L.O.L.
Lee Odess Leaves Latch
Published Oct 03, 2022 14:51 PM
PUBLIC - This article does not require an IPVM subscription. Feel free to share.
Lee Odess, Senior Vice President and former head of sales and marketing, has left Latch, less than a year after joining the company, his fifth company in seven years.
Inside this note, we examine the state of Latch, the future of Lee Odess, and lessons to be learned from executive moves.
Out At Latch
Multiple Latch sources said that the decision was made last month and that Odess' email and access were deactivated on Friday.
Today, Odess updated his LinkedIn to show a "stealth startup":
Latch Tenure
In May 2022, Odess was promoted admist the first round of latch layoffs:
the Company is announcing the reorganization of the sales and marketing departments under the leadership of Lee Odess
Less than 3 months later, Latch did another round of layoffs.
Shortly, thereafter Odess was removed from running sales and marketing and for the past ~2 months had been listed as in charge of "new markets and partnerships".
Protests IPVM
Odess has protested IPVM, accusing us of "continuous attacks", "personal attacks and cyber bullying" in a viral LinkedIn post:
We followed up by email numerous times asking for Odess to describe how our reporting was "personal" or "bullying" but Odess never responded.
Executive Turnover
Odess is now going to his 6th company in the last 7 years:
Corporate executives, like politicians or athletes, are judged on their records.
Odess' record of bouncing from company to company speaks for itself, especially in contrast to Odess' regular proclimations about being a leader in the industry. Any one or two companies can be fairly excused as a mistake but a long track record exists that shows far more hype than execution.
As for IPVM, we are going to continue to report on executives in this industry and the errors that they and their company makes. These executives can complain as they may and we welcome their feedback and are open to reporting on their successes if they have them.
Comments (18)
UI
Undisclosed Integrator #1
Oct 03, 2022UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #2
Oct 03, 2022I wouldn't consider Group 337 & Latch as two roles - didn't they acquire Group337?
JH
John Honovich
Oct 03, 2022A Latch spokesperson told us it was an "aquihire" meaning the deal was for the employees not the business of Group 337. Likewise, Latch did not incorporate that company's assets i.e. podcasts or articles. Finally, Group 337 employees then went and did other unrelated things at Latch.
It would definitely be different if somehow Latch had incorporated that business into their business but they did not.
From the brief description for the new startup, the intended focus ("consulting, community, content") is similar to Group337. Whether it will succeed where Group337 did not, remains to be seen.
Related:
"Podcasts Saying Literally Nothing For 20 Minutes" Applies Perfectly To Our Industry
Ross Vander Klok
Oct 03, 2022I am going to refrain from commenting since my comments previously got me blocked by Lee and others on LinkedIn.......... Unless this counts as a bullying comment? Dang it, there I go again!
JH
John Honovich
Oct 03, 2022btw, as for Latch, Latch's stock price continues to be around $1, down from $10+ a year ago:
As we said in May:
While Latch needs execution (specifically immediate revenue growth), Odess' strengths and focus, as he regularly describes, are in storytelling and networking
The public does not know Latch's revenue since Q1 / end of March of this year, since Latch has delayed its Q2 financial filing. Worse, Latch has admitted issues with previous filings so it is not certain what the actual financials were.
While Odess likely did not help sales, Latch's problems are much greater than Odess.
It will be interesting to see the ultimate resolution for Latch's founder and CEO Luke Schoenfelder.
Latch sources said that Schoenfelder and Odess bonded over shared interests in ideas and vision, though Latch has struggled with actual execution.
Sean Grimm
Oct 03, 2022A sinking company and a leader part ways. Said leader has had 5 positions in 7 years and did the unforgivable by blocking folks from this site from his LinkedIn profile. Maybe the Washington Post will call IPVM for commentary.
JH
John Honovich
Oct 03, 2022Well, if he was such a leader (and a thought leader at that) why did he go to a sinking company and contribute to its sinking? And why has he bounced around so much?
Maybe the Washington Post will call IPVM for commentary.
Many things IPVM does (more so than anyone in this industry) wind up in global publications. This, though, is an ordinary post on an inside-industry topic.
U
Undisclosed #3
Oct 04, 2022Known this guy since E+L+C. All hat, no cattle.
UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #4
Oct 04, 2022The only thing Lee Odess is good at selling is Lee Odess
UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #5
Oct 07, 2022Yesterday Latch announced the release of the Latch “T”. They call it the “Translator” and claim it can “Transform” a building. It will be interesting to see if it can “Transform” a failing company. Was this the brainchild of Lee Odess? Was this conceived while he was “General Manager – New Markets”? Will it save Latch from the multitude of pending shareholder lawsuits? A review of the Latch “T” by IPVM would be very interesting.
JH
John Honovich
Oct 24, 2022Odess has come out of stealth, from earlier this month he posted about community and content:
Now, Odess has dropped the community and content, revealing he is CEO of Lee Odess and offering services including strategic consulting, monthly business executive brief, advisement, introductions, etc.:
UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #6
Oct 24, 2022So he dropped "community" when he learned embracing people doesn't make as much money....?
JH
John Honovich
Oct 24, 2022I don't know. I did try to talk to him at a conference last week but he walked pretty quickly in the other direction.
I do think he genuinely cares about community and content (e.g., he's working on a documented history of access control that is useful). It's generally hard though to make a living on that alone so consulting strikes me as a reasonable focus.
JH
John Honovich
Oct 25, 2022Btw, he is offering content, this time he is paywalling it at $30 / month, $337 / year, called the "Access Control Executive Brief" starting next month:
Use the special IPVM affiliate link... I am kidding.
I definitely think there is a role for more paid information offerings in this industry. I also believe that people/companies need to focus on either consulting or publishing because it's hard to do well at both simultaneously (not because of a lack of talent but because if you are making a lot of money on consulting, then publishing is likely to be a lower priority and, if you get good at publishing, like IPVM, you tend not to want to limit your time to single customers rather than publish to a broader audience).
U
Undisclosed #7
Oct 25, 2022you get a generous 6.4% off for committing to a full year subscription before seeing any of the monthly content.
Lee is a marketing genius.
JH
John Honovich
Oct 25, 2022I am guessing 337 is an homage to his previous business - "Group 337"?
It's worth him trying. There's not a lot of "access control executives" is the main constraint.
U
Undisclosed #7
Oct 25, 2022I'm sure Lee can rely on a portion of the 58 people who backed his Kickstarter to sign up for his new gig...
on average, they've already invested $200+ each.
although for that ~$200 they are owed a book, a documentary of the interviews and processes used to write that book, and a public website as a .org for the greater community to have forever.
Ross Vander Klok
Oct 25, 2022Still blocked otherwise I might give it a try!