Today on the show we have Sançar Sahin, co-founder of Oliva. In this episode, we talked about the necessary elements you need to build a world-class marketing team, the impact a company’s go-to market strategy has on choosing the right team members, and the inspiration behind Oliva. We also discussed Sançar’s move from building teams as a VP, back to the scrappy stage of a one-man marketing team, the importance of getting deep insights and feedback at the very start of building a product, and ho...
Oct 21, 2020•35 min•Ep. 84
Today on the show we have Patrick Thompson, co-founder, and CEO of Iteratively. In this episode, we talked about why Patrick made the leap to start his own business, how 200 interviews over 6 months of customer discovery helped them find the biggest data-related pain point software teams have, and how Iteratively helps solve it. We also discussed what it was like to work in the growth team at Atlassian in the early days, the difference Patrick sees in picking and prioritising quick wins vs long-...
Oct 14, 2020•44 min•Ep. 83
Today on the show we have Adelina Peltea, VP of Growth at Holded. In this episode, we talked about the biggest differences between different growth stages of a startup, why you should always stay true to your startup’s DNA, how to iterate your way to product-market fit at the Seed stage and why Adelina believes you should never get feedback from free users. We also discussed Adelina’s responsibilities as VP of Growth at Holded, how she reshuffled her team to be more cross-functional and structur...
Oct 07, 2020•31 min•Ep. 82
Today on the show we have Mark Tanner, co-founder, and COO of Qwilr. In this episode, we talked about what it was like for Mark taking the leap from a cushy job at Google to start his own business, why they built Qwilr, the motivation behind it, and what's the big plan for the future. We also discussed Qwilr’s on and off relationship with a freemium plan of their product, how first impressions always matter, and churn and retention in the context of sales. As usual, I'm excited to hear what you ...
Sep 30, 2020•47 min•Ep. 81
Today on the show we have David Apple, Head of Customer Success at Notion. In this episode, we talked about the conflict between Sales and Customer Success and how it can be avoided, what the leading indicators of retention are at Typeform VS Notion, and how Typeform’s CS team segments its customers based on their retention rate to help prioritize, appoint resources, and make decisions. We also discussed why sooner is not always better, the low touch and high touch onboarding set up at Typeform ...
Sep 23, 2020•36 min•Ep. 80
Today on the show we have Angel Steger, Director Of Product Design at Facebook. In this episode, we talked about what it’s like designing a building for over 2.7 billion users, how focusing on activation can increase retention, and how giving users a feeling of ownership had a big impact on Pinterest’s user activation. We also discussed Qualitative research at Pinterest: How a bad hookup face helped increase their messaging response rate, and how Dropbox and Pinterest use internal experimentatio...
Sep 16, 2020•41 min•Ep. 79
Today on the show we have Francis Brero, CRO, and Co-Founder of MadKudu. In this episode, we talked about how Francis started out studying mechanical engineering and ended up founding a company now serving as the CFO, what MadKudu is and how they help their customers, and why starting off the company by helping companies predict churn didn’t work. We also discussed how a typical customer uses Madkudu and what success looks like for them, how Madkudu predicts retention at different time horizons,...
Sep 09, 2020•37 min•Ep. 78
Today on the show we have Ward Sandler, co-founder of MemberSpace. In this episode, we talked about the biggest point of failure for first-time subscription business owners, the evolution of pricing and packaging at MemberSpace, and the importance of figuring out what customers are willing to pay before you build a product. We also discussed how MemberSpace educates its customers on churn, how Ward maintains and keeps up with customer conversations as the company grows, and how you can decrease ...
Sep 02, 2020•33 min•Ep. 77
Today on the show we have Adam Schoenfeld, VP of Strategy at Drift, and GM of Drift Video. In this episode, we talked about how a customer-centric approach helped him build and scale two successful businesses, why he talks to his customers every single day, and why everyone at Drift has chat duty. We also discussed the importance of churn & retention when a company is being acquired, and how Adam views churn and retention now as VP of strategy at Drift vs his previous views as CEO of his own...
Aug 26, 2020•40 min•Ep. 76
Today on the show we have Bozena Pieniazek, Director of Marketing at Maze. In this episode, we broke down the function of Product Marketing, discussed how it impacts churn and retention, shared views on where it should sit in a company, and dove into how product marketers help companies understand user personas and their different use cases. We also discussed why Maze decided to rethink their positioning, how nailing your positioning & messaging, can help attract and bring in the right custo...
