Meet Kim: VP of Customer Success at Rarible
She’s a whizz at creating systems and managing customer relations, and she’s key to keeping this ship sailing smoothly
Kimberly Madison is the VP of Customer Success & Business Operations here at Rarible. She makes sure that all of our clients are happy, supported, and thriving here in the Rarible ecosystem. With over 10 years of experience working in the tech industry, and a genuine devotion to her clients and colleagues, you best believe we are counting our lucky stars to have her here at Rarible.
Getting started
Kim grew up a sports fanatic. She played volleyball, track, basketball, softball, and more, and she was good! She played football all through college where she studied physical therapy.
“I didn’t score the most goals, I was better at connecting or assisting on the goal. Which is also true today: I’m a good quarterback or connector of people”
In her senior year she came to the realization that physical therapy was not the right path for her. Feeling she needed to be challenged and needed diversity in her days, she set her sights on the tech industry. Early roles in Dell and Visioneer (a licensing partner of Xerox) saw her excel in sales and account management, flying all over the US and Canada and working her magic.
“I had a couple of awards at Dell, was employee of the month and then was recognized for my service excellence because a lot of end customers wrote in about me. At Visioneer I ended up being the channel Account Manager for all of Canada and the US. I was on a plane every single week and (I racked up lots of miles during that time!) I loved being able to go to new places, see new things and experience new stuff. It was exciting.”
Eventually she ended up at Ingram Micro – A Fortune 50 Global Logistics company, where she worked with the SaaS-based e-commerce team. There, Kim worked her way from Sales Rep all the way to Senior Business Operation Manager.
“I eventually went into Business Operations so that I could start fixing a lot of the problems that I saw throughout my career there. That's kind of where my passion is: I'm a lover of people and of processes and making things easier for everybody.”
Implementing processes that support not only her team, but the business's future is one of Kim’s strongest skills. She calls it “building the road” — laying down a strong path that people can follow now, and into the future.
Joining Rarible
After nine years at Ingam, Kim took some brief time off before joining Rarible and jumping headfirst into web3. Kim was a crypto newb when she joined rarible, but has quickly come up to speed. But what drives a person with so little experience to jump into the Wild West of crypto? For Kim, it was an opportunity for full ownership and creative control. In previous web2 roles, she often found herself blocked by rigid company systems:
“I had spent nine years with Ingam and I felt like I wanted to do and solve things but kept getting blocked because it was “the mothership”. And then, as I was talking to the team at Rarible, I saw all these opportunities of how I would be able to create and influence and really drive change to better the business.
Many web3 companies don't have a professional structure or a way of supporting customers, business relations can be quite transactional. I'm here to make sure that we do better and are the platform that really values our customers”
Looking ahead
Always eager to learn and grow, Kim joined the latest cohort of SheFi and is spending her free time getting even more acquainted with all things web3.
“I had heard so many good things about SheFi from Leen (VP of Product) and Anna (BD Lead - interview pending!). Recently I found myself with a breath of air from all the customer things and SheFi was a month out from starting - perfect timing! Thankfully the team supported and paid for 50% of the cost which was great.”
While she acknowledges that web3 is still pretty male-dominated, she reckons it’s less so than web2:
“I think that the evolution of web3 is that it's more focused on women and driving more women into the community and space.”
It’s been just over six months since Kim joined the team, and honestly she’s taken to the fast pace of web3 like a fish to water.
“While there's a lot of moving pieces and some days are harder than others. I still really enjoy it because every day is something new right? And I'm constantly learning even though I've got a fire hose in my face!”
During her onboarding process, our VP of Product Leen gifted Kim her first NFT — a Barbie collectible from Mattel… It doesn’t get more Rarible than that! Kim has big plans for supporting Rarible and our amazing clients, as she continues to build the road that will take us into the future of web3.