Welcome to Career Pivots, a blog series showcasing stories from Paxonians who took advantage of Paxos’ internal mobility program to make the switch from one career path to another. In today’s installment, we spoke with Bhau Kotecha, who pivoted from Growth to Product at Paxos.
Tell us about yourself.
My name is Bhau Kotecha, and I lead product strategy for the Tokenization Product team. Prior to being on the Product team, I was on the Growth team leading our go-to-market strategy, analytics and operations teams. Before joining Paxos, I spent nearly six years at Block overseeing various go-to-market initiatives across both of Block’s major business units, Cash App and Square. I’m also an active angel investor and advisor to early stage fintech and Web3 startups.
What made you pivot from the Growth team to the Product team?
To be completely honest, I wasn’t actively looking for a new role. I started working closely with the Product team on some product initiatives within the context of my Growth role, and I was having a lot of fun learning new things on the product side of the house. It became very clear that that team was going to continue to grow and play a really important role at Paxos, and I saw it as an opportunity to build a new skill set and think about business problems in a different way. When the opportunity presented itself to make the switch, I was excited to pursue it.
How did your previous role help you excel in your new one?
On the Growth team, you’re close to the market and our customers. You understand the demand for PX products and services, both from a broad market and specific customer levels. The Product team builds products for our customers, so my deep understanding of the market, what customers are looking for and what compels them to adopt products has been an incredible insight and background coming into the team. Having that connection to Growth and our customers in the market has made the thinking behind what I do now in Product more grounded in asking ourselves, “What do we think is best for the customer?”
What were some of the challenges of pivoting to a new role?
This has definitely been a period of wearing multiple hats as I balance my old role and transition to a new team, learning all the ins and outs of a new problem space. But everyone has been really supportive and understanding of the fact that I’m juggling two sides of my job right now, so I’ve been able to be very candid and open on what I can and can’t prioritize. I’m super grateful for the guidance and mentorship my new teammates have offered me to help get me up to speed. Overall, the support from Paxos to say, “Hey, this is a great opportunity for Bhau to grow his career and his horizons, and even if there’s some bumpiness for Paxos as he makes the switch, we’re willing to support him in that.” It’s awesome to see that Paxos focuses on prioritizing what’s best for the individual.
What’s been your favorite aspect of this process?
I’m learning so much every day and developing new perspectives and ways of thinking, which has been incredibly rewarding. It’s been a great reminder of how important it is to angle yourself towards learning a lot and putting yourself in positions where you get an opportunity to learn new things, even if you’re not going to be the best at it to start. I know I’ll be able to take these new skill sets with me into the future, and I really see what I’m learning now as valuable in every way.
Any advice to someone looking to make a jump into a new role?
The advice I would give is, you don’t need to wait until a formal transition is in place to really start to get exposure to the things that you find interesting, especially at a place like Paxos. If you’re really candid in your desire to help a team, work with a team or learn more about what they do, I guarantee you that the majority of the leaders will be really supportive of that. I would say proactively reach out, proactively embed yourself in the teams and types of work that are interesting to you. If and when the opportunity arises for a formal switch to occur, don’t be afraid to bet on yourself and make a leap.
Visit paxos.com/careers to learn more about our open roles.