Dime of the Month: Kevin Bowman

Our June #dimeofthemonth is no one other than our Senior Director of Revenue Operations, Kevin Bowman. Kevin has been with Cents since before Cents even made sense or cents as Employee #2, the first salesperson of our organization. As an early explorer, Kevin navigated the Sea of Startups traveling from Sales to Client Success to Revenue Operations and everything else in between that few of us truly understand or recognize the impact. As a true example of a natural born leader, moving coast to coast crossing his origins of Indiana, accepting every challenge thrown his way whilst learning entire tech stacks, creating and developing processes, and being a go-to champion for all departments, many of us including myself would probably not have joined the Cents crew without his contributions setting a foundation for today’s success.

Kevin is beyond our Senior Director of Revenue Operations. He is one of few individuals that when the ship begins to lose order or sink, to bring the crew together patching the holes to keep the conquest going.

What gets you out of bed every morning?

Besides my dog barking at any possible noise, probably curiosity. I like to tinker with things, especially things that are hard, unfamiliar, messy, or that other people may not be thinking about yet. I enjoy taking something apart, understanding how it works, finding what is broken or inefficient, and figuring out how to make it better.

Motto or personal mantra/Words to live by?

A long time ago, I heard a story about Hannibal, the Carthaginian general. When his generals told him it would be impossible to cross the Alps with elephants, his response was supposedly, “Aut viam inveniam, aut faciam,” which means, “I shall either find a way or make one.” That has always stuck with me. To me, it is less about forcing something and more about taking action when the path is unclear. There are always going to be situations where the next step is messy or the answer is not obvious. I’ve always been drawn to those moments. I like the pressure of figuring things out, and I’d rather start working toward a solution than wait for one to appear.

What is your proudest career moment and why?

One that stands out is the night we closed our Seed Round at Cents. I was living in Denver and was at a going-away party for a friend when I got a call from Alex telling me the round had closed and it was officially “go time.”

That moment stuck with me because I had never joined a company that early before. At the time, I was the only salesperson, and we were still figuring out almost everything - the sales motion, CRM, customer conversations, messaging, process, and what would actually work. There were a lot of people involved in getting the company to that point, but it was the first time I felt like I had a direct hand in helping build something from the ground up. That is a really cool feeling, and it is still one of the moments I’m most proud of.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

A lot of my growth has come from stepping into situations where I did not have all the answers yet and figuring it out as I went. So I would tell my younger self to get comfortable being uncomfortable. That is usually where the best learning happens. Don’t get complacent and don’t stop learning. If you don’t know something, teach yourself. If you start to feel too comfortable, that probably means it’s time to challenge yourself in a new way.

What is your secret to making progress each day?

Self-discipline and not letting things sit for too long. If something is bothering me, stressing me out, or slowing me down, I try to address it instead of carrying it into the next day. That does not always mean solving everything immediately, but it does mean taking some kind of action. I also try to remind myself that progress is not always a huge breakthrough. Some days it is just fixing one thing, making one decision, or moving something forward that was stuck. If I can do that consistently, the bigger progress usually takes care of itself.

If you could switch your job with anyone else within Cents, whose job would you want?

I would probably switch with Sivan. In a lot of ways, she feels like the product and engineering version of me. She sits in the middle of product and engineering as Senior Director of Product Operations, helping connect teams, improve processes, and make sure the right things are moving forward.

Most of my career has been customer-facing or revenue-focused, so product and engineering are the areas I know the least about. I think it would be really interesting to see how decisions get made on that side of the business and better understand what it takes to turn ideas, customer feedback, and company priorities into actual product changes.

Tell us one thing people don’t know about you.

I spend a lot of time around technology and problem solving during the week, so on weekends I try to disconnect as much as possible. My phone is usually on Do Not Disturb or turned off, and getting outside has become one of the best ways for me to completely reset. Because of that, I’ve developed a real love for anything that gets me into nature like hiking, camping, fishing, hunting, rafting, or just being outside with no real agenda and preferably with my dog Murphy. It is probably the best reset button I have found.

What makes Cents different from other places you’ve worked?

Cents gives people room to make an impact. Of course there are layers and processes like any growing company, but if you see something that could be better, you are encouraged to speak up, take ownership, and start moving it forward. There is a real bias toward action here. If you want to fix something, improve something, or build something new, you are given the space to run with it.