Chargebee's Champions of Change Podcast

Jodi McDermott, Chief Product Officer at Dude Solutions, is Vikram's guest on the podcast this week. A data-driven product executive with more than 20 years of experience in digital technology, analytics, and product management, Jodi has worked with companies such as Gartner, comScore, Inc, and SHL during her illustrious career. She brings this vast amount of experience and knowledge to her conversation with Vikram here today.During the interview, Jodi discusses such topics as agile development, strategic planning, product growth, and the importance of prioritizing specific activities to achieve business outcomes. She then looks at how to ensure client satisfaction and upsell a client, financial concepts like budgeting, the impact of COVID-19 on her business, and how building strong relationships with people are critical. Jodi and Vikram finish by discussing how different business functions need to come together while crafting a product strategy. Listen in today to learn all about strategic planning, growth, and product management from this truly outstanding leader in the field.The Finer Details of This Episode -Questions you need to ask during the strategic planning process -The importance of conducting research and listening to your customers -How to find a product-market fit -The things that go into the product growth phase -The importance of empathy during a crisis -Aspects to consider during a merger or an acquisition -Involving your team members in the strategic planning process

In today's episode, Vikram welcomes Shelley Perry, the CEO and Managing Director at Scalelogix Ventures, which is a company focused on guiding scaler founders and leaders to navigate their growth stage. As someone who lives and breathes growth challenges, Shelley has a lot of wisdom to share in terms of playing the scale game, making smart bets, and coming out of a crisis stronger. Vikram and Shelley start the conversation by reflecting on prior recessions and the main differences between them. Then, Shelley goes on to share her key learnings about the impact of recessions on businesses. According to her, there are some significant opportunities to pursue during these slowdowns, both for businesses and their people.Next, Shelley shares an interesting analogy that she calls 'the messy middle' in which she compares business scaling to those complex teenage years when you want to be both an adult and a child. But as she points out, when it comes to scaling a startup, you have to first spend some time being a child in order to develop the business properly. Then, once it's up and running, you can finally be an adult. Then, Shelley shares some key takeaways regarding startup scale and growth. She says that if you want to grow your company, you should listen to what the data tells you and learn from it as much as possible. Finally, she suggests laying out all the puzzle pieces, making a conscious choice of your next business moves, and always keeping your finger on the pulse of your business.The Finer Details of This Episode:Looking at the recession through different lensesWhat we can learn from prior recessionsThe messy middle analogy Scaling a startup by looking at what the data tells us Having constructive conversations during tough timesUnderstanding that everything in your business is tightly connectedLetting go of the old to make room for something newLaying out puzzle pieces and making conscious business choices

On the podcast today, Vikram welcomes James Solomons, an entrepreneur, renowned speaker, business leader, and enthusiastic podcast host. James currently serves as the CFO and C0-CEO of Xref, a global reference checking and identity verification platform that empowers organizations worldwide to make great people decisions. James has spent most of his time in public practice, evolving from a tax accountant to a CFO, and today, he shares with us this remarkable career journey and the importance of the evolution of CFOs and organizations as a whole.James begins by discussing the origin of Xref, how Xref eases the hiring process in the workforce, and the transformation of his career, starting out as a tax accountant but growing to become a CFO. He also reviews the rules he follows as a CFO, and explains one of his favorite phrases, “Humanize the numbers”, which essentially means breaking down numbers in languages that teams aside from finance can clearly understand. Being a hiring company, the great resignation affected Xref significantly and James shares some of the changes that he had to make as the CFO in response. The show rounds off as James advises those in the workforce to always invest in referenceable relationships.The Finer Details of This Episode:The story of XrefJames' career journeyHis evolution from accountant to CFOBecoming a cyber-resilient CFOThe impact of the great resignation on James and XrefJames' interesting statisticsInvesting in referenceable relationships

