Perception is Everything
Three Months as CEO and What I Got Wrong About Being a Good Customer
When I accepted the CEO role at 3 Tree Tech three months ago, I thought I understood the vendor side of technology partnerships. I’d been partnering with vendors for over a decade, and I'd been 3 Tree Tech’s customer for over five years. I'd seen how partnering was traditionally done, and then I saw how 3 Tree Tech operated differently. I felt I knew the pain points on both the customer and vendor sides.
I was wrong... about a lot of things.
The work and the humility
Being CEO is far more work than I anticipated. That's probably what every new CEO says, but it's true in ways I didn't anticipate. As a CISO, I focused on building security programs and leading security teams. As CEO, I'm responsible for everything from customer relationships to vendor negotiations to strategic positioning to making sure the team has what they need to succeed.
What surprised me more was the emotional weight. When you're responsible for both the people who work for you and the customers who trust you, every decision carries different stakes. This isn't a complaint, it's just reality.
But the biggest revelation has been realizing I wasn't nearly as good a partner to vendors as I thought I was when I was a customer.
I considered myself one of the good ones. I paid on time. I gave honest feedback. I didn't waste vendor time. But looking at it from this side, I see all the ways I could have been better. The times I didn't respond quickly enough...or at all. The instances where I didn't fully appreciate the effort vendors put into understanding my problems.
The short notice cancellations. I didn't realize how impactful those were to vendors trying to get on my calendar. From my side, something came up and I had to reschedule. From their side, they'd been working for weeks to get that 30 minutes, coordinated with their team, prepared specifically for the conversation, and then I cancelled two hours before. I thought I was being considerate by giving any notice at all. I wasn't.
The toxic cycle we need to break
Another thing I've discovered in these three months. A lot of customers have zero respect for vendors. Honestly, I get it. Many vendors have earned that disrespect through years of bad behavior, pushy sales tactics, and broken promises. This has created a toxic feedback loop where customers treat all vendors poorly, which makes it harder for good vendors to operate, which reinforces customer skepticism.
We have to break this cycle.
The overwhelming validation of these first three months has been the feedback on our business model. Customers and non-customers keep telling us the same thing. "We've been waiting for someone to do this differently."
The relationship-first approach isn't marketing language for us. It's how we operate. Platform-agnostic recommendations. No pay-to-play requirements for startups. Genuine advisory relationships instead of transactional deals.
When I explain this to CISOs and CIOs, I watch their faces change. Many of them have been continuously let down by traditional channel partners that they almost can't believe it's real.
Perception is everything
One lesson I didn't expect is how important messaging is. Perception truly is reality in this business.
Many customers know 3 Tree Tech for the type of technology they initially worked with. If they started with innovative cyber startups, that's how they define us. The reality is that 3 Tree can do far more than most VARs across the entire tech ecosystem. But if we don't communicate that clearly, customers will always see us through the lens of their first interaction.
This applies to vendors too. I've watched some vendors succeed less because they have a great product and more because they have exceptional marketing and messaging. It's genuinely sad to see incredible products fail to gain traction because of messaging rather than the product itself.
Having the right business model and great relationships matters immensely. But if you can't articulate what you do and why it matters in a way that sticks, you're fighting an uphill battle.
What's ahead
I'm more excited about the future than I've ever been in my career. Not because everything is easy or figured out but because we're solving a real problem in a way that actually helps people.
Technology leaders deserve better than what the traditional channel has given them. Startups with game-changing solutions deserve access to customers without having to pay exorbitant fees or give away free deals just to get considered.
These first three months have reinforced something I believed as a customer and now know as CEO. This industry needs disruption. Not the Silicon Valley kind where you just do the same thing but with an app. Real disruption that changes how relationships work and how value gets delivered.
Building a company that operates differently than industry norms means constantly fighting against expectations and established patterns. But every conversation with a frustrated technology leader or an innovative startup founder reminds me why it matters.
Three months in, I'm exhausted, humbled, and more committed than ever.
We're just getting started.
Carraig Stanwyck is the CEO of 3 Tree Tech in Portland. Proven people leader and program architect with extremely diverse background and extensive track record of immediate success and constant improvement. When the opportunity came to lead 3 Tree Tech, he knew he’d found people who shared his belief that technology partnerships should be about more than transactions.
