endless amounts of people to join in the creative process. Importantly, the business model allows everyone to join in the sessions without having to be a member or have a license, which facilitates the level of inclusion teams need to thrive. The tools and frameworks allow people to unlock their imagination and solve problems faster and better.
- The Market. The market for MURAL is unlimited in my opinion. It’s the type of product that anyone can use. Right now, we are mainly focused on selling it to business users, but anyone can benefit from visual collaboration, whether you are building the next space station or just tinkering with your next home improvement project. Once people experience visual collaboration in MURAL, just like we saw at Autodesk, they can never go back. It’s so exciting to be a part of that.
Improving the way the world solves problems
What we all used to do physically in our offices, like place sticky notes on white boards and share ideas visually, can now be done from anywhere at any time on a computer, tablet, or even your phone. I believe MURAL is going to change the way people imagine and design solutions for good, whether they are working in the same office or on the other side of the world, removing bias and speeding alignment.
In short, I believe we have the people, the solution, and the incredible market opportunity here at MURAL to truly improve the way the world solves problems, and I am thrilled to have joined this company.
If you haven’t yet experienced MURAL, give it a try and contact me if you need help getting started.
About the author
About the authors
