GTM12 - The Secrets of Customer Success, with Rav Dhaliwal, Investor & previous CS leader Slack, Zendesk Yammer

For this season finale, we invited Steve Brown to embark on the journey of what's next.Via his fathers job as a Physics lecturer, Steve was introduced to science and technology at a very early age - and that sense of magic has never left him. After studying how to make a computer, he went on to have a fascinating career with the one and only Intel, avoiding the well trodden traditional career trajectory, opting instead to move through marketing, events, planning and labs, before finally becoming an Intel Futurist. This inspired Steve to become an independent Futurist, helping companies and organisations think through the digital challenges they were facing, and how new and emerging technologies could influence their own futures. As a well respected speakers and author, it’s fascinating to hear Steve talk through the technologies he sees making an impact, use cases from companies using them and how emerging technologies could be very disruptive. Now, as a Portland native, he talks through the local investing scene, and what he likes to see in a company before he considers investing. A great listen for those thinking about where to go next in their company and personal journeys.Highlights:- History shows companies that invest in tech will outperform their peers- We’re moving from work-life balance to work-life fusion- Industry 5.0 brings the Humans back to life- The six technologies driving Digital Transformation- The role of 5G in enabling IoTNote that this episode was recorded on 27th May 2021.Steve is the co-founder of: https://www.theprovenancechain.comHis book, The Innovation Ultimatum, is available everywhere: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1119615429/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=106d04-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1119615429&linkId=00254beb692dde17c29f417cb60b5056 

It’s fair to say that Parker Crockford quickly became a citizen of the world; travelling and gathering experiences that have helped shape his career. In this podcast, we explore how Fintech is developing and growing in the US and Europe, and what the breakout segments look like. As ever, regulation is always lagging but can’t be ignored in building a startup servicing these new markets. And then there’s crypto - can that ever be regulated? Talking via experience, Parker takes us through his thoughts on how to approach Fintech, the impact of Open Banking and the companies that are doing it well. A fascinating listen in these hyper growth times for Fintech.Highlights- Europe has stolen a march on B2C Fintech and created some giants- Fintech is splintering but each splinter is a billion dollar opportunity- Regulation is playing catch-up with market innovation- Stripe found the perfect gap to fill- Can the crypto explosion be regulated?

It’s fair to say that Rav has grown up with Customer Success (CS), starting his career in the Unix admin world at Accenture and IBM, before being catapulted into the startup world at the then young company Salesforce. Since then he’s gone on to hold senior CS positions at Yammer, Zendesk and Slack, seeing first hand how CS has grown and matured as SaaS has exploded. Rav is probably one of the most experienced CS leaders in UK/EU, and kindly shared much of his thinking on the evolution of CS, what metrics matter, how to align the sellings motions and avoiding the ‘do everything’ department. He’s now paying his experience forward as an investor and advisor for numerous young companies, helping them think through their business models and approach. A must listen for all founders and leaders as they build their business in the world of continuous selling. Highlights:- The evolution of Customer Support to Customer Success- The role of CS in the flywheel of continuous selling- Correlating your distribution model to your CS model- Avoiding the ‘do everything’ CS department- The key metrics of TTV and NRR

It’s fair to say that Chris Bruce has had some interesting twists and turns in his career before he met his co-founder and created Thomson Online Benefits. In this podcast, Chris talks through the early days of the business, how they honed the value proposition and why they had to totally rebuild the tech for the next stage of growth. After some huge scaling, Chris describes how and why the business was acquired, and why he felt he had a duty to protect the amazing team he’d built and the culture they’d created. What’s impressive is just how many of the alumni have gone on to create the next generation of HR Tech, where Chris and his co-founder now spend their time to invest and nurture these new emerging companies. It’s great to hear a founder talk through the entire lifecycle of their company, and then talk about how they pay forward those experiences. A must listen for all Founders!Highlights:- The path for a Founder can take many forms- How to rebuild your tech stack whilst scaling the revenue- Going from the UK, to Europe, to the US to Global Fortune companies- The emotions of selling your company and protecting its culture- The importance of taking a break post company sale- HR Tech and it’s move to the humanisation of work 

It is a pleasure to talk with David Quantrell about his road to becoming Chair of a number of tech businesses. After starting in the long project world of defence, and a return to school, David has gone on to two IPO’s, four company sales through to running a large division of an IT giant - he’s worked with well known names such as Box, McAfee and HP. All of this experience he now uses in his Board and Chair roles with a number of leading European tech companies, helping shape and solve the problems of growth and scale. It’s fair to say that David is a well respected figure in European tech, hence wanting to hear the story of how he arrived here, and how he sees the future of European tech. It’s a fun and educational listen, especially for founders and leaders trying to evolve and develop their Board as their business grows!Highlights:- Europe has CEO’s who want to go the distance- The role of Practitioners on the Board- The Board’s evolution with funding rounds and growth- The right time to appoint a Chair- Setting up tech founders/leaders for success

