Sales, Life, and Career Lessons from Owner.com CRO Kyle Norton

Owner.com powers 10,000+ restaurants with tools to grow sales, from online ordering and loyalty programs, to marketing automation.

Behind that growth is Kyle Norton, CRO and former Shopify revenue leader, who’s helped rebuild the business from zero to multi-millions ARR, twice.

In this episode, Kyle opens up about the habits, frameworks, and trade-offs that drive long-term success as a leader, parent, and athlete.

From rebuilding after failure to finding balance with two kids and a hyper-intense founder, this one’s packed with real talk on what high performance actually looks like.

What You’ll Learn

- How Owner.com rebuilt from $0 to $1M ARR in a year, twice

- Why Adam Guild’s intensity sets the bar for what “founder-led” really means

- How martial arts shaped Kyle’s approach to sales, discipline, and resilience

- The real trade-offs between startup growth, family, and health

- What separates great CROs from good ones and why “bar raising” matters

- How Kyle uses AI in his revenue org (and what actually delivers ROI)

- Why he doesn’t chase AI hype and how Owner’s mission keeps him grounded

- Lessons from Jason Lemkin on board trust, transparency, and tough feedback

Founders, sales leaders, and executives who want to:

-Scale teams without burning out

- Lead with discipline, not chaos

- Build brand trust that compounds

- Stay grounded while chasing growth

Connect with Kyle:

- Kyle’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kylecnorton/

- Revenue Leadership Podcast: https://www.therevenueleadershippodcast.com/

- Owner.com: https://www.owner.com/

Connect with me:

Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFH

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/

Website: https://www.project33.io/

Chapters

00:00 Owner.com’s story and rebuilding from $0 to $1M ARR

03:00 Lessons from martial arts and disciplined practice

07:00 Physical fitness as a superpower for startup leaders

09:30 What makes founder-led intensity different

13:00 Investing early in brand and why it paid off long-term

17:30 Balancing family, health, and high performance

24:00 The truth about kids, work, and “having it all”

26:00 What separates elite CROs from good ones

31:00 Company culture, ownership, and “the numbers too high”

34:00 Why building a personal brand matters as a leader

39:00 Kyle’s favorite podcasts and why he started his own

42:00 AI in sales and what actually works

51:00 Lessons from Jason Lemkin on trust and board management

53:30 Closing thoughts and reflections

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