Megan and Revio’s CEO, Brian Bauer, recently discussed Megan’s career path to Revio with the Arkansas Center for Data Science (ACDS), where she became the 1000th recipient of their 144 hour data science apprenticeship course.
Megan’s journey starts with her home town of White Hall, AR and her first role in technology with the Arkansas Fintech startup Abaca. Now Megan serves as the Director of Customer Success & Product at Revio, a banking technology company that helps empower bankers with a data-driven approach to relationship banking. Revio helps community banks grow existing customer relationships while improving retention and profitability.
“As Megan works with our data and machine learning engineers, the data science training offered by ACDS will improve our ability to design and deliver valuable insights that help our customers achieve real world business results,” said Brian Bauer, CEO at Revio.
Excerpt from Megan & Brian’s conversation with ACDS
Megan: “I graduated from high school in White Hall in 2012 and then went over to ASU in Jonesboro for two years and actually got my Associates degree in marketing and PR. Ultimately, I didn’t do anything with that. I left school and went home for personal reasons and got into property management, and that was the start of my journey of just working my way up the ladder. I started out cleaning for a property management company in Little Rock and left there their director of operations three years later. It’s not the traditional way that you get to where I’ve gotten, but it’s certainly been rewarding in a lot of different ways.
“The 8-year-old me wanted to be a librarian. I thought that the card catalog system was really cool. So I was definitely much more of an English-leaning kid, not analytical; I wasn’t into math. I landed in tech just by coincidence. I was 25, and didn’t have much to lose by taking a risk and completely switching up what I was doing. I got hired and started out in an entry-level position [at Abaca] doing account management and customer service. Certainly having customer service work previously was helpful, but I had never worked in anything close to finance, technology, or banking in that sense. So it was a very interesting endeavor to get into. Eventually we got to a point organizationally where there was room for growth, so I went to Brian and said, ‘Hey, I want to try something new. What can we do? Then I shifted into product’”
Brian: “The thing that was interesting about Megan, that was evident, is that there’s not a lot of people who will take on things that are risks that they have to personally put their own ownership and stamp on it. Megan always did that. I think it’s an innate characteristic and trait that she has. And in the startup world, we talk about people who can walk through walls. You’re just going to get it done. There’s so much in life, and this is true in technology and in business and in everything else, where it’s just about getting it done and figuring it out.
“The fact of the matter is that when you’re in an early-stage venture, there’s a lot of hats you’ve got to wear, and you really need people who are going to just see it through. That’s always been Megan. So with Revio, there was one person that I thought, All right. Well, she’s got to join this team too. Because I know we’re going to figure it out together.
Megan: “We’re very big on self-learning. Brian has been a huge promoter of that. I believe in that myself. But I took product management classes in 2022 online, and some UI design stuff as well, just to be able to stand in the shoes that I’m in here at Revio as the Director of Customer Success & Product. So we’re big proponents of learning while also doing. I definitely think that being able to take the courses while growing with the organization is super, super helpful.”
See original post from the ACDS Web site.
