"Cutthroat," Jian agrees. "The Maddy I met two years ago would never have sent an email with 'please review the attached org chart and confirm your direct reports.' She would have asked if everyone was doing okay."
"The Southern Belle is still in there somewhere," Alex says. "But she's buried under spreadsheets and sales quotas and whatever MBA shit she's been reading."
"She's exactly what we need," Jian says, and there's no judgment in his voice, just observation. "We couldn't have built this with the old Maddy. We needed someone who could fire people, who could negotiate term sheets, who could look a Fortune 500 CEO in the eye and make them feel like they were missing out if they didn't buy our product."
"She's a machine now," Alex says. "And I am so fucking glad she's on our side."
Jian nods, closes the laptop. "We should respond. Tell her it looks good."
"Yeah." Alex pulls his own laptop toward him, opens a reply:
Maddy - Vision statement looks solid. The 'competitive advantage' angle is smart. Agreed on Thursday all-hands. Will review org chart tonight.
-Alex
P.S. - When did you start using 'scaling' as a verb?
He hits send, then looks at Jian. "We made it to the next rung."
"The next rung," Jian repeats. "And now the real work starts."