Traction

Learn how Grammarly scaled while staying true to its mission and values with Co-Founder Max Lytvyn. Topics include the importance of values in interviews, staying authentic in scaling companies, and the role of mission and values in company growth.

On this episode of the Traction podcast, I welcome Daniel Saks, Co-Founder & Co-CEO at AppDirect.   As more and more enterprises put employees in the driver’s seat to pick the right tools for their organizations, you need to balance between designing for both end-users and the IT department to stay competitive.   Daniel shares tips on how to transition from a traditional sales-led model to a product-led growth (PLG) model and how that transition helped AppDirect get more enterprise customers.   Specifically, Daniel will discuss: 1:29 - AppDirect's journey from startup to unicorn 5:55 - Pivoting from enterprise sales-led to PLG 10:52 - What PLG means and how companies should think about it 17:05 - Comparing enterprise sales to PLG 24:49 - Key traits for success when transitioning from sales-led to PLG 27:43 - Reducing the friction during transition in an 800-person company 34:02 - An example of a collaborative PLG project at AppDirect and the outcomes it produced 37:20 - Issues that deter collaboration, and solutions to improve collaboration 43:31 - Resources to implement PLG 47:24 - PLG metrics that drive the leading indicators of success 55:00 - Coming up with the price point for your first PLG offering   Learn more at https://tractionconf.io   Connect with Daniel Saks: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielsaks/   Learn more about AppDirect at https://www.appdirect.com/   This episode is brought to you by:   DuploCloud is a one-stop solution for all your DevOps cloud automation and compliance needs - from infrastructure provisioning and application deployment to security controls, compliance certification, and alerts. Visit https://duplocloud.com. Get two months free access by contacting info@duplocloud.com   Each year the U.S. and Canadian governments provide more than $20 billion in R&D tax credits and innovation incentives to fund businesses. But the application process is cumbersome, prone to costly audits, and receiving the money can take as long as 16 months. Boast automates this process, enabling companies to get more money faster without the paperwork and audit risk. We don’t get paid until you do! Find out if you qualify today at https://Boast.AI.   Launch Academy is one of the top global tech hubs for international entrepreneurs and a designated organization for Canada's Startup Visa. Since 2012, Launch has worked with more than 6,000 entrepreneurs from over 100 countries, of which 300 have grown their startups to seed and Series A stage and raised over $2 billion in funding. To learn more about Launch's programs or the Canadian Startup Visa, visit https://LaunchAcademy.ca  Content Allies helps B2B companies build revenue-generating podcasts. We recommend them to any B2B company that is looking to launch or streamline its podcast production. Learn more at https://contentallies.com

On this episode of the Traction podcast, host Lloyed Lobo of Boast.AI welcomes Yinon Costica, Co-Founder and VP of Product at Wiz.   Explosive growth is every startup’s dream but it’s not easy. It’s rarely ever a linear path.   Mistakes are inevitable. They can make or break your business’ success while you’re scaling your teams, troubleshooting your product, and onboarding your first clients.   In this episode, Yinon shares the mistakes the team at Wiz made early on that ended up helping their business skyrocket into exponential growth and become the fastest-growing cybersecurity company in the world.   Specifically, Yinon covers:   1:12 - The backstory behind Wiz 3:43 - Key developments that shape you as a founder 6:44 - Coming together to work with co-founders from a previous company 9:27 - Keeping the team together during the toughest times 13:27 - Becoming a $6 billion company in 18 months 17:18 - Key questions that founders should ask potential customers 21:12 - Picking initial questions to ask future customers 25:22 - Tactics to acquire customers early on 30:24 - How culture plays a role in scaling 37:07 - Recruiting too many employees 40:32 - How to prioritize what to build and what not to build 42:23 - What is product debt and how do you determine it within a company? 50:25 - How startups should think about building products with simplicity 54:49 - Key KPIs to measure success 1:00:14 - How to find people who don't require micromanagement   Learn more at https://tractionconf.io   Connect with Yinon Costica: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yinonc/?originalSubdomain=il   Learn more about Wiz at https://www.wiz.io/   This episode is brought to you by:   DuploCloud is a one-stop solution for all your DevOps cloud automation and compliance needs —from infrastructure provisioning and application deployment to security controls, compliance certification, and alerts. Visit https://duplocloud.com. Get two months free access by contacting info@duplocloud.com   Each year the U.S. and Canadian governments provide more than $20 billion in R&D tax credits and innovation incentives to fund businesses. But the application process is cumbersome, prone to costly audits, and receiving the money can take as long as 16 months. Boast automates this process, enabling companies to get more money faster without the paperwork and audit risk. We don’t get paid until you do! Find out if you qualify today at https://Boast.AI.   Launch Academy is one of the top global tech hubs for international entrepreneurs and a designated organization for Canada's Startup Visa. Since 2012, Launch has worked with more than 6,000 entrepreneurs from over 100 countries, of which 300 have grown their startups to seed and Series A stage and raised over $2 billion in funding. To learn more about Launch's programs or the Canadian Startup Visa, visit https://LaunchAcademy.ca    Content Allies helps B2B companies build revenue-generating podcasts. We recommend them to any B2B company that is looking to launch or streamline its podcast production. Learn more at https://contentallies.com  