Aug 19, 2020•32 min•Ep. 75
Today on the show we have Mark Thompson, co-founder of PayKickstart. In this episode, we talked about how an internal tool their team built ended up being their main product, affiliate programs as a channel for growth, and the challenges they face when it comes to churn & retention. We also discussed how PayKickstart optimizes their onboarding to tackle churn, how they measure its impact, and how to avoid credit card failures by being proactive with your customers. As usual, I'm excited to h...
Aug 12, 2020•36 min•Ep. 74
Today on the show we have David Brice, General Manager & Executive of the Customer Group at Envato In this episode, we talked about how David made the switch from a green tech business owner to a marketplace software business General Manager, why Envato launched a subscription service alongside its 15-year-old transactional business, and how the two business models are treated within the company. We also discussed how they balance the supply and demand function to make sure their authors are...
Aug 05, 2020•45 min•Ep. 73
Today on the show we have Panos Siozos, co-founder and CEO of LearnWorlds. In this episode, we talked about what it was like for Panos to take the leap from a job in education & parliament to starting his own company, how COVID-19 has impacted the eLearning industry & how LearnWorld’s funnel tripled in just one day. We also discussed how LearnWorld is retaining its customers in this new breed of teachers, how they use their own product to onboard their customers & educate them on how...
Jul 29, 2020•39 min•Ep. 72
Today on the show we have John Henwood, Director of Customer Success at Productboard. In this episode, we talked about how customer success has evolved over the past 10 years, how Customer Success’s approach to increasing retention differs at a big organization VS an early-stage startup, and how John prioritized his focus when he first joined Productboard. We also discussed why Productboard’s Customer Success team handhold their customers through their onboarding process, how they measure succes...
Jul 22, 2020•39 min•Ep. 71
Today on the show we have Ryan Bonnici one of the World's Most Influential CMOs as named by Forbes currently leading the marketing team at G2. In this episode, we talked about Ryan’s responsibilities as CMO at G2, how he and his team split their focus, and how G2’s Product team mirrors their marketing team’s structure. We also discussed G2’s Buyer Intent and how it arms companies to predict churn, how their retention team measures success, and how they guide their free users into their paid funn...
Jul 15, 2020•49 min•Ep. 70
Today on the show we have Samuel Hulick, the person behind the infamous onboarding teardowns from UserOnboard.com In this episode, we talked about the single biggest mistake that product companies keep repeating when it comes to user onboarding, how Samuel approaches building an onboarding experience, and the key metrics he believes are important to measure. We also discussed where onboarding starts & ends, Slack & Duolingo’s onboarding experience & what makes them stand out, and las...
Jul 08, 2020•41 min•Ep. 69
Today on the show we have Sjoerd Handgraaf, CMO at Sharetribe. In this episode, we talked about why retention is key to tackling the supply vs demand problem in marketplace businesses, what liquidity is and why it is important, and the key things you need to be looking at when building a marketplace business. We also discussed early churn at Sharetribe, why they built an entirely new product to tackle graduation churn, and how the Sharetribe’s marketing team operates around churn and retention. ...
Jul 01, 2020•43 min•Ep. 68
Today on the show we have Mark Roberge, Managing Director at Stage 2 Capital, and former Chief Revenue Officer at Hubspot. In this episode, we talked about the strengths of a successful CRO, the growth phases of a company’s lifecycle, and why retention is the one metric that defines product-market fit. We also discussed the pillars of a good go-to-market strategy, how Hubspot discovered their key leading indicators for customer retention in the early days, and more. As usual, I'm excited to hear...
Jun 24, 2020•41 min•Ep. 67
Today on the show we have Georgiana Laudi, Co-Founder of Forget the Funnel. In this episode, we talked about how Georgiana decided to focus on SaaS and build Forget the Funnel, the type of work they do for their clients, and how they evaluate the health of their client’s business to identify where there’s an opportunity for growth. We also discussed The “Jobs to be done” framework, their process, how they set up, and conduct surveys in order to pull out what the customer’s jobs to be done are, a...
Jun 17, 2020•43 min•Ep. 66
Today on the show we have Rahul Vohra, founder, and CEO of Superhuman. In this episode, we talked about what motivated Rahul to build Superhuman, how they iterated their way towards product-market fit, and how they built the product-market fit engine. We also discussed how the Superhuman team analyzes and segments the right feedback to focus on, why & how their onboarding process brought in Industry-leading metrics, and lastly, the right way to get people to talk about your product. As usual...
