Subscribed Podcast

Wayne McCulloch, author of The Seven Pillars of Customer Success, has more than 25 years experience in the software industry educating companies on the building blocks for Customer Success. He is a two time Chief Customer Officer, and ran global customer education services at HPE, IBM and Salesforce, and now he’s the Global Head of Customer Success at Google Cloud.  Wayne’s book is a manual for Customer Success teams - it gives the modern software company all the info on the best people, policies, and practices used to satisfy and delight customers at scale. Tune in to hear how customer success strategy, framework and metrics need to adapt in the Subscription Economy.

Marco Bertini is rewriting the rules of commerce. Instead of selling the “means” (products and services), he believes companies should adopt innovative revenue models to pursue the “ends” (actual outcomes). The key: reflect the value that customers actually derive from their purchases. Bertini is a professor of marketing at Esade and a visiting professor at the Harvard Business School.  He is also a senior advisor to the marketing, sales, and pricing practice at the Boston Consulting Group.  Marco is the co-author of the book The Ends Game: How Smart Companies Stop Selling Products and Start Delivering Value.  He received his doctorate from Harvard Business School and has previously served on the faculty at London Business School.

Georgiana Laudi is a SaaS growth advisor and marketing executive. She’s a strategic advisor at Elevate where she helps high-growth SaaS companies scale, and the co-founder of Forget the Funnel which helps SaaS marketing and growth leaders build customer-led strategies that result in revenue-generating outcomes. Before that, Georgiana was the former VP of Marketing at Unbounce and has nearly two decades of experience in marketing and growth, from early-stage startups to big brands like Yellow Pages and AskMen. We talk to Georgiana on what constitutes customer-led growth and the mindset shift required from subscription business leaders to operationalize it.

Michael Wolf is the Co-founder and CEO of Activate, the leading strategy and technology consulting firm for media, technology, and entertainment companies worldwide. He is a business strategist whose focus is on helping senior executives exploit growth opportunities and define the future of their businesses – all aimed at helping them win in the dynamic media and tech ecosystem. Previously, Michael was President and COO of MTV Networks and a managing partner at McKinsey & Company. We talk to Michael about Activate’s research on the impact of Covid-19 on media and technology businesses. We dig into the recently released Technology & Media Outlook 2021 report and the Rewire to Restart report which came out over the summer. For more, check out www.zuora.com/podcast

John Pineda is Partner-Director at the Boston Consulting Group. He’s a core member of BCG's Technology, Media, and Telecom as well as Marketing, Sales, and Pricing practices. John is an expert in pricing model transformation, monetization of digital platforms, and pricing to value to improve core business profitability. He has helped clients in implementing large-scale pricing programs, applying pricing quick hits tactics, and developing new subscription-as-a-service revenue models. John’s clients come from a range of industries including technology, data/business services, life sciences, industrial goods, and financial institutions. We talk to John about pricing strategies for the Covid era, challenges faced by technology companies, and subscription growth levers. And we also try to find out if the list price is really extinct!

Ken Doctor is a writer, analyst, and consultant in the news media industry. His work focuses on the transformation of consumer media in the digital age and connects the dots between the news and entertainment we consume with the changing business of media organizations. He is the author of Newsonomics: Twelve New Trends That Will Shape the News You Get, and he writes a popular weekly column called “Newsonomics Of” for the Nieman Journalism Lab. We talk to Ken about the impact of COVID-19 on publishing, the balance between advertising and subscriptions, and the path to more sustainable business models. Check out previous episodes at www.zuora.com/podcast

Amy Konary, VP of Customer Business Innovation and Chair of the Subscribed Institute, brings over 20 years of experience advising companies on subscription business strategies. JJ Xia is Zuora’s Director of Customer Strategy and oversees messaging, positioning, and strategic initiatives around the Zuora customer experience. We talk to Amy and JJ about how COVID-19 has impacted the growth of subscription businesses and what companies are doing to respond to the changing market.