Joining Vikram on the show today is Julien Balmont, the Co-founder and CTO of Zenchef, a Paris-based restaurant management platform. When it began in 2011, Zenchef was an online directory of menus, and, in 2014, they pivoted to a marketing management platform that helps restaurants feel the digital presence, manage their websites, and speak to customers directly. Currently, they aim to scale their current customer base of a little over 6,000 customers to 25,000 by 2024.Today, Julien talks about scaling up and the challenges of building an Agile team, as well as what sparked the Zenchef idea, how it evolved, and the different components of the Zenchef software. He then defines Agile and how he leveraged its principles to scale and goes on to emphasize the value of customer-centricity in scaling. Julien also notes that, when times got tough, Zenchef utilized the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) methodology to steer the business back in the right direction. Finally, Julien explains how working together as a group plays into the hard metrics like lifetime value and customer retention.The Finer Details of This Episode:0:00 Introduction1:29 What sparked Zenchef4:02 How Zenchef has leveraged the Agile mindset to help scale9:15 How to rectify misalignment of teams when scaling11:54 Zenchef's response to the pandemic challenges 14:51 Julien's key learnings/unlearnings from his Zenchef journey17:49 How good team relationships play into the hard metrics 19:26 Julien's thoughts on Zenchef's recent acquisition of Billee21:21 Julien's recommendation for dining in Paris

Joining Vikram on the podcast today is Clementine Svartz, the Head of Finance at Spendesk, a company that makes corporate spend management easy. Spendesk recently joined the Unicorn Club mid-2021 and has experienced exponential growth right from its inception. Despite the challenges that come with a fast-paced growing company like Spendesk, Clementine and her team run a tight financial ship. Today, she shares her expertise on how SaaS companies can experience growth in their finances as well as her thoughts regarding the role of a financial controller in a company.Clementine begins by sharing the outstanding growth Spendesk has experienced year over year and the part she has played as the head of finance. She discusses the metrics and KPIs that come into play when measuring the financial growth at Spendesk, and also discusses how the role of the financial controller has evolved over time, thanks to automation and digitalization. The episode comes to a close with Clementine sharing useful tips for finance controllers and those looking to improve their knowledge in tech finance – insights that you absolutely cannot afford to miss.The Finer Details of This Episode:0:00 Introduction1:40 Spendesk's growth over the years4:25 How Clementine balances growth and cost as Spendesk's Head of Finance 7:46 Metrics and KPIs used to measure growth in a SaaS company 8:52 The role of financial controllers in fundraisers 13:21 How to develop a new mindset as a financial controller 16:21 Implementing the use of technology to improve the finance industry 20:09 Using metrics to make timely decisions23:33 Advice for those looking to learn about tech finance in SaaS

Today, the remarkably gifted leader, teacher, coach, and thinker, Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia joins Vikram on the podcast. In 2014, Carlos founded Product School, now the global leader in product management training. With over a million members, including mentors from companies like Google, Facebook, Netflix, Airbnb, PayPal, Uber, and Amazon, Product School boasts an enviable network of individuals, and is the largest community of product managers in the world. Like most product managers, Carlos has several talents up his sleeve. Besides building Product School, he's written a book called The Product Book, organizes conferences such as ProductCon, and is a self-taught orator who's spoken at more than a thousand events and conferences around the world.Carlos discusses the origins of Product School, a solution that helps people build data products much more efficiently than traditional education, and goes on to explain the types of product managers and their roles and responsibilities. He also identifies one all-encompassing quality of product managers: they are generalists, not specialists. Carlos then takes us through a day in a product manager's life, how product managers handle all the functions they deal with, and why they need to be rich in empathy. Throughout this episode, Carlos shares the wisdom garnered during Product School's eight-year growth journey, including how to scale without compromising quality.The Finer Details of This Episode:0:00 Introduction1:23 Product School4:26 The growth journey of Product School7:14 How to scale without compromising quality10:01 Different types of product manager12:57 The different functions product managers work with and the empathy needed for each15:14 How to know when you have a product-market fit19:24 The evolution of product management22:32 Carlos' top product management frameworks and methodologies24:57 Carlos' startup advice

