BUILD with Blake Bartlett

Latest Episodes:

Harini Gokul (AWS) Customer Success as Offense Aug 10, 2022

Show notes

Harini leads customer success at AWS, which is arguably the most important enterprise technology vendor today. She says customer success needs to play proactive offense more than reactive defense. By starting with your customer’s customer, you can align your strategic initiatives with your customers’ to achieve win-win outcomes.

Key Takeaways:

[ 00:07 ] Overview of episode

[ 02:47 ] What customer centricity means to Harini

[ 06:44 ] Customer success as offense vs. defense

[ 15:50 ] How customer success should partner with other teams, and should they partner with customer success?

[ 22:54 ] How to get a good interface between CX and product, and correctly prioritizing what needs built

[ 27:27 ] What you can do to move from defense to offense in your CX org

Martin Gontovnikas (HyperGrowth): What PLG Means for the CEO Jul 29, 2022

Show notes

A lot of PLG talk is focused on operational strategies and tactics. But what does PLG mean for the CEO of a company? What should your mindset be? How do you address common objections you might hear from your team (especially if transitioning to PLG for the first time).

Key Takeaways:

[00:04] Fully supporting product level growth
[00:39] Investing in sales, self-service, and not optimizing for the local maximum
[02:27] KPIs and linking to revenue
[03:18] Growth teams need support and buy-in

Mentioned in this episode:

Martin Gontovnika, Co-Founder and General Partner at HyperGrowth Partners

HyperGrowth Partners

Subscribe to Blake Bartlett on YouTube.

Podcast produced by OpenView.

View our blog for more context/inspiration.

OpenView on Linkedin

OpenView on Twitter

OpenView on Instagram

OpenView on Facebook

Martin Gontovnikas (HyperGrowth): Why You Should Embrace a Community Strategy (and How to Do It) Jul 27, 2022

Show notes

“Community” is a major buzzword today, and for good reason. Community creates leverage, and lots of it. Gonto ran marketing and growth at Auth0 for 7 years before the $6.5 billion acquisition by Okta. He cuts through the buzzword noise to give us his perspective and playbook on why (and how) to win with a community strategy.

Key Takeaways:

[00:27] Overview — Building a community
[02:24] Defining community, and why is it trending
[04:56] Creating communities through open source products, enterprise solutions, and other methods
[08:55] How to identify members to target if you're building from scratch
[13:31] Tapping into existing communities and identifying communities to target
[21:17] Doing research with a user, interviewing developers, and engaging on Twitter
[26:30] What does a community team look like, and who owns the effort in a PLG company?
[30:02] KPIs and measuring the business value of building community

Mentioned in this episode:

Martin Gontovnika, Co-Founder and General Partner at HyperGrowth Partners

HyperGrowth Partners

Subscribe to Blake Bartlett on YouTube.

Podcast produced by OpenView.

View our blog for more context/inspiration.

OpenView on Linkedin

OpenView on Twitter

OpenView on Instagram

OpenView on Facebook

Cliff Weitzman (Speechify): How to Learn Anything Jul 15, 2022

Show notes

Cliff has a secret learning strategy: recruit the best people in the world at a skill to personally train you. It’s easier than you think. They’re just a DM away. Check out this quick pro tip and try it out yourself!

Key Takeaways:

[00:34] Rule 25 — How to find the best people in the world at a skill

Mentioned in this episode:

Cliff Weitzman, Founder & CEO of Speechify

Cliff's YouTube video, 28 Lessons for Turning 28

Speechify

Subscribe to Blake Bartlett on YouTube.

Podcast produced by OpenView.

View our blog for more context/inspiration.

OpenView on Linkedin

OpenView on Twitter

OpenView on Instagram

OpenView on Facebook

Cliff Weitzman (Speechify): The Value of Building a Personal Brand and Audience as a Startup Founder CEO Jul 13, 2022

Show notes

Cliff is the Founder CEO of Speechify. He’s also a “full-time” YouTuber, with an awesome channel that features startup advice, life hacks, and self-improvement philosophy. He explains the why and how behind his personal brand strategy on YouTube, and we dive deep into one of my favorite videos of his, “28 Rules for Turning 28.”

Key Takeaways:

[02:45] Meet Cliff, CEO of Speechify, and his YouTube channel
[06:31] Connecting with an audience, and thinking "will this be interesting to someone?"
[08:15] 28 Rules for Turning 28
[12:27] Rule #10: Lead with Love
[15:55] Rule #22: Speed is critical
[21:36] How to begin writing your own rules for your age

Mentioned in this episode:

Cliff Weitzman, Founder & CEO of Speechify

Cliff's YouTube video, 28 Lessons for Turning 28

Speechify

Subscribe to Blake Bartlett on YouTube.

Podcast produced by OpenView.

View our blog for more context/inspiration.

