Blink bytes: 30 Seconds with New Director of Sales Matt Formica

Matt Formica is the new Director of Sales at Blink Ops. He originally grew up in Niantic, Connecticut and has spent the last 16 years living in Los Angeles.

What did you do before joining Blink Ops?

I grew up in a small business family, working for my parents’ fish market and restaurant through college. After I graduated, I moved from CT to LA where I spent 6 years in banking before making the transition to tech, where I’ve been for the last decade. I started my career in tech as an SDR/ISR, became an AE, and now here I am at Blink.

What are you working on right now?

‍We’re an early stage startup so we’re all wearing a lot of hats, but I guess I’d boil it down in a few ways. On a micro level, we’re laser focused on executing our GTM strategy. We’re listening to our current customers about the unique challenges we’re helping solve for via our platform. We’re listening to the market. We’re watching what’s happening in the economy, in our industry — and constantly iterating on that. Pretty much every business we talk to is talking about org-wide cost savings and security more than ever. So, we’re focusing on developing and evangelizing solutions that generate ROI and help companies sleep easier at night.

On a macro level, I’m on a quest to make ‘sales’ not such a dirty word. Sales used to be another respected function like engineering, marketing, HR, finance, etc, but in the last handful of years, we’ve all been so over-inundated with Scam Likely calls, spam emails, and flat out junk, that everyone is apprehensive about sales people. It’s somewhat normalized now for people to not show up to meetings with sales. I can’t remember the last time I stood someone up for a meeting. But I get it. So, I’m striving to convey to prospects/customers that there are sales people out there that see beyond dollar signs, that believe in the products they promote, the people they work alongside, that have done their research before reaching out, and that want to sell them a solution that actually helps their business. That they’ll work hard — and transparently — for them, and ultimately, who have their best interests at heart. And while this hasn’t been an easy feat, I’ll keep trying!

What are some tools that you use in your everyday role?

Slack has definitely been a game changer for internal and external collaboration, especially the former. LinkedIn Nav and Dux-Soup are effective for building a targeted, scalable prospecting strategy. But like any set of tools, they’re only as good as how you leverage them. Gone are the days of email blasts and generic approaches. Buyers have so many options, so you have to be thoughtful, and non-invasive, yet present and consistent. The tool that excites me the most, however, is Blink! I’m obv bias, but when customers are able to see it, try it out, take it for a test drive, you can see and feel the excitement about the benefits it brings. It’s not about features, either. It’s about a quality of life and a peace of mind it brings engineering orgs and companies at large. And I think it’s super cool that we use it internally at Blink to automate our processes and be more efficient and secure. We eat our own dog food here, and I really respect / am proud of that.

What’s your favorite part about working at Blink?

Definitely the people. We have tremendous leaders and talent across every BU. But more so, it’s the quality of the people, the genuine willingness everyone has to help each other. It’s a team sale environment. R&D hears customer feedback and responds quicker to build requests than any org I’ve been a part of. And the prior accomplishments and track records of each of the three cofounders speaks volumes. These aren’t professionals who just had a good idea, these are people who have walked in the shoes of the customers we approach and understand the challenges we’re solving for first hand. The fact that I get to be a part of this journey and learn from the people here is incredibly special. And it’s motivating.

What do you do for fun?

I mentioned growing up in the restaurant business, so it’s probably no surprise that my fiance and I love cooking and going to restaurants. I’m not crazy about the word “foodie”, but I guess you could characterize me that way. I enjoy learning about food, where it comes from, how it’s grown, harvested, distributed, prepared, presented… breaking bread with people, laughing together over a meal, it’s all very fulfilling to me. I started learning about and collecting wine when we couldn’t go to restaurants during covid, and that’s been fun/interesting. They say wine has been around since 6000-7000 BC! Otherwise, you can likely find me in my free time doing some sort of exercise, watching and playing any/all sports, and I’ve just started teaching myself the piano again (which I played as a kid and wish I never stopped), or trying to develop a green thumb. But like everything else, its a process. And wherever it ends up for me, I’m just enjoying it.