WHEN I WORK Q&A
MESA sat down with Chad Halvorson, CEO of When I Work,
to ask him about his experience working with MESA.
Tell us a bit about your background, your career history, and your business. What prompted you to get involved with MESA?
I have been working in technology since 2000. My first company was a service-based consulting business. In 2008, I started developing When I Work which is a SaaS business. I launched When I Work to market in and after 18 months or so after, I was interested in finding helpful advisors and became aware of MESA through tech.MN. I researched MESA, including looking at the background of the MESA founders, and this led to my contacting MESA directly.
What was your biggest business challenge before working with MESA? Has MESA able to help you work through it, and if not, what happened instead?
Initially, I incubated When I Work within the services company so both companies we’re wrapped into one even though they were different businesses. The MESA mentors helped me figure out how to separate When I Work from the services business while my original partners continued to grow the consulting business. After this critical action to make When I Work independent, MESA then helped guide me relative to raising money to grow When I Work.
What, specifically, is your favorite part about working with MESA, and why?
The MESA mentors are an independent set of advisors which allows for the creation of a unique “trust circle.” By “independent,” I mean there are no entangling relationships as can exist with board members and investors. As such, we can quickly dig into challenges and analyze the key issues without any dancing around.
If you were going to recommend MESA to a colleague, what would you say?
The MESA mentors are one of the most trusted advisors a founder CEO can have to help you get through the uncharted waters that are a reality for a startup software company. MESA brings both trust and clarity to help a founder address challenges and determine what actions are best.
What three words would you use to describe your experience with MESA?
Unbiased trusted advisor
Anything else you want us to know about your experience with MESA?
The MESA relationship has been fantastic. For anyone starting a software company and with all the issues to address, it is incredibly helpful to have a partner to rely on. The assistance isn’t just with the normal business issues such as how to go to market, but also with the “real stuff” that needs to be figured out along the way to create a successful business. MESA is there to help whatever the founder needs.
