Finding Proof Points

“Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” ― Mark Twain

After 6 years, 3 months, 17 days of (not) working as Gainsight’s Chief Marketing Officer, I have decided that it’s time to let somebody else take the wheel. Our team and momentum has never been stronger, and I’m confident in the direction in which we are headed. I am excited to transition into an advisory role with Gainsight to help keep the momentum moving forward as we expand on our Customer Cloud vision and continue to advance the interests of the Customer Success community through our Pulse programs.

On Gainsight

I joined Gainsight as the Head of Marketing at 26 years old -- right before our Series A, and with little appreciation for the amazing road ahead. Our incredible team would eventually scale to 60+ marketers across the globe, and along the way, lead the effort to create a brand new category and industry in Customer Success from the ground up (writing a new playbook for human first marketing that I now have the privilege of publishing with Wiley). It’s been the joy of my career to serve this passionate community, one that today continually ranks as one of LinkedIn’s most promising careers in the world.

Some of the other highlights include:

• Building the company from 19 employees to 650+ across the globe.
• Growing revenues from <$1M ARR to nearly nine digits.
• Creating a conference program (Pulse) that scaled from inception to Moscone Center in 7 years, with large scale events planted on three continents.
• Successfully dodging copyright infringement lawsuits with Taylor Swift, Coolio, Disney, and James Corden.
• The opportunity to build a brand widely recognized as one of the fastest growing, most promising, best places to work with an incredible leadership team of equal merit.

We built a brand at Gainsight that strives to be living proof that you can win in business while being human first. Our growth engine has fueled nearly nine-figures of annual recurring revenues, while our community of stakeholders continue to put their faith in us as thought leaders by subscribing to the movement we’ve been leading.

Gainsight became my family. It was during my time as a Gainster that I got engaged to my now wife, married, had my first child, moved, moved, and moved again. Don’t let anyone convince you that business isn’t personal, because as crazy as it sounds, Gainsight helped create an environment where each of those major life milestones could happen.

I owe it all to Nick Mehta -- a man who believed in my potential as a marketer before I ever saw it in myself. To Roger Lee, Jim Eberlin, Dan Steinman, and the other early members of Jbara Software who took a chance on a 26-year old kid from Los Angeles, and championed some pretty crazy ideas over the years. I’m forever indebted to you.

Thank you to all my fellow Gainsters for the opportunity to serve you over the last 6+ years. We are building something incredibly special together, and are only just scratching the surface of our potential. Thank you to the amazing Customer Success community. You have been an inspiration. I leave you in the incredibly capable and fearlessly devoted hands of Nick Mehta and the team -- and I assure you that the best years for Customer Success are still ahead of us.

On What’s Next

My friend and former colleague, Ashley Mayer, wrote the words ‘chasing learning curves’ as she announced her departure from Box -- a powerful and yet accurate description of how I’m thinking about the next chapter of my own career.

In order to help me figure out exactly what that looks like, I’ll be joining Battery Ventures as an Executive-in-Residence (EIR) for the next six months. I’ll be working closely with a number of portfolio companies -- including Gainsight -- on marketing strategy, while taking some time to promote my book, and work on what will come next.

If you have any good ideas, I’m all ears :)

I’m also going to take this opportunity to recalibrate my life -- physically, mentally, spiritually and intellectually -- for the journey ahead. It’s an incredible privilege to be able to spend more time at home with my one year old daughter Cienna, and I’m thankful for the opportunity to do so.

However, here’s what I do know:

• Companies are starting to realize that behind every logo they intend to market and sell to is a human being -- a living person who seeks fulfillment in their careers while also chasing self-actualization in life and at home.
• Because of this, the worlds of B2B and B2C are starting to converge around the notion of a Business-to-Human (B2H) reality.
• Therefore to win in business, companies across all industries need to build a brand that puts humans first, leading with purpose and values rather than simply products and services.

Gainsight is living proof that this works. I’m looking forward to finding more proof points.