Chuck is a New York Times Business Bestselling author and has been a leader in emerging digital technologies for more than two decades. Considered to be one of the foremost experts on IoT, Chuck is a keynote speaker and has authored several books including Digital Transformation 3.0: The New Business -to-Consumer Connections of Internet of Things. Chuck also serves as the Editor of the MediaPost AI & IoT Daily, and hosts a podcast called “The Voices of the Internet of Things with Chuck Martin.” He is also the CEO of the Net Future Institute. We talk to Chuck about monetizing IoT, the impact of COVID-19 epidemic on IoT businesses, and a future with drones and robotics. For previous episodes, head over to www.zuora.com/podcast

Lincoln Murphy is a customer-centric growth expert, consultant, and thought leader. Based in Dallas, Lincoln helps SaaS companies with his “Exponential Growth Framework” which helps companies improve customer retention, turn customers into advocates, drive revenue growth, and scale their business in a customer-centric way. We talk to Lincoln about the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on subscription businesses, how it's changing customer success, and how to keep pace with that change. For previous episodes, head over to www.zuora.com/podcast

Arun Sundararajan is the Harold Price Professor of Entrepreneurship and Professor of Technology, Operations and Statistics at New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business, and an affiliated faculty member at NYU’s Center for Data Science and NYU’s Center for Urban Science & Progress. His best-selling book, “The Sharing Economy,” published by the MIT Press, was the winner of a 2017 Axiom Best Business Books Award, and has been translated into five languages. Arun has also published over 50 peer-reviewed scientific papers and over 35 op-eds. We talk to Arun about the Sharing Economy, the end of ownership, and the trouble with GDP. For previous episodes, head over to www.zuora.com/podcast

Carlos Gonzalez is the Chief Operating Officer at GoCardless. He’s a technology executive with a successful track record of delivering high-quality products to tens of millions of users globally. We talk to Carlos about the role of payments in subscription businesses, the advantages of bank debits, and lots more! For previous episodes, head over to www.zuora.com/podcast

Krista Anderson-Copperman is the Chief Customer Officer at Okta, Inc. At Okta, Krista is charged with ensuring Okta customers see value and are successful with Okta products. The Customer First organization includes education, professional services, customer support, customer success and renewals. Anderson brings more than 18 years of experience to Okta, delivering superior levels of adoption, loyalty and customer satisfaction for both enterprise and small business customers. Prior to joining Okta, she served as SVP, Customers for Life at Salesforce.com. We talk to Krista about what it means to be a CCO, the importance of customer success as a core company value, the challenges of scaling teams to meet growth needs, and lots more! For more, go to www.zuora.com/podcast

Jon Herstein is the SVP and Chief Customer Officer at Box where he guides the client services, technical support, consulting and implementation teams. Jon joined Box in 2011 and has spent the last eight years scaling the Customer Success organization to serve more than 90,000 customer companies, including 70% of the Fortune 500. Previously, Jon worked with some of the biggest names in tech, including Accenture, Informatica, and NetSuite. We chat with Jon about what it takes to "blow customers’ minds" and what you can learn from simply inviting them to lunch!

Sandeep Jain is the Founder & CEO of Leela Labs which has built a podcast search platform, and Leela Kids, the world's first kids podcast app. Sandeep also just launched his own podcast show around Customer Support. Prior to launching Leela Labs, Sandeep worked in Engineering, Product Management and Business Development with leading tech companies such as Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Juniper Networks, InMobi and Microsoft. We talk to Sandeep about the ongoing transition to “as-a-service” business models, customer support, and his recent Medium article on “the next $10 billion opportunity in enterprise IT.” For previous episodes and more on the Subscription Economy, head to www.zuora.com/podcast

Renée Vassilos is an agricultural economist with over 15 years of industry experience in the field with organizations such as USAID, USDA, and John Deere. She has worked globally in the US, Europe, Asia, and South America including six years based in Beijing and two years in Amsterdam. Renée is the founder of Banyan Innovation Group, an agribusiness consulting practice that supports growth-stage agribusinesses and investors. She is a thought leader on how innovation will transform agribusiness and the farm, and is passionate about bringing regenerative farming practices to scale. We talk to Renée about the agriculture industry and the impact of digital disruption, as-a-service business models, new pricing models, and more. For previous episodes and more on the Subscription Economy, head to www.zuora.com/podcast

Chris Haigh is the Director of Product, Web, Acquisition & Retention at DAZN. DAZN is the first global pure-sport live and on-demand streaming service. It’s currently available in seven markets across three continents. Prior to DAZN, Chris was with McKinsey & Company, where he advised and led clients through their digital transformation journeys. We talk to Chris about DAZN's US launch, subscriber acquisition and retention strategies, and lots more! For previous episodes and more on the Subscription Economy, head to www.zuora.com/podcast

Professor Daniel McCarthy is Assistant Professor at Emory University. He is a marketing scientist and a methodologist, and his research interests include customer lifetime value (CLV) and marketing/finance interface. Professor McCarthy has authored papers on valuations of subscription businesses and analyzes B2C subscription companies. We talk to Professor McCarthy about subscription business valuation, CLV, and pitfalls to avoid. For previous episodes and more on the Subscription Economy, head to www.zuora.com/podcast

