The Platform Journey

In this episode, Mike Rosenbaum shares his experience and key learnings on what it really takes to build a powerful platform, drawing on his time leading product management and go-to-market strategy for core CRM products at Salesforce and as EVP of the Salesforce Platform team, to his current role leading Guidewire. The early innings of platform building at Salesforce (3:30)What you should be considering as you chart the platform course for your company (6:07)Getting crystal clear on what you mean by “platform” (8:28)What really made Salesforce unique (12:13)Mike’s cardinal rules for platform building (14:26)A realistic approach to failure (17:38)Always considering your customer’s perspective (23:18)What the highest level of platform looks like (27:40)Guest: Mike RosenbaumMike Rosenbaum is CEO of Guidewire Software, where he has overall responsibility for global strategy, organization, culture, and operations. He is passionate about building great teams and innovative products and platforms that deliver value for customers, partners, and shareholders. Prior to Guidewire, Mike led product management and go-to-market strategy for core CRM products at Salesforce and was also EVP of the Salesforce Platform team. He also served in the US Navy as a submarine officer. Mike’s unique leadership and cloud experience give him the capability to accelerate Guidewire’s role in the P&C industry.Host: Avanish SahaiAvanish Sahai is a Tidemark Fellow and has served as a Board Member of Hubspot since April 2018. Previously, Avanish served as the vice president, ISV and Apps partner ecosystem of Google from 2019 until 2021. From 2016 to 2019, he served as the global vice president, ISV and Technology alliances at ServiceNow. From 2014 to 2015, he was the senior vice president and chief product officer at Demandbase. Prior to Demandbase, Avanish built and led the Appexchange platform ecosystem team at Salesforce, and was an executive at Oracle and McKinsey & Company, as well as various early-to-mid stage startups in Silicon Valley.LinksFollow our guest, Mike RosenbaumFollow our host, Avanish SahaiLearn more about TidemarkYou can find the full transcript here. 

Having started out as a marketing applications company, HubSpot’s goal today is to be the number one platform for scaling companies.  In this episode, co-founder and CTO Dharmesh Shah shares some of the most important lessons he has learned on the journey since HubSpot’s founding in 2006.HubSpot’s journey to becoming a CRM platform (1:17)How to measure success as a platform (3:14)How to attract partners to the platform (5:52) and striking the balance between established partners and new native apps (8:01)Importance of being a joy to partner with (8:55) and culture of solving for the customer (11:51)It’s ok to have conflict and competition (14:32)Investing in the core vs opening up the platform (16:53)A couple platforms Dharmesh admires (25:45)Parting thoughts on monetization (28:36) Guest: Dharmesh ShahDharmesh Shah is co-founder and CTO of HubSpot. Prior to founding HubSpot in 2006, Dharmesh was founder and CEO of Pyramid Digital Solutions, which was acquired by SunGard Data Systems in 2005.  In addition to co-authoring “Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media and Blogs”, Dharmesh founded and writes for OnStartups.com -- a top-ranking startup blog and community with more than 700,000 members.  In 2013, Dharmesh published HubSpot’s Culture Code, which has garnered over five million views. Named an Inc. Founders 40 in 2016, he is an active member of the Boston-area entrepreneurial community, an angel investor in over 60 startups, and a frequent speaker on startups, inbound marketing, and company culture.Host: Avanish SahaiAvanish Sahai is a Tidemark Fellow and has served as a Board Member of Hubspot since April 2018. Previously, Avanish served as the vice president, ISV and Apps partner ecosystem of Google from 2019 until 2021. From 2016 to 2019, he served as the global vice president, ISV and Technology alliances at ServiceNow.  From 2014 to 2015, he was the senior vice president and chief product officer at Demandbase.  Prior to Demandbase, Avanish built and led the Appexchange platform ecosystem team at Salesforce, and was an executive at Oracle and McKinsey & Company, as well as various early-to-mid stage startups in Silicon Valley.About TidemarkTidemark is a venture capital firm, foundation, and community built to serve category-leading technology companies as they scale.  Tidemark was founded in 2021 by David Yuan, who has been investing, advising, and building technology companies for over 20 years.  Learn more at www.tidemarkcap.com.LinksFollow our guest, Dharmesh ShahFollow our host, Avanish SahaiLearn more about TidemarkYou can find the full transcript here.