Episodes
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"We do have to hire to some extent ahead. And that's a bit of a bet. But again, when you've developed the conviction that you're onto something big, then we haven't waited. We move forward pretty forcefully building teams."
Arthur Bellamy talks with DTC's Scott Darling about scaling Exotec to a global company with more than $1B in systems sold. They dive into sales strategies behind modernizing warehouse technologies. Arthur shares actionable tactics for entering new markets, how to hire the right sales leads for $10M+ system installs, and the importance of being able to show potential customers -- not just tell them about -- your product lines.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Overview of Exotec
05:32 Origin Story of Exotec and the SkyPod System
09:25 Scalable Product vs Customized Designs in Material Handling
10:26 Expanding Internationally/Coming to America
16:29 Scaling the Sales Team and Hiring Ahead of Growth
21:17 Navigating Channel Relationships for Success -
What's it like to be the first communications leadership hire at a hypergrowth, IPO-bound startup? In this episode of The DTC Podcast, Ronda Scott talks with Lindsay McKinley, the first comms hire and director of communications at Samsara. She shares advice on how to swing for the fences when you're at a resource-constrained early-stage startup and how to hit the ground running when you join a fast-growing company to take it all the way through an IPO.
Do the work to understand how comms can best serve current business priorities. Develop close relationships and trust with key stakeholders by managing expectations. As you build your team, hire for skillset spikes and balance of egg breakers and diplomats. Understand the invaluable leadership comms plays throughout the entire IPO process. Embrace the challenges and opportunities inherent with comms at every stage of a startup.
Key Takeaways for Comms SuccessChapters
00:00 Introduction
04:06 Getting scrappy and successful at 15-person edtech company ClassDojo
12:15 Joining the hypergrowth team at Samsara
15:00 Three tactics to thrive in your first 30 days
18:42 Building a world class team
28:06 IPO experience through the communication lens -
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In this episode of the DTC Podcast, Deepak Jeevankumar interviews Slavik Markovich, co-founder of Sentrigo, Demisto, and Descope. Slavik shares lessons learned from his previous startups and discusses the acquisition of Demisto by Palo Alto Networks. He also talks about his current venture, Descope, which focuses on authentication and authorization. Slavik emphasizes the importance of solving real problems for customers and offers advice to founders. He predicts that AI (of course) and consolidation across cybersecurity vendors will be key themes that follow the 2024 RSA Conference.
Takeaways
Solve a problem that matters to you and your customers. Identify and build a team around you with complementary skill sets who have the same vision of solving the problem for your customers.Maintain transparency and open communication within your team.Focus on execution and customer satisfaction while maintaining a position of strength as the company grows. Acquisition opportunities will come.Consolidation and AI will be prominent themes following the RSA conference.Chapters
00:00 Introduction and initial challenges in founding companies
08:17 Lessons learned from building multiple startups
10:34 The journey of scaling Demisto and the acquisition by Palo Alto Networks
21:59 The importance of solving real problems for customers
31:17 Maintaining a strong company culture and open communication
33:30 Looking forward: challenges and opportunities in cybersecurity -
Ankit Gordhandas, a staff engineer at Zapier, shares his journey from being a biomedical engineer to a startup founder and his current role at Zapier. He discusses how Zapier embraced AI and the impact it has had on the company. Ankit also talks about the pivot at his previous startup, Intersect Labs, and the decision to join Zapier. He explains the focus on AI at Zapier and the projects they are working on. Ankit discusses user demand for AI and how Zapier is meeting those demands. He shares his thoughts on measuring success in AI projects and how he continues to scratch his entrepreneurial itch at Zapier. Finally, Ankit offers lessons for founders based on his experiences.Takeaways
Ankit's journey from being a biomedical engineer to a startup founder and his transition to working at Zapier.The pivot at Intersect Labs and the decision to join Zapier.How Zapier embraced AI and encouraged every employee to use AI to make their workday lives easier and deliver a better experience to users.Zapier's focus on AI and the projects they are working on, including chatbots and workflow automation.Chapters
00:00 Embracing AI at Zapier
06:34 Ankit's Journey from Biomedical Engineer to Founder
13:13 Joining Zapier and the Pivot at Intersect Labs
18:26 Transitioning to Zapier and the Focus on AI
21:13 Zapier's Code Red and the Adoption of AI
24:30 User Demand for AI at Zapier
26:20 Measuring Success in AI Projects
27:44 Scratching the Entrepreneurial Itch
30:00 Lessons for Founders
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Geeta Schmidt, co-founder and CEO of Humio, discusses the founding of the company and its evolution into a cybersecurity focus. She shares the importance of customer validation and the pride, as a Nordic-based startup, in acquiring Bloomberg as one of the company’s first major customers. Geeta also talks about how the leadership team evaluated the opportunity to be acquired by CrowdStrike and the post-acquisition integration experience. She highlights the learnings from CrowdStrike and talks about her current role of advising and investing in early-stage startups.