Jun 10, 2020•45 min•Ep. 65
Today on the show we have Amaan Nathoo, Head of Customer Success at Later. In this episode, we talked about the moment Amaan decided to shift from Sales to Customer Success, how using a growth ceiling calculator helped him realize they had to double down on retention and how customer success fits in a product-led world. We also discussed how Later’s Customer Success team makes up 8% of the entire company, what they focus on, their KPI’s, how it’s structured, and lastly the retention experiment m...
Jun 03, 2020•42 min•Ep. 64
Today on the show we have Jay Nathan & Jeff Breunsbach, managing partners at Customer Imperative. In this episode, we talked about what they do at Customer Imperative, the biggest difference Jay and Jeff see between the way Customer Success teams operate, and how their quick Time to Value process helps their clients see tangible results in just 30 to 45 days. We also discussed the process they use to put together a customer health score and what to avoid, why companies “push back” on custome...
May 27, 2020•50 min•Ep. 63
Today on the show we have Bryant Chou, Co-founder, CTO, and Head of Growth of Webflow. In this episode, we talked about Webflow’s “no sugarcoating” product philosophy, the no-code movement, why churn & retention at Webflow have taken a backseat, and how they overcome their new users learning curve through total transparency. We also discussed how Bryant and his team use customer segmentation to take their product to the next level, the rosetta stone of Webflow (databook), and how to eliminat...
May 20, 2020•39 min•Ep. 62
Today on the show we have Robbie Kellman Baxter, author of the best-selling book “ The Membership Economy” and the newly launched “The Forever Transaction” . In this episode, we talked about what a Forever Transaction is and how to implement it in your business, what influenced Robbie to write her books, and how SaaS businesses’ have changed their view on retention over time. We also discussed why Robbie thinks providing real value is key to cementing trust with your customers during a crisis an...
May 13, 2020•40 min•Ep. 61
Today on the show we have Alex Atkins, Head of Growth at CXL Institute. In this episode, we talked about the process Alex took to decide the key metrics to focus on during his early days at CXL, what motivated him to work more on churn & retention over acquisition, and how they saw an increase in customer retention within 3 months of the team's new focus. We also discussed how the growth team at CXL is built, their efforts to put out the fire Covid19 is causing their business, and how they m...
May 06, 2020•46 min•Ep. 60
Today on the show we have Lauren Culbertson, CEO & Founder of LoopVOC. In this episode, we talked about why Lauren decided to build LoopVOC and the important role leadership plays in ensuring the alignment of customer feedback across a company. We also discussed the dos and don’ts when transitioning an on-premise product to the cloud, the importance of segmentation when it comes to making great product decisions, and the steps they take to identify their ideal customer profile at LoopVOC and...
Apr 29, 2020•51 min•Ep. 59
Today on the show we have Yahav Hartman, CEO and founder of Madgicx! In this episode, we talked about the current churn and retention status at Madgicx, how Yahav interviews churning customers, and how to gauge the quality of customer feedback. We also dived deep into how you can use Facebook ads to increase retention, why customer development should be viewed as a profit center, and Yahav’s prediction on the future of the advertising landscape. As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of th...
Apr 22, 2020•42 min•Ep. 58
Today on the show we have J.R. Farr, Co-founder and CEO of Weav.com In this episode, we discussed what attracted J.R. to build a customer retention platform, how Weav automates your customer retention flow, and how it helps you analyze your customer experience with a holistic approach. We also talked about J.R.’s experience in building a customer retention program from scratch, why he is focused on finding the right customers from day one, and when it’s the right time to fire a customer and why ...
Apr 15, 2020•30 min•Ep. 57
Today on the show we have Matt Barnett, founder and Papa Bear of Bonjoro! In this episode, we discussed how videos can help retain customers and reduce churn, how to craft a hyper-personalized video for your customers, and how to choose the right integration partnerships for your software. We also discussed Bonjoro’s current journey in nailing their ideal customer profile, one thing that Matt wished he knew earlier when it comes to churn and retention, and why you should always foster genuine re...
Apr 08, 2020•37 min•Ep. 56
Today is a very special episode as we are celebrating our first anniversary of Churn.FM. We have now published a new episode every week for 52 weeks straight and what better way to celebrate the anniversary than by having the guest of our very first episode back on the show! This week we have Brian Balfour, Founder, and CEO of Reforge. Reforge have Career Development Programs for Experienced Tech Professionals in Product, Marketing, Data, Design, and Engineering co-authored by Brian Balfour, And...
Apr 01, 2020•39 min•Ep. 55