On this episode of the Traction podcast, host Lloyed Lobo of Boast.AI welcomes Andres Botero, Chief Marketing Officer at BlackLine (Nasdaq: BL).   A successful customer advocacy program turns loyal customers into spokespeople for your brand, making it one of the most effective forms of marketing. According to Gartner, more than 75% of B2B buyers consult three or more sources before they make a purchase decision.   In this session, Andres shares the playbook for turning customers into spokespeople. Specifically, Andres covers:   3:47 - Skills that are fundamental to a marketing leader 6:51 - What is advocacy marketing 8:54 - Key ingredients for building an advocacy program 12:57 - How to identify and target ideal customers 19:20 - How to incentivize customers to give testimonials 22:32 - Tools to scale customer testimonials and referrals 25:57 - Proving the ROI of customer advocacy 30:33 - Key metrics to stay on top of for a smaller company 34:53 - How to manage referenceable assets   Learn more at https://tractionconf.io   Connect with Andres Botero: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andresmbotero/   Learn more about BlackLine at https://www.blackline.com/   This episode is brought to you by:   DuploCloud is a one-stop solution for all your DevOps cloud automation and compliance needs — from infrastructure provisioning and application deployment to security controls, compliance certification, and alerts. Visit https://duplocloud.com. Get two months free access by contacting info@duplocloud.com   Each year the U.S. and Canadian governments provide more than $20 billion in R&D tax credits and innovation incentives to fund businesses. But the application process is cumbersome, prone to costly audits, and receiving the money can take as long as 16 months. Boast automates this process, enabling companies to get more money faster without the paperwork and audit risk. We don’t get paid until you do! Find out if you qualify today at https://Boast.AI.   Launch Academy is one of the top global tech hubs for international entrepreneurs and a designated organization for Canada's Startup Visa. Since 2012, Launch has worked with more than 6,000 entrepreneurs from over 100 countries, of which 300 have grown their startups to seed and Series A stage and raised over $2 billion in funding. To learn more about Launch's programs or the Canadian Startup Visa, visit https://LaunchAcademy.ca    Content Allies helps B2B companies build revenue-generating podcasts. We recommend them to any B2B company that is looking to launch or streamline its podcast production. Learn more at https://contentallies.com