Anne Widera has been working on strategy and go-to-market planning for self-driving cars since 2013. She is an independent consultant to a range of companies from startups to Fortune 100 companies. Most recently, she was heading Product and GTM strategy at Uber and prior to that she led strategic special projects and helped define the strategy and business plan for Waymo (formerly the Google Self-Driving Car Project). We talk to Anne about the future of the mobility industry including self-driving cars, scooters, and more! For previous episodes and more on the Subscription Economy, head to www.zuora.com/podcast

Zuora founder and CEO Tien Tzuo is the foremost authority on the Subscription Economy, a term he coined to explain the global shift to recurring revenue business models. Tien founded Zuora in 2007. Prior to that, he was one of the 'original forces' at salesforce.com, joining as employee number 11 and serving in a variety of executive roles including Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Strategy Officer. Tien has also served on the Board of Directors for Network for Good since 2006. We talk to Tien about this new book Subscribed: Why the Subscription Model Will Be Your Company's Future, the end of ownership, subscription pricing, and lots more! For previous episodes and more on the Subscription Economy, head to www.zuora.com/podcast

Amy Konary is Zuora's VP of Customer Business Innovation and Chairperson of the Subscribed Institute. Amy has nearly two decades of experience advising companies on subscription strategies. Before Zuora she was an industry analyst with IDC, where she notably coined the term "SaaS" or "software as a service". She launched the company's SaaS practice and produced the industry's first forecast. While at IDC, Amy also launched a research and advisory practice on subscription strategies. We talk to Amy about the origins of the term "SaaS", the Subscribed Institute, and subscription pricing strategies. For previous episodes and more on the Subscription Economy, head to www.zuora.com/podcast

Patrick Campbell is the CEO of ProfitWell (formerly Price Intelligently), the software for helping subscription companies with their monetization and retention strategies. ProfitWell also provides free turnkey subscription financial metrics for over eight thousand companies. Prior to ProfitWell, Patrick lead Strategic Initiatives for Boston based Gemvara and was an Economist at Google and the US Intelligence community. We talk to Patrick about the importance of value metrics, the role of monetization as a growth lever, and the complexities of subscription pricing and packaging. For previous episodes and more on the Subscription Economy, head to www.zuora.com/podcast

Nikhil Basu Trivedi is Partner at Shasta Ventures, leading investments in a variety of consumer-oriented businesses. He also has a strong interest in industries that have yet to be transformed for the better by mobile and web technology, including healthcare, education, energy, and the life sciences. Nikhil has co-sponsored many of Shasta's investments since joining the team in 2012. In 2015, he was named to Forbes Magazine's 30 Under 30 list for Venture Capital. We talk to Nikhil about D2C business trends, the success of subscription business models, and metrics that matter to investors. For previous episodes and more on the Subscription Economy, head to www.zuora.com/podcast

Mark Settle is a seven-time CIO with broad business experience in information services, enterprise software, consumer products, high tech distribution, financial services, and oil & gas. He has received multiple industry awards and is a three-time CIO 100 honoree. He's currently the CIO of Okta. Settle sits on the advisory boards of several Silicon Valley venture capital firms and pioneered the adoption of service management and cloud computing technologies within several large enterprises. He is the author of Truth from the Trenches: A Practical Guide to the Art of IT Management. Settle received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from MIT and a PhD from Brown University. He is a former Air Force officer and NASA Program Scientist. We talk to Settle on the evolving role of the CIO, business transformation challenges, and lessons learned from being the “the most experienced CIO in the world.” For previous episodes and more on the Subscription Economy, head to www.zuora.com/podcast

Magdalena Yesil is the founder of Broadway Angels and the founding board member and first investor in Salesforce. She also recently joined the Zuora board of directors. Magdalena has been active in Silicon Valley for three decades. Most recently, she spent eight years as a general partner at the venture capital firm US Venture Partners (USVP), making investments in a broad spectrum of technology startups. She has been an early investor in over 30 companies. Prior to her investing career, Magdalena was a serial entrepreneur, founding two successful electronic commerce companies, CyberCash and MarketPay. She has a book coming out this October – Power Up: How Smart Women Win in the New Economy We talk to Magdalena about the early days of the internet, investing in Salesforce, diversity in tech, and the future of the Subscription Economy. For transcripts and more on the Subscription Economy, head over to www.zuora.com/podcast

