Metrics that Measure Up

Godard Abel, Founder and CEO of G2 is a pioneer in the world of B2B Software and SaaS reviews joins our host, Ray Rike to discuss the benefits of being a multiple-time CEO as he guides G2 into the next stage of growth and success. During the conversation, Godard and Ray cover a wide array of topics including:The benefit of being a multiple-time B2B SaaS Founder and CEOHow the experience of a Salesforce acquisition impacts perspectiveThe vision behind G2 and B2B Software Reviews (yesterday and tomorrow)How AI will change the B2B SaaS industryBuild or Buy a Large Language Foundational Model (LLM)Godard started by founding Big Machines on January 1, 2000, to build a company for the new millennium. During the "dot-com" bust, Godard learned the importance of customer focus and winning and keeping one customer at a time. The most important lesson Godard shared is the importance of continuous learning.G2 was founded 12 years ago, with the initial vision of becoming "Yelp for Software" which did not exist for B2B software and SaaS. This coincided with Marc Andreessen's "Software will eat the world" and Godard saw the opportunity to become the Amazon for buying B2B SaaS and Software.The journey to building G2 took a slight detour as Godard saw that building the audience of B2B software buyers to both provide reviews and then use reviews to inform their purchasing decisions. He simultaneously founded SteelBrick which was ultimately acquired by Salesforce.Back to G2 - the initial focus was on Sales and Marketing software as the buyers of revenue technology were more likely to share their experience online, especially compared to buyers of finance, HR, and infrastructure software. Some buyers of software who wrote the reviews even saw the published review as a career enhancement opportunity.What is the point of "critical mass" for B2B Reviews? The key was to have at least 20 reviews on the top 10 products, the reviews become more meaningful for the buyers. Then being able to rank on Google via SEO, becomes the point where monetizing B2B reviews is first possible - though getting to that point is and was a LONG journey. One of the techniques to get reviews includes incenting reviewers with gift cards.Another key approach is to progress on a category-by-category basis to build the critical mass of buyer reviews - and today G2 has over 2,300 different categories covered on their platform.Godard shared a few learnings from being acquired by Salesforce and then running a business unit within Salesforce. Godard highlighted the value of the V2MOM process, which begins with the vision and then the values that guide execution. Then write down the "methods" and "measurements" to ensure that the "how" is well understood and the measurements of success are well understood by everyone in the company. Godard said almost every meeting with Mark Benioff started with the V2MOM review, which included the measures of ACV bookings, year-over-year growth, pipeline, and where you stand against plan!The ultimate goal for G2 is to become a "Software Marketplace" that goes beyond being the leading Software/SaaS Reviews platform. Ultimately, Godard envisions moving beyond being a lead source for B2B SaaS/Software vendors, but even going beyond by enabling testing of the software to ultimate purchase - similar to what Amazon has done for retail.What are the metrics that G2 uses to measure the health of the business? The first thing Godard highlighted was the hiring of Chad Gold as CFO. The top metric is "Net New ARR" growth and then splitting that into growth from new customers and existing customers. The next metric is customer churn, and ensuring that maintaining and expanding existing ARR continues to grow as measured by NRR and GRR. Godard shared the importance of ensuring you fix Gross Revenue Retention is the first step to having good Net Revenue Retention.What is Godard's favorite SaaS Metric? He highlighted Net New ARR / Sales and Marketing expenses and the importance of calculating this metric by customer segments.The final topic was asking Godard HOW AI will change the B2B SaaS industry? Having the advantage of a large customer base and the associated data will serve as competitive moats as SaaS companies evolve into providing AI enabled value. Godard sees a combination of both existing vendors who have established the competitive moats and also native start-up AI companies both be winners in the AI era.If you are in a company that buys or sells B2B SaaS and Software, this conversation with Godard Abel, Founder and CEO of G2 is a great listen!!!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

B2B SaaS company IPOs in 2023 and 2024 are like those mythical creatures from a time long ago - you hear a lot about them but seldom see them today! Klaviyo broke that drought for SaaS IPOs by going public on September 20, 2023!!!Ryan Meadows is the Klaviyo Senior Vice President of Global Sales and has been at Klaviyo since they were less than $50M ARR and started as a Director of Sales five years ago.Selling Measurable value to customersMetrics that Matter to an Executive Sales LeaderThe keys to effective sales leadership in 2024 and beyondHow does the role of a sales leader change during the journey to IPO...and beyond? Ryan started with the comment that "titles do not matter" and that his 8 years at Hubspot were critical to helping Klaviyo scale. The first challenge when Ryan joined was how to build in the rigor of hiring great salespeople, have a repeatable and scalable sales process and ultimately build a long-term sustainable business.Over time that journey includes building a capability to scale to new markets, scale internationally, and develop a platform that goes beyond a single-point solution...and then build the sales capabilities to gain traction in those new markets while building the ability to sell a platform versus a single product.Moving up market to Enterprise-class customers begins with understanding the heightened expectations of the buyers. Aligning every GTM function and achieving success in the Enterprise Market as a top five company priority and goal was the starting point, and the core foundation required to find success in the upper end of the market.Next, we discussed the evolving expectations of the key stakeholders after a company goes public, AND as Ryan was appointed the SVP of Global Sales. Understanding how to manage an earnings call and increase forecast accuracy are core competencies required in a public company.  