Joyce Mackenzie Liu, CFO and Co-Founder of Pegafund, joins Vikram on the podcast today. Having worked at the intersection of Financial Services and Technology since 2007, Joyce has been an advisor, investor, and board member of European and US B2B software companies. She was a venture and early growth investor at Columbia Lake Partners, a Bessemer-backed European debt fund, and Dawn Capital, a London-based B2B Software equity fund. Joyce started Pegafund last year to provide full-stack, modern CFO services with a focus on SaaS go-to-market and funding strategy, growth planning, revenue operations, as well as cash and controls support. In this episode, she begins by describing Pegafund and her reasons for starting it, and goes on to highlight the differences between European and US Saas startups, the pitfalls she has observed in startup decision-making, and the concept of financial sprints. Joyce also shares her thoughts on making companies agile, the importance of investing in finance and operations early on, and balancing growth acceleration with financial health preservation. Joyce's high level of expertise is on full display as she provides listeners with an abundance of insightful and valuable information and advice in today's thought-provoking conversation.The Finer Details of This Episode- Pegafund and why Joyce started it- The differences between European and US SaaS startups- The pitfalls Joyce has observed in the evolution of decision-making in startups- Financial sprints- Making a company agile from the start- The importance of investing in finance and operations early in an organization's journey- Balancing growth acceleration with financial health preservation

Joining Vikram on the podcast today is Tyler Sloat, the CFO at FreshWorks who is championed as someone instrumental in securing IPOs for SaaS businesses. Prior to joining Freshworks, Tyler had taken two companies public, POET Software and Zuora. Today, Tyler shares with us insights on the role of CFOs and how to get your SaaS business ready to go public.Tyler shares his story of how he took an interest in business at a young age. He then describes the similarities and differences between Zuora and Freshworks when they were going public and how his job as a CFO differed in both organizations based on a number of aspects. Tyler explains that the role of the CFO has dramatically transformed over time, leaning into different roles, and he also shares the metrics he and his team use to determine the readiness of an organization before going public. He also discusses the importance of tracking predictability and forecasting when getting IPO-ready, and throughout the episode, shares useful information for CFOs and others who are on the journey of making the decision to take their business public.The Finer Details of This Episode:How Tyler's interesting childhood shaped his view of the future The process of taking Zuora and Freshworks public How the role of the CFO has evolved over the years What is the operational and executional readiness of an organization? Achieving accuracy and predictabilityWhy you should track predictability before going publicMetrics used for accountabilityThings Tyler would have done differently

Joining Vikram on the show today is Scott Leese, a mentor coach, and leader in the field of start-up sales. He is currently the founder of Surf and Sales, an alternative to a sales conference, and the author of two bestselling books on Amazon. In addition, he is the Co-Founder of Scott Lease Consulting, a firm that helps people with sales strategy and processes.After his 23rd birthday, Scott started battling autoimmune diseases, ulcerative colitis, and a colon cancer scare. After starting his career at the age of 27, Scott quickly moved up the ladder and went on to lead the sales function at companies. As you listen, you'll learn about Scott's journey from being a sales leader to starting his own company. Scott discusses topics like why businesses need a playbook and the importance of adding value to your customers. Then, Scott reviews the mistakes firms make when it comes to sales and scaling up their businesses, and he finishes up by discussing his offbeat sales communities and how people can join them.

Joining Vikram on the show today is Elizabeth Salomon, Chief Financial Officer at Xactly Corp. Having chosen finance as her career early on, Elizabeth worked with Ernst and Young, was nominated for the post of Accounting Fellow at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and went on to hold finance leadership roles in the technology industry. Elizabeth has been a CFO at software companies for the past 12 years, and has led multiple merger and acquisition turnarounds, launched multi-unit auditing programs, and driven performance improvement initiatives.In today's episode, Elizabeth discusses navigating through a crisis and stresses the importance of maintaining the fine line between cutting down on expenses and making new investments. She also discusses how data can be used to obtain new insights, taking risks, writing down scenarios, as well as making assumptions, and testing whether the assumptions were correct. Elizabeth ends by discussing how a CFO's role may intertwine with other roles in the future. A true leader in her field, Elizabeth Salomon has a great deal of experience, knowledge, and wisdom to share with listeners here today.

