The Pocus Unlocking Revenue Podcast

Ever wonder what happens behind the scenes when a company goes public?Looking for real insights on how to position yourself for career growth at high-growth companies?Danielle from Figma experienced their IPO journey firsthand and is sharing what it's really like—plus the career frameworks that got her there.Danielle navigated an unconventional path from operations to sales and back to senior ops at one of the world's most successful design companies. She developed unique frameworks for understanding different leadership archetypes and built her career by following great leaders instead of chasing specific job titles.Now she's opening up about the IPO experience and the strategic career moves that positioned her to be part of Figma's incredible growth story.We covered:✅ IPO reality check: What it's actually like to experience a company going public and how it changes everything✅ Career pivot mastery: How to strategically move between ops and sales roles without losing momentum✅ Leadership archetypes: Frameworks for understanding the 3 types of COOs and 2 types of sales leaders—and which companies need what

In this engaging conversation, Ayub Mohammed, VP of Small Business and Mid-Market Sales at RingCentral, shares his extensive experience in adapting sales strategies for an AI-driven landscape. He discusses the shift from traditional sales methods to AI-powered prospecting and the importance of unique approaches in a commoditized market. Ayub offers insights on balancing bottom-up experimentation and top-down practices for AI adoption. He also emphasizes the role of mentorship, self-reflection, and continuous learning in navigating the evolving sales environment.

Bill Dwoinen, CRO of Mural, dives into his transition from enterprise giant to agile CRO, exploring the wins, surprises, and hard-learned lessons that every sales leader needs to hear.Bill has led revenue teams at some of the biggest names in tech, including Slack and Salesforce. Now, as CRO at Mural, he's applying those lessons to build scalable processes and high-performing teams in a completely different context.The world of GTM has changed more in last 3 years than in the previous 30, Bill dives into how things have shifted from tech stack choices, team enablement, and hiring. What we covered:- The reality of big company vs. startup GTM - What surprised Bill most about transitioning from Slack/Salesforce to Mural CRO- Building high-performing teams that scale - The core values and leadership habits Bill prioritizes when growing revenue organizations- Partnership-driven growth strategies - Real results from Bill's approach to tool selection and team enablement (including his partnership with Pocus)- The future of work in an AI world - How Bill is thinking about differentiation and team building as AI transforms salesAbout Bill DwoinenBill Dwoinen is Chief Revenue Officer at Mural with over 20 years of experience scaling revenue teams. His career includes leadership roles at Slack and Salesforce, where he built high-performing global teams and crafted winning go-to-market strategies. Bill is passionate about operational excellence and mentoring the next generation of sales leaders.

Need direction on how to evolve RevOps from an order-taking function to a strategic growth partner?Looking to master the art of capacity modeling and avoid the costly mistakes of over-hiring or under-hiring?Avtar is a RevOps veteran who has built RevOps from scratch at four different companies. Currently at Benchling, he's transformed RevOps from a reporting function into a strategic partnership with sales leadership that drives real business impact.Avtar has mastered the delicate balance of being data-driven while enabling quick decision-making in dynamic GTM environments.Here's what we covered:✅ From Order-Taker to Strategic Partner: How to transform your relationship with CROs and become a data-backed strategic leader rather than just pulling reports✅ The Three-Layer Analysis Framework: Avtar's proven approach to turn raw data into strategic recommendations without falling into analysis paralysis✅ The Future of RevOps: How AI is transforming the function and what it means for RevOps professionals in the next era of GTMAbout Avtar VarmaAvtar brings extensive revenue operations expertise to his role as VP of Global Revenue Operations at Benchling, where he leads strategic growth initiatives across the entire revenue organization. His background includes building and scaling RevOps functions at high-growth SaaS companies like Sonar and People.ai. A Duke University graduate with AWS certifications, Avtar specializes in transforming RevOps from tactical reporting to strategic revenue leadership through data-driven capacity modeling and executive partnership development.

The era of "growth at all costs" is dead. Revenue leaders are scrambling to do more with less. Most are still running outdated playbooks designed for when capital was free.Peter Borkovich, VP of Revenue at Vidyard, shares his blueprint for running ultra-efficient revenue organizations that thrive in today's challenging environment.With over two decades at high-growth companies like Salesforce, InVision, and Yotpo, Peter has pioneered frameworks that achieve sustainable growth while maximizing efficiency. In this conversation, we dove into Peter's philosophy of "growth through efficiency" and explored how the most effective revenue leaders are using AI to drive this efficiency. What we covered:- Master the "Do More with Less" Framework - how to serve your customers with half the resources by focusing on optimization not volume.- Build Anti-Fragile Revenue Systems - Develop operating rhythms that let you run lean teams efficiently with frameworks for making smart decisions during market uncertainty - Deploy Purpose-Built AI That Actually Works - Learn Peter's methodology for implementing AI tools that move the needle while avoiding million-dollar ROI traps.- Navigating market uncertainty with conservative growth - Why over-hiring is worse than under-hiring and how to make smart decisions in unpredictable timesAbout Peter BorkovichPeter brings over 20 years of revenue operations expertise to his role as VP of Revenue at Vidyard, where he leads the entire revenue organization including business development, renewals, and customer success. His background includes senior leadership positions at Salesforce, InVision, and Yotpo, where he specialized in building scalable revenue systems and optimizing conversion rates

