Today we’d like to introduce you to Carla Vanderhoof.
Carla, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My background is non-traditional for a High Tech Startup Co-Founder. I began my career as an educator and spent over six years teaching. I had always planned to take a next career step, I originally planned to go back for my Ph.D. in the administration to become a principal or superintendent.
When I had my children, I decided to take a few years off to spend the first few years with them. This gave me the perfect opportunity to reflect on my career. One day, my husband came home from a conference and brought me Lean In, which had just come out. I flew through the book while bonding with my baby and realized that I was not bound to the education path I started on.
From that moment, I began exploring other opportunities for myself. I wrote a book for my children because there was nothing on the market that I felt was perfect for early literacy, I painted because it was always something I loved to do, and I started reading like crazy about user experience, business, and innovation.
By the time my oldest child was 4, I was ready to move on from the stay-at-home-mom role. I started by volunteering for Planned Parenthood and helping my senators to preserve women’s health in our country and the state of NH. Next, I teamed up with my Co-Founder and husband to begin addaptation, the #1 user experience platform for Salesforce.com.
I am now a Co-Founder and Creative Director which pulls all of my experience and practice from being an educator, mother, and self-taught creative. I am part of the 2018 MassChallenge cohort and addaptation is growing like crazy. I may not have walked a traditional path to get here, but I wouldn’t have it any other way!
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I think if any road is perfectly smooth, you are probably going down the wrong road. True to any startup, I have days of tremendous success and days filled with self-doubt.
Struggles come, failures happen, and each of those moments challenges me to be better.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
addapptation is the #1 user experience platform for Salesforce.com. We allow companies to create beautiful business solutions 10x faster than traditional consulting costs on top of Salesforce.com and reduce the complexity, cost, and time to unlock the full potential of Salesforce.com for businesses.
I am the Co-Founder and Creative Director. My responsibilities focus on building a strong brand, developing a winning marketing strategy, and providing our customers with the best user experience for Salesforce.com with addapptation.
I am most proud of our core values and I think they are a big part of what sets us apart from others. We are constantly building a community of learners and growth mindset individuals who want to push themselves. I also feel a personal responsibility to be a part of and build up women who are in the STEM field so I place an emphasis on equal pay and a balanced work environment.
What were you like growing up?
I have always been very driven. I grew up competitive horse riding and working on a horse farm. As a child, I began working at the earliest possible age to pay off a horse lease and so I could ride more.
My competitive nature took me to a nation public speaking competition through 4-H by the age of 16 and many ribbons in the horse ring.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://addapptation.com/
- Phone: 603-303-9260
- Email: support@addapptation.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/addapptation/
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