Joining Vikram on the podcast today is Laura Marino, Chief Product Officer at TrueAccord, a company that helps people struggling with debt achieve financial health. A teacher, board member at “Leading Women in Technology,” strategist, and mergers and acquisitions expert, Laura possesses a vast amount of knowledge and wisdom gained through extensive experience which she shares with Vikram and listeners here today.In this episode, Laura discusses the mistakes that companies make during the growth stage of their startup, and the importance of proper processes and hiring the right people for your team. She goes on to explain the importance of communicating efficiently and ensuring that business activities are performed in line with a company's mission, vision, and goals. Laura also looks at how women have a tendency to shy away from speaking up in the technology sphere, why it is important to have diversity in your team and finishes up by expressing her love for teaching and how it inspires her to apply new concepts to her business. Listen in today to discover the secrets to Laura's stellar success and learn how they can help your organization reach its goals as well.

Joining Vikram on the podcast today is the number one influential conversion rate optimization expert in the world - Peep Laja. In 2011, Peep founded CXL, a company that brings advanced-level marketing training to next-generation marketers, training them on growth, customer acquisition, analytics, and conversion optimization. He founded Wynter to bring insights to marketing copy to improve conversion rates. Today, Peep is a serial entrepreneur and top conversion expert, having raised three successful businesses.Peep begins by sharing his journey as an entrepreneur and how he started as a freelancer earning money by doing PPC, SEO, and light consulting. He delves into the growth of CXL and why it was necessary to build a company like CXL. He also discusses how CXL could stand out from the crowd by focusing on the conversion optimization niche. Peep talks about the importance of being innovative to let your company and product stand out throughout the episode. The episode ends with some advice from Peep to budding marketers who are just starting their career or looking to improve: be ambitious, be around ambitious people, and aim to become the best.

Joining Vikram on the podcast today is the CEO of Women in Product, Elizabeth Ames. Throughout her career, Elizabeth has been a strong advocate of women technologists, and has held various leadership positions in marketing and strategy at such companies as Apple, Verifone, Plastic Logic, and RETHINK Partners, where she was Founder and CEO. In her work as Senior Vice President of Strategic Marketing at the Anita Borg Institute prior to her current role, Elizabeth was instrumental in both scaling up their revenue and establishing it as a platform to help women in tech voice their views.In today's interview, Elizabeth begins by describing her organization, Women in Product, reviewing the importance of having more women in product and technology, and offering advice to help companies become more inclusive. She then goes on to explain collaborative leadership, fixed vs. learning mindsets, and how to create an inclusive culture and build community. Elizabeth draws the conversation to a close by sharing words of wisdom for those at 3 particular points in their careers. Elizabeth Ames' extensive knowledge and experience are on full display in her conversation with Vikram here today, rendering this yet another episode you simply can't afford to miss.

Vikram welcomes Heidi Lasker, VP of Customer Success, Americas at Bynder, to the podcast this week. As you will hear, Heidi is a proven data-driven Customer Success leader who is fully focused on growing and managing teams that drive customer adoption, retention, expansion, and advocacy. Through her work, she has become a spokesperson for humanizing customer experiences, making her the perfect person to discuss the many aspects of building organizations boasting customer success cultures.Heidi is absolutely overflowing with information and advice as she reviews customer success trends, explains the role of the Customer Success Department, and then delves into the many aspects that go into creating and maintaining a customer-centered culture within the organization. Along the way, she addresses ensuring a unified voice across all channels, the key pillars in customer success, focusing on objectives and key results, the sales side of her job, and customer health score tracking. All of this leads to her concluding thoughts regarding the need for investing in customer success as early as possible in the life of an organization. As you listen in today, you will undoubtedly agree that Heidi's passion, knowledge, and insight into her work here today render this episode, as Vikram notes, ‘a phenomenal learning experience'.

