Scaling to $1B+ Revenue: From ServiceNow to Samsara | Dominic Phillips

Jan 8, 2026

Dominic Phillips, CFO of Samsara, has navigated the company through hypergrowth, a tough down round during COVID, and a successful IPO in 2021. He discusses his journey from ServiceNow, emphasizing lessons in capital allocation and investor education. The conversation highlights Samsara's innovative IoT solutions, the importance of clear ROI in operations software, and the challenges of selling into non-discretionary budgets. Dominic also shares insights on building credibility with analysts and the strategic nuances of managing investor expectations.

01:03:12

forum

Ask episode

web_stories

AI Snips

view_agenda

Chapters

auto_awesome

Transcript

info_circle

Episode notes

question_answer

ANECDOTE

Banker To Operator Via ServiceNow

Dominic worked on the ServiceNow IPO at Morgan Stanley, built strong relationships with leadership, and later joined ServiceNow operationally.
He ran IR, corp dev, FP&A, and treasury at ServiceNow before becoming Samsara's first CFO.

question_answer

ANECDOTE

Early CFO Whipsaw: Down Round And Layoffs

Dominic joined Samsara in December 2019 and faced COVID four months later, forcing rapid fundraising and a down round.
He executed a 20% layoff and cut newer bets to stabilize the company before growth resumed in late 2020.

insights

INSIGHT

Position Hardware-Adjuncts As SaaS

Dominic framed Samsara as a SaaS business with asset-based pricing and 98% recurring revenue to align investor expectations.
He used unit economics and retention metrics to show the business could achieve long-term free cash flow leverage.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Dominic's early career and transition to banking

01:15 • 6min

chevron_right

Joining ServiceNow and operational roles

06:50 • 3min

chevron_right

Taking the Samsara CFO job and COVID shock

09:23 • 2min

chevron_right

IPO timing, supply chain and public debut

11:47 • 54sec

chevron_right

Investor education: positioning Samsara as SaaS

12:41 • 9min

chevron_right

What Samsara sells and customer value

21:38 • 3min

chevron_right

Growth drivers: product, customers, international

24:28 • 2min

chevron_right

Advantages of tangible ROI in operations software

26:31 • 2min

chevron_right

Selling to legacy operators and change management

28:20 • 1min

chevron_right

Selling into non-discretionary operations budgets

29:42 • 3min

chevron_right

Mentorship from Mike Scarpelli and leadership lessons

33:10 • 3min

chevron_right

Managing sell-side analysts as a public CFO

36:15 • 3min

chevron_right

Earnings cadence and timing strategy

39:23 • 2min

chevron_right

Which metrics to disclose and guidance approach

41:07 • 3min

chevron_right

Investor day strategy and integrating customers

44:30 • 58sec

chevron_right

Annual planning: maturity, cadence, and accuracy

45:28 • 7min

chevron_right

Capital allocation and budgeting framework

51:59 • 2min

chevron_right

Career path advice toward a CFO role

53:41 • 5min

chevron_right

Mistake story: losing the financial model with Mark Andreessen

58:25 • 2min

chevron_right

Advice to younger self and tech stack

In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Dominic Phillips, CFO of Samsara, to unpack what it takes to scale a capital-intensive SaaS business from startup to public company in under a decade. Dominic reflects on his six-plus years at Samsara through hypergrowth, COVID disruption, supply chain constraints, a down-round survival raise, and an IPO at the very end of the 2021 tech window. Drawing on his earlier career at ServiceNow under Mike Scarpelli, he shares how experience across FP&A, IR, corp dev, and treasury shaped his approach to capital allocation, investor education, and analyst management. The conversation dives into asset-based pricing, selling into non-discretionary operations budgets, balancing hardware and software economics, and building credibility with a broad analyst base while scaling past $1B in ARR.

—

SPONSORS:

Brex is an intelligent finance platform that combines corporate cards, built-in expense management, and AI agents to eliminate manual finance work. By automating expense reviews and reconciliations, Brex gives CFOs more time for the high-impact work that drives growth. Join 35,000+ companies like Anthropic, Coinbase, and DoorDash at https://www.brex.com/metrics

Metronome is real-time billing built for modern software companies. Metronome turns raw usage events into accurate invoices, gives customers bills they actually understand, and keeps finance, product, and engineering perfectly in sync. That’s why category-defining companies like OpenAI and Anthropic trust Metronome to power usage-based pricing and enterprise contracts at scale. Focus on your product — not your billing. Learn more and get started at https://www.metronome.com

RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for modern pricing models like usage-based pricing, bundles, and mid-cycle upgrades. RightRev lets companies scale monetization without slowing down close or compliance. For RevRec that keeps growth moving, visit https://www.rightrev.com

Rillet is an AI-native ERP built for modern finance teams that want to close faster without fighting legacy systems. Designed to support complex revenue recognition, multi-entity operations, and real-time reporting, Rillet helps teams achieve a true zero-day close—with some customers closing in hours, not days. If you’re scaling on an ERP that wasn’t built in the 90s, book a demo at https://www.rillet.com/cj

Tabs is an AI-native revenue platform that unifies billing, collections, and revenue recognition for companies running usage-based or complex contracts. By bringing together ERP, CRM, and real product usage data into a single system of record, Tabs eliminates manual reconciliations and speeds up close and cash collection. Companies like Cortex, Statsig, and Cursor trust Tabs to scale revenue efficiently. Learn more at https://www.tabs.com/run

Abacum is a modern FP&A platform built by former CFOs to replace slow, consultant-heavy planning tools. With self-service integrations and AI-powered workflows for forecasting, variance analysis, and scenario modeling, Abacum helps finance teams scale without becoming software admins. Trusted by teams at Strava, Replit, and JG Wentworth—learn more at https://www.abacum.ai

—

LINKS:

Dominic on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominicphillips/

Company: https://www.samsara.com/

CJ on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/

Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com

—

RELATED EPISODES:

“Steal Your Boss’s Job”: Calendly CFO John McCauley on Leadership, Ownership & Growth

https://youtu.be/VRpTNDIfzPY

From SMB to Enterprise: The CFO Scaling Playbook With Andrew Casey | Mostly Classics

https://youtu.be/kMuJ6gAuEpg