What it’s like joining a company and traveling to 10 states in two months

Practice Enterprise Account Executive Kyle Larrow knows the conference circuit well.

In his first two months with the edtech company, Larrow’s team traveled to 10 cities — a tour that included a visit to Orlando, Fla., for the well-regarded Masie Learning Conference.

Still, Larrow quickly felt at home.

The tone of the company was set from the get-go during the interview process with Practice cofounder Emily Foote, who has been there the whole way, including through this fall’s acquisition by Instructure.

“One thing I think is kind of special is that I’m at a company that was 25 people, and now after the acquisition it’s 1,225, but Emily has been the constant through all that,” Larrow said. “For me personally, I can still appreciate what was built over the past seven years, what we’ve built today and that Emily is still at the pulse of it.”

The collaborative spirit between departments at Practice stuck out to Larrow immediately.

“I’ve been in situations before where product and people on the sales side are kind of siloed and there’s no transparency across those teams,” he said. “[At Practice,] product is super happy to share with us roadmap ideas, and we can share what we hear on the phone what’s resonating with people or not resonating, and what they’re looking for.”

This receptive approach toward working together makes for a healthy level of openness, Larrow says.

“There’s an environment of transparency and candor,” Larrow said. “It’s OK to iterate and practice and fail. A lot of the facets that I’ve come to love about startups are really exemplified at Practice.”

There's an environment of transparency and candor. It's OK to iterate and practice and fail.

After a year of commuting back and forth, the Boston native moved to Philly this summer to be with his girlfriend, who is in her second year of medical school at the University of Pennsylvania. Larrow worked as a regional account executive at Boston-based cybersecurity startup Pwnie Express and often worked remotely, but he missed the in-person experience.

“I really enjoy being able to come into an office and interact with people and get my hands dirty that way,” he said.

At Practice, Larrow focuses on introducing the company’s product to corporate clients and facilitates ongoing conversations about larger opportunities with existing clients. During the conference circuit, he traveled with David Williams, director of marketing, and the two have built up a close working relationship.

“He has tremendous experience that he calls upon from past jobs he’s worked in sales and marketing,” Larrow said.

Larrow has also traveled with the client success team and seen them in action.

“Seeing how much those clients really value that person they work with was impactful for me,” he said. “I worked at companies before where we sold a product and that was it,” he said.

And what’s Larrow’s impression of the Philly tech community so far?

“The tech community is really accessible and people are willing to lend a helping hand and introduce you to people,” he said. “There’s a passion and an energy around the tech scene right now.”