Moreover to continue achieving the growth expectations as a public company requires close, cross-functional collaboration that shares the focus and responsibilities of pipeline growth, win-rates, and customer retention and expansion.As Ryan grew into the SVP Global Sales role, beyond hiring great leaders who could run the day-to-day operations to hit the numbers, building close relationships with his peers in Marketing and Customer Success became a much higher priority as they ensured they were building a sustainable growth engine. A key to this collaboration was having "shared goals" that the head of sales, head of marketing, and head of partnerships all own and meet weekly to discuss how the pipeline for both new and expansion revenue is performing.Another interesting point is measuring success, Klaviyo's North Star metric is customer value, measured by "Klaviyo attributed value" which exceeds $50B for increased customer revenue created by the Klaviyo solution.If you aspire to scale a company to an initial public offering, and/or grow your B2B Sales organization from less than $50M ARR to IPO, this conversation with Ryan Meadows, Senior Vice President of Global Sales at Klaviyo is a great listen!!!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Tim Riitters, CFO at Gong sits down with our host Ray Rike to discuss the keys to successfully selling to a CFO. Tim provides a unique perspective as both a multiple time CFO and being the CFO at Gong who is helping to make a CFOs live easier with their Revenue Intelligence and AI enables forecasting solution!During this episode we cover four primary topics with Tim including:How Tim uses SaaS metrics to inform decision making at GongHow Gong uses SaaS metrics in board reporting and QBRsThe key considerations to understand when selling technology to a CFOFor anyone who is a SaaS CFO, aspires to be a SaaS CFO or has a desire to sell their solution to a CFO this episode includes insights and ideas that are valuable to each of you!!!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Patrick Smith, Chief Marketing Officer at Cvent joined our host Ray Rike to discuss the Future of B2B Events   including the latest trends and critical components required to engage attendees in 2024 and beyond.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Tony Jamous, Founder and CEO Oyster HR share his insights on the global employee strategy imperative and his insights into why global employment is so important to the world's economy. During this episode, Tony and our host, Ray Rike discuss a wide array of global employment topics including:The Sustainable CEO - the what, why and howWhy global employment is important to the world economyThe reality of global employees - it may surprise youThe top three challenges in implementing a global employee strategySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Brandon Redlinger, Vice President of Marketing joins our host Ray Rike to discuss his journey to becoming the head of marketing for Chili Piper, a leading B2B SaaS company. The topics they cover include:The path to VP Marketing and beyondThe benefit of building a personal LinkedIn brand and followingThe evolution of the B2B SaaS CMO roleHow will B2B Marketing evolve in the AI eraBrandon's first role was as a Sales Development Representative and then as an AE for a few years. Then he discovered his passion for technology and marketing, so he moved to the heart of B2B technology in the Bay Area and has held marketing roles at Demandbase working with Marketo founder, Jon Miller and then moving to Revenue.io and eventually to becoming the Head of Marketing at Chili Piper.Brandon first built his marketing experience in demand generation at both Engagio and Demandbase, and realized he needed to round out his marketing experience more and made the mode to Product Marketing at Revenue.io - that in retrospect was a good move to broaden his marketing experiences. Those roles were the foundation to becoming the VP of Marketing at Crosschq and now at Chili Piper.What surprised Brandon the most about his first role as the Head of Marketing? The first was learning how to manage internal politics and knowing how to "play the game" of getting things done and moving forward cross-functionally. Though Brandon initially bristled at the thought of "playing the game" he quickly realized it was about developing cross-functional relationships and communication skills to get peers on board and supportive of the marketing programs and priorities.Brandon just entered the VP Marketing role at Chili Piper and he shared some of the priority programs and initiatives he is working on first. With the introduction of new products and new ICPs, Brandon identified the need to tie use cases together and came up with the concept of "Demand Conversion" to sell a larger story and not a single-point solution - such as lead routing.Another key factor in Brandon's journey to becoming the head of Marketing was building his own LinkedIn