Judy Loehr is Partner at CloudApps Venture Partners. Judy has over two decades of experience with business software spanning product, marketing, consulting and business development roles. A part of the early salesforce.com team, she went on to become one of the world’s leading marketing consultants for cloud business application companies. Judy has invested in some of the most successful SaaS companies and now focuses on early-stage cloud business application companies. We talk to Judy about creative go-to-market strategies and the challenges and strategies for new SaaS business app marketplaces. For transcripts and more on the Subscription Economy, head over to www.zuora.com/podcast

David Gee is the CMO of Zuora. Gee joined Zuora’s executive management team in 2015 with more than 20 years of experience marketing innovative enterprise and mobile computing products and solutions, and having held leadership positions at a number of top global technology companies including HP, Yahoo, and Infloblox. We talk to David about Zuora's upcoming Subscribed conference, the first ever Subscription Economy Index, and lots more! For transcripts and more on the Subscription Economy, head over to www.zuora.com/podcast

Jason is a partner at Shasta Ventures and invests in consumer, cloud computing, SaaS and open source software. He also serves on the boards of Zuora, Crittercism, Nextdoor and Smule. We talk to Jason on his confidence in the Subscription Economy, 2017 IPO trends, and what it takes to convince him to invest in a company. For transcripts and more on the Subscription Economy, head over to www.zuora.com/podcast

Todd Eby is the co-founder of SuccessHacker, a boutique advisory firm focused on education, consulting and recruiting services for early stage companies seeking to build a solid Customer Success foundation to accelerate their growth. We talk to Todd about the evolution of success hacking, Customer Success strategies, and lots more! For transcripts and more on the Subscription Economy, head over to www.zuora.com/podcast

Jason Lemkin is the Founder of SaaStr and was the Co-Founder/ and CEO of EchoSign. As a VC, Jason has been behind many investments in SaaS startups like Talkdesk, Algolia, Greenhouse, Automile, Betterworks, RainforestQA, and others which are collectively worth over one billion dollars. We talk to Jason about the evolution of SaaStr, company stages and successful SaaS growth strategies. For transcripts and more on the Subscription Economy, head over to www.zuora.com/podcast

James Allworth was the Director of Strategy at Medallia, a Sequoia-backed experience startup. He writes for Harvard Business Review and is the author of the New York Times best-seller - How will you measure your life?. He also co- hosts the hugely popular exponent.fm podcast with Ben Thompson. We talk to James about ERP systems, financial and customer focused companies, and how the new economy calls for new measurement tools. For transcripts and more on the Subscription Economy, head over to www.zuora.com/podcast

Our guest on the Subscribed Podcast is Kevin Towes, Head of Business Development at Adobe Video and Advertising Solutions. He has more than two decades of experience within the broadcast and film industries and has played key roles in the evolution of video technology. We talk to Kevin about the exciting world of TV Everywhere, the state of the media industry today and the future of OTT Video. For transcripts and more on the Subscription Economy, head over to www.zuora.com/podcast

Our guest on the Subscribed Podcast is Nils Vinje, a partner at Glide Consulting, a Customer Success consulting firm that helps VC-funded startups and Fortune 1000 companies lay the foundation for customer success and make renewals and expansions inevitable. We talk to Nils on the evolution of customer success teams, the 4 Ps that are crucial to success and other best practices. For transcripts and more on the Subscription Economy, head over to www.zuora.com/podcast      

Our guest on the Subscribed Podcast is Nils Vinje, a partner at Glide Consulting, a Customer Success consulting firm that helps VC-funded startups and Fortune 1000 companies lay the foundation for customer success and make renewals and expansions inevitable. We talk to Nils on the evolution of customer success teams, the 4 Ps that are crucial to success and other best practices. For transcripts and more on the Subscription Economy, head over to www.zuora.com/podcast

Madhavan Ramanujam is a partner and board member at Simon-Kucher & Partners. He advises companies of all sizes, from startups to Fortune 500s on monetization strategy and has helped bring numerous new products to market. His new book, Monetizing Innovation: How Smart Companies Design the Product Around the Price co-authored with Georg Tacke, Co-CEO of Simon-Kucher & Partners offers a practical, nine-step approach to improve the odds of new-product success. Through case studies – including Porsche, LinkedIn, Swarovski and Uber – the book illustrates the importance of putting the customer’s willingness to pay at the very core of product design. Check our previous episodes of Subscribed Podcast at www.zuora.com/podcast