On this episode of the Traction podcast, host Lloyed Lobo of Boast.AI welcomes Craig Nile, VP Sales at Codat.   With experience helping grow some of the biggest names in SaaS, such as Salesforce and Slack, Craig shares the playbook for building and scaling enterprise sales teams from zero to a billion.  Specifically, Craig covers: 1:47 - The backstory behind the journey into sales 7:25 - When is the right time to bring in a sales leader? 11:10 - What the first 90 days look like as a new sales leader 14:13 - How smaller companies should think about sales quotas 19:06 - Key hires a sales leader should make 24:20 - What percentage of quota a BDR is responsible for generating 27:35 - Key traits for a BDR 29:55 - What quotas and comp look like for an account executive 33:32 - Favorite two questions to ask when interviewing sales reps 37:56 - Leading indicators to watch out for to make sure reps hit their numbers 42:16 - Favorite way to help account executives during sales cycles 48:13 - Different selling styles and when to use them 56:37 - How to enable a sales team 1:00-59 - How to leverage account-based marketing 1:08:33 - Advice for founders that doesn't get enough recognition   Learn more at https://tractionconf.io   Connect with Craig Nile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craignile/   Learn more about Codat at https://www.codat.io/ This episode is brought to you by:   DuploCloud is a one-stop solution for all your DevOps cloud automation and compliance needs - from infrastructure provisioning and application deployment to security controls, compliance certification, and alerts. Visit https://duplocloud.com. Get two months free access at https://lp.duplocloud.com/partner/traction    Each year the U.S. and Canadian governments provide more than $20 billion in R&D tax credits and innovation incentives to fund businesses. But the application process is cumbersome, prone to costly audits, and receiving the money can take as long as 16 months. Boast automates this process, enabling companies to get more money faster without the paperwork and audit risk. We don’t get paid until you do! Find out if you qualify today at https://Boast.AI.   Launch Academy is one of the top global tech hubs for international entrepreneurs and a designated organization for Canada's Startup Visa. Since 2012, Launch has worked with more than 6,000 entrepreneurs from over 100 countries, of which 300 have grown their startups to seed and Series A stage and raised over $2 billion in funding. To learn more about Launch's programs or the Canadian Startup Visa, visit https://LaunchAcademy.ca    Content Allies helps B2B companies build revenue-generating podcasts. We recommend them to any B2B company that is looking to launch or streamline its podcast production. Learn more at https://contentallies.com

On this episode of the Traction podcast, host Lloyed Lobo of Boast.AI welcomes Chandar Pattabhiram, Chief Marketing Officer at Coupa Software. With so much attention on Product-Market fit, many startups forget about Go-to-Market fit which is crucial for long term sustainable growth. Chandar discusses how to drive what he calls “speedboat marketing,” sharing strategies and hard-earned lessons from 25 years of scaling companies. Specifically, Chandar dives into: 4:11 - Why so many startups fail at "go to market fit" 6:39 - What is speedboat marketing? 9:08 - Key elements of speedboat marketing that companies can use to drive growth 10:58 - What is a flywheel? 15:40 - Educating the market before it exists 20:00 - Turning content into customer acquisition 23:39 - How to leverage allbound marketing 27:08 - How to turn your customers into advocates 31:36 - What you need to turn your startup into a megabrand 37:08 - How to build a great, infectious culture 41:10 - Best practices for communication 46:30 - Key roles and skills needed when you're building a new marketing team 51:43 - When is the right time to bring on a CMO 56:45 - Chandar's favorite movie stars and lessons he learned from them 58:46 - Coupa Software's tech stack Learn more at https://tractionconf.io Connect with Chandar Pattabhiram: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chandarp/ Learn more about Coupa Software at https://www.coupa.com/ This episode is brought to you by: DuploCloud is a one-stop solution for all your DevOps cloud automation and compliance needs - from infrastructure provisioning and application deployment to security controls, compliance certification, and alerts. Visit https://duplocloud.com. Get two months free access by contacting info@duplocloud.com Each year the U.S. and Canadian governments provide more than $20 billion in R&D tax credits and innovation incentives to fund businesses. But the application process is cumbersome, prone to costly audits, and receiving the money can take as long as 16 months. Boast automates this process, enabling companies to get more money faster without the paperwork and audit risk. We don’t get paid until you do! Find out if you qualify today at https://Boast.AI. Launch Academy is one of the top global tech hubs for international entrepreneurs and a designated organization for Canada's Startup Visa. Since 2012, Launch has worked with more than 6,000 entrepreneurs from over 100 countries, of which 300 have grown their startups to seed and Series A stage and raised over $2 billion in funding. To learn more about Launch's programs or the Canadian Startup Visa, visit https://LaunchAcademy.ca  Content Allies helps B2B companies build revenue-generating podcasts. We recommend them to any B2B company that is looking to launch or streamline its podcast production. Learn more at https://contentallies.com