brand. Brandon initially started his LinkedIn journey by seeing the number of profile visits to Jon Millers profile at Engagio, and he and a colleague started a shared journey to surpass Jon Miller's profile views - which is pretty impressive since Jon was the founder of Marketo and Engagio. The result was being invited to many podcasts as a guest and then being able to transfer that following to the company's brand.How important was Brandon's LinkedIn presence and following to getting his first and now second head of Marketing role? He says it did for sure and is especially important when the following are the same buyer personas that the hiring company sells their solution.How has the role of the CMO evolved? It all centers on the availability and usage of all the data to draw insights and then act upon finding the signal amongst all the noise. Brandon is convinced that the success of marketing leaders in the future is understanding and even being able to read and predict where the market is going - not just understanding where it is!If you are an early career Marketing professional or in your first head of Marketing role, this is a very informative and instructive conversation!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Henry Mizel, the Senior Vice President of Revenue Operations and Partnerships at Apollo.io has over 8 years of experience as a Revenue Operations professional. During today's episode Henry and our Host, Ray Rike discuss the evolution of Revenue Operations as a function and a profession including the below topics:The evolution of Revenue OperationsThe primary responsibilities and measurements of RevOpsRevOps - strategic function or a tactical departmentProduct function to GTM executives (Data Side)Examples of unique value deliveryIf you are a Revenue Operations professional or an executive leader interested in learning more about how RevOps is being leveraged at one of the highest growth B2B SaaS companies in the private market, this episode is a great listen!!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Private Equity (PE) firms are becoming a larger part of the exit optionality for B2B SaaS Founders and CEOs. Over the past few years, PE firms have gone down the market to evaluate companies in the $5M - $20M ARR range which was traditionally the domain of Venture Capital.In today's episode, we cover several aspects of being an Operating Partner at a Private Equity firm with Paul Stansik, Partner at ParkerGale Capital including:The role of an Operating Partner at a PE firmThe evolution of an Operating Partner over the past five yearsHow to work with a PE Operating Partner as a GTM executiveThe most concerning “metrics trends” over the last 12 monthsWhat CEOs should expect from their VP of SalesPaul started with the four primary roles of an operating partner in PE including: 1) Keeper of the standards and having a strong view and sense of what "good" looks like. Documenting the processes and associated measurements that lead to the strongest performance across customer acquisition, retention, and expansion.2) Being a strategic diplomat - nothing gets done unless there is an agreement in place as an operating partner does not "OWN" the process so they need to get the management team to a place of agreeing that something needs to be done and then agree to the "WHAT" of needs to be done.3) Help to keep score - many founders may not have yet implemented a robust measurement system across the GTM motions. Establishing those measurements provides more insight and predictability of how success is being measured and reported. This includes metrics definitions, instrumentation, and reporting cadence.4) Creating an environment and/or culture of the company that includes being supportive, yet demanding to ensure the investment is on track to provide the targeted return on investment.What are the current SaaS metrics trends that are most concerning? Paul highlighted that "quota attainment" in the 30% - 50% range is extremely concerning. What makes this level of quota achievement acceptable and what to do about it? If you are a CRO knowing that a low percentage of new reps will make quota and not doing something about it is a real problem. Paul posted an article on LinkedIn on "Why Sales Sucks" and this is the primary theme of the article.If you are working with or will be starting to work with an Operating Partner in a Private Equity firm this conversation is chalked full of great insights and ideas.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

How does being a World Series of Poker champion influence the entrepreneurial journey? That was one of the surprising insights that David Daneshgar, Co-Founder and CEO of Whippy shared during his appearance on this weeks episode.During David's conversation with our host, Ray Rike he shared his experiences and vision for AI enabled customer communications which including the below topics:How being a World Series of Poker Champion helps David as an entrepreneurThe promise, potential and reality of AI empowered customer communicationsCustomer Use Cases for AI enabled customer communicationsIf you are responsible for a company that has a large number of customers, and customer communications this episode provides thought provoking insights into how AI can not only enable but transform how companies interact and engage with their customers.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Nicolas Kopp, Founder of Rillet, discusses unique accounting challenges in recurring revenue models, importance of revenue recognition, and financial performance reporting. He shares insights on entering a mature market with a new product, common challenges in the market, and limitations of traditional accounting software for SaaS metrics.