John Wetzel
(Photo Credit: John Wetzel)
Name: John Wetzel
Current Job: Co-Founder of Gather
Favorite restaurant in town? Nothing beats Cleveland Bagel. I've lived nearby since they opened and I'll do anything for a warm everything bagel with chorizo chipotle schmear.
Favorite thing about Cleveland? The Metroparks. I love all of them, but Rocky River Reservation is a personal favorite. Riding my bike out for a sunset at Whiskey Island by Edgewater is also hard to top.
Q: John, you started your career as a VFA fellow. Why'd you apply and what did you gain from the program?
Coming out of college, I really wanted to work at a startup, but found it surprisingly difficult to connect with the right company. VFA not only connected me with a great startup, BoxCast, but also immersed me in a community of other entrepreneurial young people. They've provided a ton of support for us as we've started Gather. Lastly, it brought me to Cleveland and introduced me to my cofounders!
Q: As a VFA fellow, you were hired at Boxcast. How did the experience there lead to you starting Gather?
BoxCast was an incredible learning experience for me. I was given a lot of ownership and responsibility early on which helped me grow quickly. As a designer, I was uniquely positioned to work across the entire business. I had projects that I did with our hardware team, software team, marketing, sales, fulfillment, leadership and customer support. After that, I had a great, holistic view of how to run a B2B SaaS company. That was a key part of having the confidence to start my own B2B SaaS Company.
Q: To my knowledge, you are the first Northeast Ohio company since Blue Frog Gaming to get into YCombinator. What was the program experience like?
There are actually a few more YC Companies that have NEO roots, but many of them now operate as distributed teams. YC is an incredible network of smart and talented people who are all very good at building business. Knowing that you have backing from that type of community and organization really puts the wind at your back, which is something any startup needs to get off the ground. We did the program completely remotely this summer working out of a basement office in Ohio City. It was a great experience.
Q: What is Gather and why do companies use it?
Gather is the first project management software for people operations teams. We help automate a lot of the communication and coordination around employee events like onboarding, offboarding and everything in between. Gather is deeply integrated with Slack, and we push messages to the right people, like managers, at the right time.
Q: In your spare time, your hobby is bike riding. How'd you get into it and what are some of your favorite paths?
NEO has some incredible biking resources. I started biking all the time when I first moved here and now, I rarely use my car. At the end of summer, a few friends and I did a 100-mile loop around the Emerald Necklace. I've done that twice now and loved it both times. It's incredible that you can do the full 100 miles and be on bike trails for +80% of the time.