Our guest on the Subscribed Podcast is Sam Jennings, a web and print designer who has worked closely with leading musicians such as Prince and Pearl Jam. Sam spoke to us about launching and running the NPG Music Club with Prince, and the legendary musician's relationship with his fans. We also look at what today's music streaming services can learn from these early pioneers of the Subscription Economy! For transcripts and more on the Subscription Economy, head over to www.zuora/academy

Our guest on the Subscribed Podcast is Jeff Potter, CEO of Surf Air, an innovative, subscription based airline. Started in 2013, Surf Air flies to 12 destinations within California and operates 90 flights a day. Members can fly as much as they want for a fixed, monthly fee. We spoke to Jeff about the disruption the subscription business model is causing in the traditional aviation industry, the difference between loyalty programs and memberships, the challenges of pricing for a new model and lots more! Listen to the episode below or scroll down for select excerpts! For transcripts and more on the Subscription Economy, head over to www.zuora/academy

Our guest on the Subscribed Podcast is Amy Konary, Program Vice President at IDC. Konary is responsible for leading the SaaS business models and mobile enterprise applications research teams at IDC. Tom Krackeler and Rachel English spoke to Amy about the stages of the subscription business model, SaaS pricing strategies, and IoT monetization strategies. Listen to the episode below or scroll down for select excerpts! For transcripts and more on the Subscription Economy, head over to www.zuora/academy

In this episode of the Subscribed Podcast, hosts Tom Krackeler and Rachel English talk about pricing strategies with Tom Tunguz, partner at Redpoint Ventures. Tunguz also writes daily, data-driven blog posts about key questions facing startups including how to fundraise, startup benchmarks, management best practices and team building. More on succeeding in the Subscription Economy at https://www.zuora.com/academy/

In the only podcast dedicated to the ‘Subscription Economy’, hosts Tom Krackeler and Rachel English talk to innovators, entrepreneurs, and analysts about the business shift towards recurring revenue. Our guest Anne Janzer is the author of the book 'Subscription Marketing: Strategies for Nurturing Customer in a World of Churn'. Anne is an experienced content marketing consultant and has worked with over a hundred technology businesses, from industry giants to innovative start-ups, helping them articulate positioning and messaging in crowded markets.

In the only podcast dedicated to the ‘Subscription Economy’, hosts Tom Krackeler and Rachel English talk to innovators, entrepreneurs, and analysts about the business shift towards recurring revenue. Our guest for this episode is Dhaval Moogimane, Partner at Waterstone Management Group. Tune in and learn why customer success is integral to your SaaS recurring revenue business!

Catherine Blackmore, Chief Customer Officer at Bluenose Analytics, joins us to talk about the evolution of Customer Success as both a practice and as a technology suite, plus the first time Tom came to pitch her a product.

Denis Pombriant, Managing Principal of Beagle Research, joins us to discuss the new field of Customer Science and how to operate a subscription business based on your customers' "Moments of Truth".

Nick Mehta, CEO of Gainsight, talks about the emergence of Customer Success culture, the myth of unavoidable churn, and the Pittsburgh Steelers (okay Nick insisted on that last one).

Tien Tzuo, CEO of Zuora, joins us to talk about the acquisition on Frontleaf, how Zuora defines its 9 keys to customer success, and what's coming next for the Subscription Economy.

Ben Congleton, Co-Founder and CEO of Olark, explains why live chat is a critical communications channel for customer success, how to build a customer-centric culture in a remote team, and what the upcoming "phone vs chat" showdown is all about.

Tomasz Tunguz from Redpoint Ventures joins us to discuss what models are working for structuring Customer Success organizations, for achieving negative net churn, and even for interpreting the Customer Success hints buried inside financial filings.

Jay Nathan, VP of Customer Success at PeopleMatter, discussed how he uses repeatable playbooks to scale his company's customer service efforts, plus how to strike the right balance between standardizing processes and allowing creativity from his team.

David Skok from Matrix Partners and creator of highly acclaimed forentrepreuners.com joins us to talk about the evolution of Customer Success as a strategy in SaaS, how its now taking over board meetings, and why Hubspot has the right idea.

Nir Eyal, author of Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products, explains how Customer Success teams can utilize the concepts behind habit forming consumer products like Facebook, Google, and Instagram to help keep their customers on the right track.

Aaron Fulkerson, CEO of Mindtouch, explains how the strategic use of self service content helps drive Customer Success and new sales.

Tom and Rachel talk about how to add Net Promoter Surveys to your customer success toolkit, what are the "gotchas" to look out for, and give some practical tips on sending your very first NPS.