On this episode of the Traction podcast, host Lloyed Lobo of Boast.AI welcomes Mada Seghete, Co-Founder at Branch. Driving growth doesn’t always mean hiring a big team and spending a lot of money. It starts with prioritizing activities that have the biggest reach and impact at the best ROI and moving towards your goal with high velocity. In this session, Mada shares the growth playbook that took Branch from 0 to $4 billion. She covers topics such as channels, demand, brand, community, team, tools, and metrics. Specifically, Mada dives into: 3:32 - The backstory of how Branch began 10:51 - Acquiring customers in the early days 14:56 - What marketing should look like on a tight budget 20:54 - Branch's three marketing pillars 25:25 - The steps for building a community early on 38:39 - How to build an international ambassador playbook 51:23 - Key traits for being/hiring ambassadors in different markets 54:23 - Tools and tips to manage multi-touch attribution 1:00:46 - Who to hire on your marketing from early stage to scale   Learn more at https://tractionconf.io Connect with Mada Seghete: https://www.linkedin.com/in/madalina/ Learn more about Branch at https://branch.io/   This episode is brought to you by: Each year the U.S. and Canadian governments provide more than $20 billion in R&D tax credits and innovation incentives to fund businesses. But the application process is cumbersome, prone to costly audits, and receiving the money can take as long as 16 months. Boast automates this process, enabling companies to get more money faster without the paperwork and audit risk. We don’t get paid until you do! Find out if you qualify today at https://Boast.AI. Launch Academy is one of the top global tech hubs for international entrepreneurs and a designated organization for Canada's Startup Visa. Since 2012, Launch has worked with more than 6,000 entrepreneurs from over 100 countries, of which 300 have grown their startups to seed and Series A stage and raised over $2 billion in funding. To learn more about Launch's programs or the Canadian Startup Visa, visit https://LaunchAcademy.ca  Content Allies helps B2B companies build revenue-generating podcasts. We recommend them to any B2B company that is looking to launch or streamline its podcast production. Learn more at https://contentallies.com

On this episode of the Traction podcast, host Lloyed Lobo of Boast.AI features a talk by Leah Solivan, General Partner at Fuel Capital and Founder of TaskRabbit from the in-person Traction Conference.   The idea for TaskRabbit came about in 2008 around the time the iPhone first launched, while Leah was living in Boston and bootstrapping the company.   In the process of bootstrapping, the entire trajectory of her journey changed. She went from being an engineer at IBM with no network or entrepreneur friends, all the way to raising her first million dollars in seed from a 15-minute meeting with Tim Ferriss.   Today, Leah shares lessons learned from her time at TaskRabbit, scaling the business from nothing to 40+ cities and acquisition by Ikea.   More specifically, Leah covers: 1:57 - The story of founding TaskRabbit: transitioning from an engineer to an entrepreneur and 5 tips to build a successful startup 2:32 - Why ideas are everywhere 6:51 - Experiencing vuja de, the opposite of déjà vu 8:02 - Why you should tell everyone about your idea 16:25 - The serendipitous network of happenings 17:41 - The importance of big, hairy, audacious goals 21:54 - A story about a big corporation with aggressive sales goals   Learn more at https://tractionconf.io   Connect with Leah Solivan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leahsolivan/   Learn more about Fuel Capital at https://www.fuelcapital.com/   This episode is brought to you by:   Each year the U.S. and Canadian governments provide more than $20 billion in R&D tax credits and innovation incentives to fund businesses. But the application process is cumbersome, prone to costly audits, and receiving the money can take as long as 16 months. Boast automates this process, enabling companies to get more money faster without the paperwork and audit risk. We don’t get paid until you do! Find out if you qualify today at https://Boast.AI.   Launch Academy is one of the top global tech hubs for international entrepreneurs and a designated organization for Canada's Startup Visa. Since 2012, Launch has worked with more than 6,000 entrepreneurs from over 100 countries, of which 300 have grown their startups to seed and Series A stage and raised over $2 billion in funding. To learn more about Launch's programs or the Canadian Startup Visa, visit https://LaunchAcademy.ca    Content Allies helps B2B companies build revenue-generating podcasts. We recommend them to any B2B company that is looking to launch or streamline its podcast production. Learn more at https://contentallies.com

