Manny Medina

Two weeks ago, I had one of those weeks that put me back in the mental state of the beginning of the pandemic when everything felt hard and unpredictable.

My wonderful EA who I rely on to keep me on the straight and narrow (and on time to meetings), Belinda, has been out, my daughter’s school was closed due to COVID, and our nanny that helps with our 8-month-old got sick.

All this resulted in me working from home and picking up daytime child care shifts. I worked from home for a big chunk of the week, which I’m not used to.

Additionally, my WFH space is also my daughter’s playroom.  I’m not going to kick her out because it’s her room. She talks to herself as she plays - lots of great conflict resolution among Lego animals.

So, needless to say, she made several guest appearances on my calls this week.

One of those calls was during the graduation of our latest Building Manager Mastery class. If you aren’t familiar, we offer manager training for recently promoted managers or people new to Outreach and coming in as a manager.

In the middle of the graduation, my daughter came up and said hi and leaned her head on my arm, so I paused the conversation and introduced her. After the call was done, someone thanked me for introducing her and for showing it’s okay to have children as part of your work life–normalizing it.

If you have kids, there’s a good chance they visit your calls from time to time. Introduce them, make them part of the call–they are a part of who you are and who you are matters to us at Outreach.

I am finding that this life-work integration is a bit different than the concept of life-work balance. Integration means including what is true and real for you. Balance happens over the long-run rather than on a day to day basis. This week was not balanced, but it did reflect what was true for me.

I am grateful we have had a good run in my family of no covid exposures, but this was a strong reminder we aren’t all the way there yet.

WFH can be hard; give yourself grace and give grace to others. I’m still hoping the day is coming where we can be back together in person safely.

Until then, stay safe, be real, and enjoy the kid-cameos.

We will be closing our doors for the day on June 19th in honor of Juneteenth. \n\nJuneteenth (also known as Freedom Day, Black Fourth of July, Jubilee Day, Cel-Liberation Day) is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. Although the federal government doesn't recognize it as a holiday, I believe it should be recognized and celebrated. \n\nThe Outreach team is using this holiday to celebrate, participate in a march, volunteer, and most important to this moment: understand that while slavery legally ended, the racial injustices against Black lives have continued into the present day. Most vividly and violently with the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, as well as other Black lives who were taken from their family, friends, and loved ones. \n\nTake a stand and encourage your staff to do the same. We are stronger together. \n\n“Protest is not the end of progress, it is the beginning ... I believe in us. Change is gonna come.” - Lizzo\n\nRead more in our Outreach blog (link in the comments) \n\n#blacklivesmatter

I'm beyond excited to announce that Outreach has just closed a $50 million funding round!

This round was led by Sands Capital Management with strong participation from Salesforce Ventures. I'm also excited to add Operator Collective to the Outreach family.

We also got a step up in valuation, further cementing Outreach as the leader in Sales Engagement.

While funding wasn't top of mind for us, the addition of it plus the wealth of knowledge from these strategic partners will certainly help us ensure that we are able to keep investing in growth regardless of market volatility.

The nature of sales has changed forever and as the clear category leader, it’s up to us to meet the increasing demand for technology that helps sales teams close deals faster. We have our customer's backs.

We also expanded our leadership team todayI

I am pleased to welcome Melissa Fisher to the Outreach team as our new CFO. Melissa will be an invaluable addition at a time when we are adding new products and rapidly expanding into new cities and markets.

Please watch the video below to learn more about this incredible milestone!