With a non-traditional path into tech, Pat Phelan has been right in the middle of the evolution of the Customer Success function. In this podcast, Pat discusses how Customer Success aligns with the vision of the business, and at the same time, the needs of the customers. How this is reported to the c-suite, and how this contributes to the northstar of growth is a real master class in how to build and lead a Customer Success team. Pat has an obvious passion for leadership, plus growing and developing his people, hence a must listen for the new and growing Customer Success leaders.Highlights:- Pivoting within CS as one motion won’t fit all your customers- In CS play the ball in front of you- Defining and measuring the key CS KPI’s- Aligning CS with the Northstar of Growth- Creating psychological safe spaces and managing imposter syndrome

Jonathan ‘Jono’ Gill has been a student of personal growth and development ever since he held down 4 simultaneous jobs whilst still at university. It was great to sit down and chat with Jono as he talked about how his early career prepared him for the world of sales, and how this combined with the rise of the cyber industry, set him up for his latest challenge as CEO of Panaseer. The pandemic challenged many leaders on how to manage in the new remote world, and Jono talks about what lessons he used in leading a company where he had not even met many of the leadership team or company! The world of cyber is growing fast, but it’s also crowded and noisy with many conflicting messages and tools vying for attention. Here we unpick why the new category of CCM (Continuous Controls Monitoring) as pioneered by Panaseer, lifts them out of the noise and delivers demonstrable value. It’s fascinating to listen to a CEO plot the course of a rocketship company, delving into not just the sales and product direction, but also how effective leadership has the biggest impact.Highlights:- You’re responsible for your personal growth and development - your future is in your hands- Your three motives and how they lead to a CEO path- An organisation doesn’t have physical boundaries anymore- Organisations typically have 100’s of cyber tools - but SaaS means you need to be a promise maker and a promise keeper- How do you capture and sell the parity wedge- Security incidents were up 400% during the pandemic - how does Continuous Controls Monitoring (CCM) help manage the threat

John Kreisa has been a marketing leader at a string of data product companies, including Business Objects, Hortonworks, Docker and now Couchbase. In this episode, John breaks down his thinking on why Product Marketing is so central to a Marketing team at data software companies, and how that translates into effective sales motions. He also talks about the future of Martech in the explosive data world, and how the rule of 1’s and 3’s plays out in revenue growth.This is the episode to unravel how to build your Marketing team around data products, and how to get the Sales motion humming along. Essential listening for anyone working in Marketing and data - there’s lots to get right - and lots to get wrong!Highlights:- Product Marketing is central to building a Marketing function - and underserved in UK/EU- The rule of 1’s and 3’s in scaling your revenue- MarTech has evolved fast aided by the Pandemic- In Product led companies are you Sell-to or Buy-from?- Data creation rates are accelerating- The rise of Marketing Ops 

Dan Hyde co-founded Erevena over 20 years ago, with an initial focus on hiring executives for B2B software companies. In that time he’s seen the market change and evolve, with the emergence of EMEA as a startup powerhouse, combined with new fast moving software categories. The war for talent is as strong as ever, with demand at an all time high for scaling and growing startups. In this interview, Dan unpicks how founders should think about who to hire, and in what order, and where things can go wrong.Erevena have helped many of the most recognisable names in Europe Tech hire their leadership teams, and Dan’s learnings are invaluable. A must listen for all those who don’t want to make the mistakes of founders before them, and end up churning their most expensive and valuable people.Highlights:- Don’t scale it until you nail it!- Supply has never been worse and demand has never been higher- Your first 50 deals need a Sales puzzle solver- Selling beyond founder led sales needs strong Product Marketing- Unit economics are wasted without strong Customer Success- CRO’s roles are demanding and draining, but has the Pandemic changed that? 

Starting out as a software engineer, Ingrid Burton, CMO, Quantcast, quickly moved into Marketing during her long tenure at Sun Microsystems. Her deep experiences of Sun’s early pioneering move to Open Source key software components has fuelled much of her stellar career as CMO of many leading companies such as Hortonworks and H2O.ai. There aren’t many marketers who’ve had the same hands-on experiences as Ingrid, creating whole new categories and communities around key Open Source technologies.Highlights:-What are the facets of Marketing and how do they relate to OpenSource?- There isn’t a one size fits all Open Source GTM model- How to sell ‘The Squeeze’- Why not to over complicate Category Creation- Effective teaming between Sales and Marketing- When to hire your first Marketing VPAs an accomplished CMO she talks through the relationship between Sales and Marketing, and her thoughts on ‘the squeeze play’. A fascinating listen from one of Silicon Valley’s very best.In conversation with Andy Leaver, and Paul Papadimitriou.