Today, Vikram welcomes Jean Patrick, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of ScaleUp Edge to the podcast. A strategic C-level executive who brings a breadth of knowledge from a variety of industries to build, scale and transform organizations from small to large public companies, Jean uses her expertise in client account management and strategy to transform underperforming businesses into profitable companies. In essence, she helps companies grow and follow strategies that help them become successful, and today she shares with listeners her vast amount of knowledge and expertise in this area.The podcast starts with insights from Jean regarding topics like the stages of scaling a business, as well as the importance of letting employees make decisions and saving resources and time. Jean also discusses how leaders must focus on teams rather than individuals while making critical hiring decisions, and explains data-driven transformation processes and metrics and how critical it is to give team members access to metrics. She concludes by discussing how multiple factors like analytics, communication skills, and how well the team works together impact success. Jean's nuggets of wisdom, combined with her real-life experiences, will benefit anyone who's looking to level up their business.

GetAccept's VP Sales and Growth Marketing, Dailius Wilson, popularly known as DW, joins Vikram for today's podcast. An enigmatic person with a heap of accomplishments to his name, Dailius appeared on the Ellen show and is also part of the Anthill 30under30. Dailius is now one of the most sought-after thought leaders in sales, and his writings have been published by Tony Robbins, Guy Kawasaki, Hubspot & others. Most recently, Dailius launched Sales Research Labs, which brings together a repository of the best sales research tools without any cost or bias.In this episode, Dailius discusses his journey in the sales industry, how he started at GetAccept as a customer and his transition from B2C sales to B2B. He explains the difference between humanizing conversations and personalizing ones. He further delves into the critical pieces of marketing and provides tips on keeping the sales process fresh. Towards the end, Vikram unearths Dailius' secrets for creating a company that customers would profess their love for and the dos and don'ts of building an authentic voice online.They conclude with a talk about Dailius' new project, which involves sales vendors and sales leaders coming together to create research reports that are free from bias, thus creating a free tool that can pinpoint pain points and find technical solutions for sellers based on research reports.

Vikram's exceptional guest on the podcast today has worked for many years and is currently a partner at Accel, Shekhar Kirani. With over 25 years of experience in business and tech leadership roles across several startups and large companies in the US, Shekhar specializes in investing in early-stage software and mobile startups that help enterprises. During his extensive career, he has led investments in ANSR, BrowserStack, CareStack, Cogoport, FalconX, Freshworks, and Zenoti, and he also played a crucial role in the seed stage funding of Chargebee.Shekhar begins by sharing his secret to juggling different startup contexts, the roles he played before becoming an investor, and some of the many lessons he has learned over the years, including the importance of onboarding, understanding the customer first, and the traits he looks for in early-stage companies. He also provides some advice regarding dealing with early-stage ‘haziness' and a glimpse into his prediction framework, thoughts around social consciousness from startups and technologies, and the product he sees the greatest need these days. Gifted with intellect, experience, and eloquence, Shekhar Kirani's insights are precious and will both educate and inspire listeners here today.

Joining Vikram on the podcast today is one of the most prolific marketers within the SaaS industry, Bill Macaitis. For the very few who may not know, Bill has served as the Chief Revenue Officer and the Chief Marketing Officer at Slack, where he was instrumental in helping it become the fastest-growing B2B company ever to hit $100M in annual recurring revenue in just two years. He has also served as the leading go-to-market executive at both Zendesk and Salesforce, and, these days, Bill helps other companies achieve hyper-growth employing a unique customer-centric approach, through his company, Macaitis Advisory.Bill begins by sharing his perspective on how B2B brands can be unique, some examples of using humor in marketing, the things he has done differently to delight customers, and the concept of products being developed ‘out of pain'. He offers his views on the ‘magic' he has brought to companies and the components that go into it, such as finding a larger mission, changing hearts and minds, accessing the beginner mindset, and maintaining ensuring that marketing is communicating value rather than simply being annoying. Bill concludes by sharing his main takeaway for marketers gleaned from his vast experience in, and keen insight into, the field. As you will hear, Bill brings his trademark sense of humor and delight which he injects into marketing to this highly informative and thoroughly entertaining interview here today.

Change is the only constant in every part of our life - be it how we work, how we live, how we learn, it forces us to make the right decisions without giving us the choice of looking back at history and convention to know what's right. I am Vikram Bhaskaran. This is Chargebee's Champions of Change podcast, where we talk to change-makers who have walked before us, built businesses on first principles, and unearth their tips and tricks to identify change and turn that into opportunity. Remember, you're just one decision away from being a change-maker.