Tired of marketing teams that chase vanity metrics instead of moving the needle?Ready to challenge the "data-driven everything" orthodoxy that's paralyzing your team's execution?Stef Miller, Global Campaigns leader at Udemy, is sharing her contrarian playbook for building marketing teams that actually drive business growth.Stef brings a unique perspective from scaling marketing operations across high-growth SaaS companies and working with brands like Facebook and US Bank. She's passionate about cutting through marketing BS and sharing frameworks that create real impact, which is why she's joining us for this no-holds-barred conversation.We're diving deep into Stef's most controversial takes—like why "data-driven" decision making can kill momentum and why alignment culture often becomes an excuse for inaction.What You'll Learn:✅ Why "data-driven" marketing isn't always smarter — When intuition and speed trump endless analysis (this will challenge everything you think you know)✅ The alignment trap — Why too much consensus kills momentum and what accountability-first culture looks like in practice✅ Scaling secrets — How to build marketing teams from 2 to 50 people without losing effectiveness or diluting impactAbout StefStef Miller leads Global Campaigns at Udemy, blending brand, demand, and go-to-market strategy to drive business growth. With a background spanning high-growth SaaS companies and working for brands like Facebook and US Bank, she brings deep B2B expertise, executive clarity, and a collaborative leadership style that inspires teams and connects with audiences around the world.

Frank Perkins, CRO Chief of Staff at Datadog, transforms our understanding of sales prospecting. With his extensive background at Salesforce and Apple, he reveals how traditional methods are rapidly becoming obsolete. Expect AI agents to handle the early sales cycle, while humans engage later in the process. Perkins shares his innovative approach from predictability to efficacy, highlights the rise of 'agents selling to agents,' and sparks debate on AI's impact on critical thinking in sales. The future is here, and it's digital!

Want to learn how to scale your sales career alongside a fast-growing company?Looking for real advice on navigating the path from SDR to AE to sales leadership?Mike Stevenson from DocuSign shares his playbook for building a successful sales career over nearly two decades, including how he's scaled himself through 11 years at one company.Mike has led teams across the full spectrum—from SMB to Enterprise, from individual contributors to sales development reps, spanning North America and EMEA. He's had a front-row seat to DocuSign's evolution from the world's leading e-signature point solution to a comprehensive Intelligent Agreement Management platform.We covered:Scaling with your company: How to evolve your skills and role as your company grows and changesCareer progression secrets: The early advice that helped Mike build his sales career over two decades Prospecting mastery: Why prospecting is art vs. science, and how the approach differs for AEs vs. SDRsSDR to AE transition: What it really takes to make the jump to Account Executive in 2025About MikeWith nearly 2 decades of sales experience ranging from SMB to Enterprise, Mike has led teams of both full sales cycle Account Executives and Sales Development reps across North America and EMEA. Currently, Mike leads the Docusign Majors teams in the evolution of Docusign from the world's leading e-Signature product—which was more of a point-solution, demand-plan based sale—to a platform sales motion with their Intelligent Agreement Management solution.

Brian LaManna, an Enterprise Account Executive at Gong and founder of ClosedWon, shares his impressive sales journey and insights. He dives into signal-based prospecting, revealing best practices for account prioritization and effective client research. LaManna discusses how to leverage AI tools for enhanced sales efficiency, providing actionable strategies to streamline workflows. He emphasizes authentic content creation on LinkedIn, blending social selling with personal connection to build his 90K+ follower community. Prepare for a shift in your sales approach!

Need direction on how a PLG motion and cold outbound prospecting can work in harmony?Looking for tips on how to avoid the “dev tool trap?”Marcus Holm, CRO of LaunchDarkly, is a dev tool veteran who helped transition LaunchDarkly to an outbound-oriented, value sales-centric GTM organization.Prior to joining LaunchDarkly, he built the sales org zero to one at Forter, led Global Account Sales at VMWare, and held various sales leadership roles at Heptio and Cloudera.Marcus will be diving into LaunchDarkly's successful transition from purely PLG to a strong SLG motion where product-led and cold outbound prospecting live together in harmony. We covered:Avoiding the “dev tool trap” when transitioning from PLG to SLG motionBuilding personal brands in B2B (his take might surprise you!)AI hacks that are transforming both professional and personal workflows The future of unified intent signals in predictable pipeline generation About MarcusMarcus built his career through roles in tech sales and go-to-market leadership. Following positions at Cisco and Cloudera, he built all GTM functions from scratch at GPU database startup Kinetica. Marcus then joined Heptio to develop their global sales team, contributing to its acquisition by VMware. As CRO at security startup Forter, he led all GTM functions and implemented a value sales approach that drove significant revenue growth and valuation increases. Currently, Marcus serves as CRO at DevOps tooling company LaunchDarkly, where he's been for 18 months, transitioning the organization to an outbound-oriented, value sales-centric GTM strategy.