OpenView on Linkedin

OpenView on Twitter

OpenView on Instagram

OpenView on Facebook

John Eitel (Canva): How PLG Founders Can Avoid Common Mistakes in Adding a Top-Down Sales Motion Jun 24, 2022

Show notes

Adding a top-down sales motion is a make-or-break moment for PLG companies. If it’s done right, it can make you the next big thing in your category. If it’s not done right, it can break your team and ultimately compromise your position in the market. The answer? All-in commitment from the founders and key leaders. Enterprise PLG is a team sport!

Key Takeaways:

[00:06] The most common mistakes John sees PLG founder make when adding sales to a bottom-up or self-service motion
[02:15] The hidden subtext to be helpful

Mentioned in this episode:

John Eitel, Former Global Vice President of Sales & Success at Canva

Canva

Subscribe to Blake Bartlett on YouTube.

Podcast produced by OpenView.

View our blog for more context/inspiration.

OpenView on Linkedin

OpenView on Twitter

OpenView on Instagram

OpenView on Facebook

John Eitel (Canva): Bottom-Up + Top-Down Jun 22, 2022

Show notes

John built the global sales team at Canva, which allowed the company to expand further into the enterprise. He walks us through everything a PLG founder needs to know about adding a top-down motion to a bottom-up, product-led foundation. When should PLG companies do this? Why is it necessary? What is the strategy? And how do you do it IRL?

Key Takeaways:

[4:35] Repeatability in enterprise customers and understanding where these deals stall out
[8:01] Stall points in enterprise spending and getting purchase approval
[10:30] Embracing a top-down motion for PLG companies
[14:17] Combining bottom-up and top-down to scale business using customer success stories
[17:24] Communicating to executives the story of what software adoption saves
[20:24] A broader context and story of how the platform improves customer lives
[22:47] How the data component can make or break sales efforts
[27:40] Where is adoption happening and using data to determine who gets involved
[30:10] How to get the entire company working with sales

Mentioned in this episode:

John Eitel, Former Global Vice President of Sales & Success at Canva

Canva

Subscribe to Blake Bartlett on YouTube.

Podcast produced by OpenView.

View our blog for more context/inspiration.

OpenView on Linkedin

OpenView on Twitter

OpenView on Instagram

OpenView on Facebook

Annie Pearl (Calendly): Career Growth in Product Management Jun 10, 2022

Show notes

A product professional’s role changes dramatically over time as a company and product scales, and as the individual develops additional skills and experiences. Annie says you need to “product manage” your own career as a PM in this highly dynamic environment.

Calendly is an OpenView portfolio company. For a full portfolio list please visit ov.vc

Key Takeaways:

[0:13] What it's like for Annie to product manage her career as a PM

Mentioned in this episode:

Annie Pearl, Chief Product Officer at Calendly

Calendly

Subscribe to Blake Bartlett on YouTube.

Podcast produced by OpenView.

View our blog for more context/inspiration.

OpenView on Linkedin

OpenView on Twitter

OpenView on Instagram

OpenView on Facebook

Annie Pearl (Calendly): Building Enterprise Products Jun 08, 2022

Show notes

Every PLG business will eventually have to build for the enterprise. Why? Bottom up adoption can indeed go “all the way up”...to the C-level of large organizations. But to get that 6- or 7-figure contract, you’ll need to beef up the product for the big leagues. Annie has gone through the journey at Glassdoor, and now at Calendly. She shares her playbook with us in today’s episode.

Calendly is an OpenView portfolio company. For a full portfolio list please visit ov.vc

Key Takeaways:

[2:10] What it looks like for PLG businesses to embrace enterprise

[4:42] Three components that make adopting enterprise easier said than done

[7:49] How to tackle the PLG plus enterprise transition in terms of people

[17:00] Maintaining simplicity and the end user experience as a philosophical north star

[19:51] Trades offs of embracing enterprise products from the PLG standpoint, and how to manage them

[22:57] Building solutions for personas and horizontal platforms

[28:06] Platforms and opting into layers of complexity

[30:01] Foundational step number one to building towards enterprise

Mentioned in this episode:

Annie Pearl, Chief Product Officer at Calendly

Calendly

Subscribe to Blake Bartlett on YouTube.

Podcast produced by OpenView.

View our blog for more context/inspiration.

OpenView on Linkedin

OpenView on Twitter

OpenView on Instagram

OpenView on Facebook

Andrew Gazdecki (MicroAcquire): Founder M&A Mistakes Jun 01, 2022

Show notes

Founders often shoot themselves in the foot when it comes to running an M&A process. Andrew points out the most common mistakes he’s seen, and how to avoid them.

Key Takeaways:

[0:23] The Biggest Mistake Founders Make Selling Their Business

Mentioned in this episode:

Andrew Gazdecki, CEO of MicroAcquire

MicroAcquire

Subscribe to Blake Bartlett on YouTube.

Podcast produced by OpenView.

View our blog for more context/inspiration.

OpenView on Linkedin

OpenView on Twitter

OpenView on Instagram

OpenView on Facebook