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Chris Degnan

Former Chief Revenue Officer and early sales leader at Snowflake who joined as the company's first sales rep and helped scale revenue and go-to-market; co-author of Make It Snow.

Top 10 podcasts with Chris Degnan

Ranked by the Snipd community
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583 snips
Oct 10, 2025 • 1h 2min

20Sales: Scaling Snowflake from $0-$3BN in ARR | Snowflake vs Databricks: My Biggest Lessons | Why Customer Success is BS and What Replaces It with Chris Chris Degnan

Chris Degnan, former Chief Revenue Officer at Snowflake, shares his insights on scaling a startup from nearly nothing to over $3 billion in annual revenue. He discusses the importance of founders leading early sales and hiring savvy leaders for growth. Chris reveals four key lessons from Snowflake’s journey and compares it with Databricks, admitting missed opportunities. He also critiques the concept of customer success as a separate function and emphasizes the need for in-person relationships in sales, arguing that AI will enhance rather than replace sales roles.
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133 snips
Oct 4, 2025 • 53min

(BNS) How Snowflake Wrote The GTM Playbook

Denise Persson, CMO at Snowflake, and Chris Degnan, former CRO and the company's first sales rep, share insights from their book, Make It Snow. They emphasize that sales and marketing must function as 'one brain in two bodies.' Key topics include embedding sales with engineering early to address product gaps, balancing customer feedback while maintaining product focus, and the importance of culture as go-to-market infrastructure. They also discuss strategies for managing partnerships and applying Snowflake's lessons to the evolving AI landscape.
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60 snips
Jun 13, 2025 • 0sec

EP 147: How Chris Degnan Built Snowflake's Sales Org From Scratch

Chris Degnan, former CRO of Snowflake and the company's first sales hire, shares his remarkable journey from the ground up. He discusses the challenges of building a sales organization in a competitive landscape and the importance of resilience and sales methodology. Degnan reflects on hiring strategies, mentorship, and adapting to leadership changes throughout his decade-long tenure. He also highlights the symbiotic relationship between sales and marketing, offering insights into the evolution of sales dynamics in the age of AI.
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58 snips
Oct 15, 2025 • 40min

SaaStr 825: How the AI Era Has Directly Impacted Marketing and Sales with Snowflake's CMO and Founding CRO

Denise Persson, CMO at Snowflake, brings extensive experience in scaling marketing teams, while Chris Degnan, Founding CRO, is a seasoned sales leader. They discuss how AI is reshaping marketing and sales, emphasizing the need for a strong data foundation and company culture to support AI initiatives. Insightful use cases include AI-driven lead scoring and ad optimization. They also explore the role of a centralized intelligence team and the impact of AI on hiring practices, highlighting the importance of curiosity and adaptability in candidates.
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53 snips
Oct 6, 2025 • 1h 23min

Leadership Lessons From Snowflake’s Sales & Marketing Duo | Chris Degnan and Denise Persson

Chris Degnan, former Chief Revenue Officer at Snowflake, and Denise Persson, the company's Chief Marketing Officer, delve into their experiences in hypergrowth. They reveal the secrets behind aligning sales and marketing to foster a customer-first culture. Topics include when to hire experienced operators, the importance of trust and immediate execution in partnerships, and the rituals that shaped Snowflake’s culture. Their new book, Make It Snow, offers insights into scaling businesses while emphasizing the need for coachability and the right fit for company stages.
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41 snips
Nov 10, 2023 • 58min

20Sales: Five Lessons Scaling Snowflake to $1BN ARR, Why Customer Success is BS and Should Be Removed, Why All Sales Reps Should Do Eight Calls Per Week & Why You Should Hire a Head of Sales Sooner Than You Think with Chris Degnan, CRO @ Snowflake

Chris Degnan, Chief Revenue Officer at Snowflake, shares his journey from early days in sales to leading a billion-dollar revenue engine. He emphasizes the necessity of making eight customer calls per week and discusses tactics for effective sales prospecting. Chris believes in the critical collaboration between sales and product teams and suggests that sales reps should be judicious in their customer interactions. He provocatively claims that the customer success role may be outdated, advocating instead for urgency and accountability in sales culture.
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38 snips
Oct 20, 2025 • 55min

#327 Building a Sales and Marketing Capability for Data Applications with Denise Persson, CMO at Snowflake, and Chris Degnan, former CRO at Snowflake

Denise Persson, CMO at Snowflake, has two decades of tech marketing experience, while Chris Degnan, former CRO, scaled Snowflake's revenue significantly. They discuss the critical alignment between sales and marketing for growth, sharing insights on identifying ideal customer profiles and leveraging data signals. Denise highlights the importance of a unified data platform for AI, while Chris emphasizes hiring traits that foster scalability. They also explore using predictive forecasting and AI to enhance marketing strategies and resource allocation.
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15 snips
Sep 29, 2022 • 1h 6min

Scaling and Growth with Chris Degnan

Chris Degnan, Chief Revenue Officer at Snowflake, discusses his experiences working in a raw startup environment and how Snowflake stood up to giants like Amazon in the cloud storage space. He emphasizes the importance of respecting the competition and not putting all your eggs in the large enterprise baskets. The podcast also touches on the challenges and benefits of sales in a consumption model and the significance of targeting a niche market. Furthermore, the hosts engage in a rapid-fire Q&A session and share personal experiences while expressing gratitude and advocating for cancer research.
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13 snips
Sep 4, 2023 • 1h 8min

#154 Remix: Tornadoes, Unicorn Meat, and Hypergrowth Sales

"Remix: Tornadoes, Unicorn Meat, and Hypergrowth Sales" features industry experts Mike Clayville, Marcy Campbell, Dan Shapero, Jim Herbold, and Chris Degnan. They discuss building sales operations in rapidly-growing companies, including first principles, successful sales motions, effective sales leadership, "unicorn meat" theory, and pivotal sales strategies.
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13 snips
Nov 2, 2022 • 40min

Chris Degnan (Snowflake): Selling in a Recession

Chris Degnan, CRO at Snowflake and software sales legend, shares insights on selling in a recession. Topics include the mindset and action plan for sales reps, addressing challenges, understanding customer pain, having genuine conversations, and driving cost savings. They also discuss pipeline generation, personal accountability, and strategies for selling in a challenging economic environment.

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