Takeaways
Customer validation early on is crucial for the success of a startup, so paying attention to how what you’re building is being used in the wild is key. Choosing the right acquirer involves considering factors such as company cultures, alignment of product portfolios, and the ability to execute and scale.The importance of having diverse skill sets in a founding team cannot be underplayed.Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Background
01:35 Founding of Humio and World Domination Plan
08:29 Importance of Customer Validation
10:22 Proud Moment with Bloomberg as a Customer
11:49 Transition to a Cybersecurity Company
15:04 Acquisition by CrowdStrike
20:10 Announcing the Acquisition
21:47 Post-Acquisition Experience
23:23 Learning from CrowdStrike
25:19 Next Steps for Geeta
26:45 Investing in Early Stage Startups
27:13 Key Qualities in Founding Teams
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In this episode, DTC's Victoria Kinnealey talks with Rick Berends, a veteran BISO, about the importance of startups in driving innovation and growth within enterprise organizations. They discuss the traits that startups should have to establish partnerships at an early stage, including agility, the ability to reduce complexity, and a focus on smarter approaches to security. Rick emphasizes the importance of trust and building relationships when engaging with startups, and advises startups to be honest, avoid over-representation, and steer clear of jargon. He also highlights the value of EQ (emotional intelligence) in startup teams and the benefits of white labeling products for instant buy-in from enterprise clients.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
00:30 Introduction to Rick Berends
01:13 Understanding the Role of a BISO
03:03 Traits of a Startup for Partnership
05:02 Startup's Role in Building Roadmap and Strategy
08:22 Advantages of Startups in Meeting Customer Needs
09:50 Importance of EQ in Startup Engagement
11:19 Importance of Building Trust and Avoiding Jargon
15:41 Understanding the Customer's Perspective
19:06 Importance of Flexibility in Enterprise Partnerships
20:31 Considering Long-Term Relationships and Value Adds
22:58 The Notion of 'Good is Good Enough'
28:45 Importance of Flexibility and Contract Length
30:12 The Need for Startups in Innovation
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Julie Crabill, a fractional CMO, discusses the benefits of the fractional C-suite model for early-stage startups and how it can help scale their marketing and go-to-market teams. She emphasizes the importance of understanding business priorities and having empathy for founders. Julie also shares insights on engaging with technical teams and determining readiness for a dedicated marketing hire. She highlights the need to build marketing into the DNA of a business and adapt to changes in the industry, such as the impact of generative AI on marketing roles.
Takeaways
The fractional C-suite model can be a cost-effective way for early-stage startups to access strategic marketing expertise without committing to a full-time hire.Understanding business priorities and having empathy for founders are crucial for a fractional CMO to effectively support the growth of a startup.Engaging with technical teams requires building mutual respect and helping them understand the value of marketing in achieving their business goals.Determining readiness for a dedicated marketing hire involves assessing the specific needs of the business and having a budget to support marketing efforts.Building marketing into the DNA of a business and adapting to changes in the industry, such as the impact of generative AI, are essential for long-term success.Chapters
00:00 Introduction
01:17 Background and Journey to Becoming a Fractional CMO
02:38 Empathy for Founders and Understanding Business Priorities
04:30 Scaling Skill Set to Become a CMO
06:45 Benefits of Fractional CMO Model for Early Stage Startups
07:43 Engaging as a Fractional CMO
09:08 Determining Readiness for a Dedicated Marketing Hire
13:21 Engaging with Technical Teams
15:42 When Fractional CMO Model Works and Doesn't Work
18:08 Tactical Considerations for Engaging with a Fractional CMO
20:22 Hiring Plan and Time Horizon
25:54 Impact of Generative AI on Marketing Roles
27:46 Building Marketing into the DNA of the Business
28:43 Conclusion
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In this conversation, DTC Managing Director Deepak Jeevankumar interviews Varun Badhwar, co-founder and former CEO of RedLock and co-founder and current CEO of Endor Labs. They discuss topics such as creating a new category in cybersecurity, building a customer-centric company, and the challenges and successes of scaling a startup. Varun shares insights into the importance of starting with the simple problem, productizing simplicity, and nailing an efficient demo. He also discusses the acquisition by Palo Alto Networks and the key factors that contributed to the successful integration of RedLock into what became Prisma Cloud. Finally, Varun shares his thoughts on starting a third company with Endor Labs and the future of application security (AppSec) in the context of software supply chain security and AI.
Takeaways
Start with a simple problem and focus on visibility gaps. What’s keeping your buyer up at night?Productize simplicity by ensuring that customers can set up and derive value from the product within a short timeframe.Building a customer-centric company involves understanding customer priorities, providing value in a short amount of time, and simplifying the customer experience.Choosing the right design partners and investors is crucial, and it's important to prioritize the human connection and alignment of values over the brand or firm.Embrace change in the software supply chain, particularly in the context of software assembly and the increasing use of open source components. AI can play a role in enhancing productivity and security in this area.Chapters
00:00 Introduction
01:26 Creating a New Category in Cybersecurity
06:09 Starting with the Simple Problem
07:37 Productizing Simplicity
09:00 The Cloud Security Intelligence Team
12:04 The Acquisition by Palo Alto Networks
21:03 Starting a Third Company
25:43 The Future of AppSec
28:38 Building the Right Team and Culture
30:32 Choosing the Right Design Partners and Investors
33:29 Building in the Open and Embracing AI
36:18 Embracing Change in the Software Supply Chain
36:46 Closing Remarks
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Introducing The DTC Podcast. These episodes feature Exit Interviews with enterprise founders who've gone from square one to major acquisition, conversations with the CTOs, CISOs, and CIOs interested in the latest enterprise innovations, and deep dives into strategies and tactics with the sales, marketing, and brand practitioners leading the go-to-market charge.
