A Letter of Gratitude

I’ve decided to leave Gainsight to start my next chapter, after 6 years of the wondrous, challenging, and exciting journey of building a company, category, and community. Some of you may know this already, since I announced it internally in September; as my closing contribution, I’ve spent a few months working on the new book that I’m co-authoring with our CEO Nick, The Customer Success Economy, to be published by Wiley, in time for Pulse this spring.

When people ask me what I’ve enjoyed the most during my time at Gainsight, hands-down it was the opportunity to build a community of people — both within Gainsight and in our ecosystem more broadly — who were so committed to the cause of transforming vendors to care about their clients. More broadly, the CS movement is part of (and even a propellant of) a broader shift in our society toward companies recognizing their roles in serving all sorts of stakeholders — not just investors, but also clients, team members, communities, and the environment. I’ve found so much meaning in being a part of this movement with you. And I plan to continue to be a part of that "success for all stakeholders" movement in my next chapter.

This excerpt from Nick’s and my acknowledgements in the book sums up my feelings right now:

“...There are countless people who we’d like to thank for their role in bringing this book to fruition. You may be a client who inspired us during a meeting, a participant at a Pulse conference who asked a thoughtful question, an organizer of a local Customer Success meet-up who shared an observation, or a community member who messaged one of us on LinkedIn. These interactions, no matter how brief, helped shape our perspectives on the Customer Success profession and on how our industry can transform client relationships. Thank you for sharing your voice with us.

"...Finally, we’d like to thank the people in our lives who were supportive during the writing of this book...The start of Allison’s journey was sparked by Ajay Agarwal and Roger Lee, partners at Bain Capital Ventures and Battery Ventures, respectively, who connected Allison and Nick in 2013. The journey was made all the richer by Allison’s team, who have given her fond memories of painting on blank canvases that seemed too big, all while questioning what art means to begin with. Finally, it wouldn’t be right for Allison not to thank Nick for his partnership through thick and thin all these years, made even more enjoyable by a shared appreciation for philosophy, Salt & Straw ice cream, and Taylor Swift’s music...And special thanks from both Nick and Allison to the massive and growing Customer Success community – to quote Hamilton, 'scratch that, this is not a moment, it’s a movement!'”

Thank you to everyone who encouraged me and our organization over the past 6 years. It’s hard to overstate how much your belief and support has meant to me.

I’m going to take a couple of months off to recharge (I have a long list of books and podcasts to tackle!) and refine what I want to do next. Instead of “COO, Gainsight”, I’ll identify as “Human Being, Universe.” I feel fortunate to have the time to reconnect with myself, my family, my community, and the environment and think expansively. You may hear from me on topics ranging from climate change to gut health to meditation to community-building. Feel free to reach out if you’re thinking big thoughts, too :)