On this episode of the Traction podcast, host Lloyed Lobo of Boast.AI welcomes Waseem Daher, Founder and CEO at Pilot.com.   Fundraising is never easy, but the right preparation can make all the difference.   Waseem joins us to share the KPIs and questions that investors look at during various stages of investment.   Waseem is a three-time founder with two successful exits (Ksplice acquired by Oracle and Zulip acquired by Dropbox) and he has recently raised $100+ million from Jeff Bezos (and other notable funds) at a $1.2 billion valuation.   Today, Waseem covers: 1:42 - The backstory behind how he got started 7:35 - Metrics investors may look at during a seed round 10:35 - Determining product market fit 16:02 - What drove the decision-making that led to a $1.2 billion valuation 17:17 - The right time to start fundraising 20:13 - The average process of raising capital and getting money in the bank 23:32 - Top factors driving valuation in the market 28:31 - Most crucial items in your data room 32:37 - Top three reasons why investors decide to invest in a company 38:38 - How founders should think about dilution 43:15 - Building your executive team 45:04 - Making sure everyone is aligned with your vision and values when you're not in the room 47:21 - What the CEO should focus on when the right team is in place   Learn more at https://tractionconf.io   Connect with Waseem Daher: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wdaher/   Check out Waseem's substack at https://waseem.substack.com/   Learn more about Pilot at https://pilot.com/   This episode is brought to you by:   Each year the U.S. and Canadian governments provide more than $20 billion in R&D tax credits and innovation incentives to fund businesses. But the application process is cumbersome, prone to costly audits, and receiving the money can take as long as 16 months. Boast automates this process, enabling companies to get more money faster without the paperwork and audit risk. We don’t get paid until you do! Find out if you qualify today at https://Boast.AI.   Launch Academy is one of the top global tech hubs for international entrepreneurs and a designated organization for Canada's Startup Visa. Since 2012, Launch has worked with more than 6,000 entrepreneurs from over 100 countries, of which 300 have grown their startups to seed and Series A stage and raised over $2 billion in funding. To learn more about Launch's programs or the Canadian Startup Visa, visit https://LaunchAcademy.ca    Content Allies helps B2B companies build revenue-generating podcasts. We recommend them to any B2B company that is looking to launch or streamline its podcast production. Learn more at https://contentallies.com

On this episode of the Traction podcast, host Lloyed Lobo of Boast.AI welcomes Sahir Azam, Chief Product Officer at MongoDB.   Sahir shares how MongoDB transformed from a traditional software company—sales driven, longer cycles, etc.—into more of a consumer-style self-service model.   Overseeing the growth of MongoDB’s Atlas, Sahir shares his learnings (the good, the bad, and the ugly) about building and bringing to market one of the fastest-growing cloud products of any scale (70% YoY, $400M ARR, 26K+ customers).   In this session, Sahir discusses: 7:44 - MongoDB sales-led model prior to going product-led 10:31 - What main KPIs were focused on 16:01 - Recommendations and best practices for building teams 20:07 - Tactics to make sure that cross-functional dialogue is happening regularly 26:57 - The ideal squad structure for a cross-functional team 32:46 - The product development framework at MongoDB 37:34 - Best practices for developing a go-to-market strategy for a product-led company 41:36 - Product marketing roles vs product manager roles 52:29 - What kickstarted growth for the MongoDB Atlas customer base 55:31 - Top pieces of advice that were learned the hard way 57:54 - Recommended books and resources   Learn more at https://tractionconf.io   Connect with Sahir Azam: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sahirazam/   Learn more about MongoDB at https://www.mongodb.com/   This episode is brought to you by:   Each year the U.S. and Canadian governments provide more than $20 billion in R&D tax credits and innovation incentives to fund businesses. But the application process is cumbersome, prone to costly audits, and receiving the money can take as long as 16 months. Boast automates this process, enabling companies to get more money faster without the paperwork and audit risk. We don’t get paid until you do! Find out if you qualify today at https://Boast.AI.   Launch Academy is one of the top global tech hubs for international entrepreneurs and a designated organization for Canada's Startup Visa. Since 2012, Launch has worked with more than 6,000 entrepreneurs from over 100 countries, of which 300 have grown their startups to seed and Series A stage and raised over $2 billion in funding. To learn more about Launch's programs or the Canadian Startup Visa, visit https://LaunchAcademy.ca    Content Allies helps B2B companies build revenue-generating podcasts. We recommend them to any B2B company that is looking to launch or streamline its podcast production. Learn more at https://contentallies.com