When You’re Promoted to CEO (Recruit Rockstars 415)

After a successful career with Wayfair building its B2B division, Joel Stevenson had a random chance meeting with the team at another Boston-based company, Yesware.

(He points out that their names rhyme, but have little else in common.)

Industry-leading Yesware makes tools to help salespeople build better relationships with their prospects & customers. This all-in-one sales productivity toolkit includes email, phone, video, and meeting scheduling.

He was hooked.

Joel joined Yesware as head of Sales & Marketing. And was later appointed to Chief Executive Officer, succeeding one of its Co-Founders.

He now leads the 100-person team, which he describes as “clever & friendly.” And he’s able to drill into specifically what that means.

Clearly, he’s onto something big.

Yesware has raised over $40M from top investors like Battery Ventures, Foundry Group, Golden Ventures, Ridge Ventures, Shea Ventures, GV, and Techstars.

In this 20-minute conversation, Joel delves into what it’s like to be named CEO and how he’s scaling the team that helps salespeople scale their business.