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What does marketing look like in a PLG model? Marketers know that PLG changes things, but does it change everything? Sara makes the case for finding the right balance between novel strategies and long-standing best practices for PLG marketers.

Creative marketing leader with a track record for driving awareness and demand for enterprise software products. Effective at building high performing teams across creative, campaign management, PR, and product marketing. Experience building partner ecosystems and empowering startups to become marketing powerhouses.

Sara Varni

CMO at Attentive, Former CMO at Twilio

What does marketing look like in a PLG model? Marketers know that PLG changes things, but does it change everything? Sara makes the case for finding the right balance between novel strategies and long-standing best practices for PLG marketers.


Sara Varni (Attentive & Twilio): PLG x Marketing

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It takes 3 ingredients to build a software startup in today’s wild market: people, product and growth. Easier said than done. OV BUILD is here to help by featuring conversations between venture capitalist Blake Bartlett and the smartest folks in software. OpenView is a VC firm that invests in amazing companies like Datadog, Expensify and Calendly. Visit ov.vc for more details.

BUILD with Blake Bartlett

What does marketing look like in a PLG model? Marketers know that PLG changes things, but does it change everything? Sara makes the case for finding the right balance between novel strategies and long-standing best practices for PLG marketers.

Stack Overflow's mission is to empower the world to develop technology through collective knowledge. Prashanth describes how his personal story connects to this big mission, and how his team works to make this vision a reality.

As Chief Executive Officer of Stack Overflow, the world’s largest and most trusted software developer and technologist community and platform with over 100 million monthly users, Prashanth is responsible for driving Stack Overflow’s overall strategic direction and results. He leads an amazing global organization of Stackers who are passionate about their mission: empower the world to develop technology through collective knowledge.

Previously, Prashanth served as Senior Vice President & General Manager of Rackspace’s Cloud & Infrastructure Services portfolio of businesses, including the Managed Public Clouds, Private Clouds, Colocation and Managed Security businesses. He also held a range of senior leadership roles at Rackspace including Senior Vice President & General Manager of Rackspace’s high growth, global business focused on the world's leading Public Clouds including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Alibaba Cloud, which became the fastest growing business in Rackspace’s history.

Prior to joining Rackspace, Prashanth was a Vice President at Barclays Investment Bank, focused on providing strategic and Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) advice for clients in the Technology, Media and Telecom (TMT) industries. He was also a Manager at Capgemini Consulting, focused on leading operations transformation engagements and consulting teams across the US.

Prashanth has an MBA from Harvard Business School, M.Eng in Engineering Management from Cornell University and B.S. in Computer Engineering (summa cum laude) from the University of Maine and is a married father of two children.

Prashanth Chandrasekar

CEO at Stack Overflow

Stack Overflow's mission is to empower the world to develop technology through collective knowledge. Prashanth describes how his personal story connects to this big mission, and how his team works to make this vision a reality.


Prashanth Chandrasekar (Stack Overflow): Our Big Mission

Founders often have strong opinions and extreme perspectives. In the early days, this is good because it leads innovators to start companies. But as a team scales, leaders need to adopt an open mindset. Prashanth describes how this approach has led Stack Overflow to huge success by embracing counterintuitive strategies.&nbsp;

As Chief Executive Officer of Stack Overflow, the world’s largest and most trusted software developer and technologist community and platform with over 100 million monthly users, responsible for driving Stack Overflow’s overall strategic direction and results. Lead an amazing global organization of Stackers who are passionate about our mission: empower the world to develop technology through collective knowledge.

Previously, served as Senior Vice President & General Manager of Rackspace’s Cloud & Infrastructure Services portfolio of businesses, including the Managed Public Clouds, Private Clouds, Colocation and Managed Security businesses. Also held a range of senior leadership roles at Rackspace including Senior Vice President & General Manager of Rackspace’s high growth, global business focused on the world's leading Public Clouds including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Alibaba Cloud, which became the fastest growing business in Rackspace’s history.

Prior to joining Rackspace, was a Vice President at Barclays Investment Bank, focused on providing strategic and Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) advice for clients in the Technology, Media and Telecom (TMT) industries. Was also a Manager at Capgemini Consulting, focused on leading operations transformation engagements and consulting teams across the US.

MBA from Harvard Business School, M.Eng in Engineering Management from Cornell University and B.S. in Computer Engineering (summa cum laude) from the University of Maine. Married and father of two children.

Founders often have strong opinions and extreme perspectives. In the early days, this is good because it leads innovators to start companies. But as a team scales, leaders need to adopt an open mindset. Prashanth describes how this approach has led Stack Overflow to huge success by embracing counterintuitive strategies. 


Prashanth Chandrasekar (Stack Overflow): Non-Dual Leadership

Mindfulness and meditation are two hot topics today. G2 makes this an intentional focus for its entire team, not just a personal practice. And it’s working.

Godard Abel is the co-founder and CEO of G2. He previously built cloud CPQ pioneers BigMachines (acquired by Oracle) and SteelBrick (acquired by Salesforce).

Godard Abel

Co-Founder and CEO at G2

Mindfulness and meditation are two hot topics today. G2 makes this an intentional focus for its entire team, not just a personal practice. And it’s working.


Godard Abel (G2): Mindfulness At Work

Godard credits much of G2’s success to the practice of Conscious Leadership across the management team. It’s a framework that helps leaders build trust and create conscious cultures. Learn how Godard discovered it during a time of leadership difficulty, and how he implements it today.

Godard credits much of G2’s success to the practice of Conscious Leadership across the management team. It’s a framework that helps leaders build trust and create conscious cultures. Learn how Godard discovered it during a time of leadership difficulty, and how he implements it today.


Godard Abel (G2): Conscious Leadership

Hubert shares what it means to have product objectives support company goals, why that’s so important, and how to watch out for the challenges that come with it.&nbsp;

Hubert is the founder and CEO of Productboard, the leading product management system that enables product teams to get the right products to market, faster. Prior to Productboard, Hubert was the Vice President of Product Management at GoodData. He lives with his wife Jenna and their two young sons in the San Francisco Bay area.

Hubert Palan

Founder and CEO at Productboard

Hubert shares what it means to have product objectives support company goals, why that’s so important, and how to watch out for the challenges that come with it. 


Hubert Palan (Productboard): Company Goals = Product Goals

The key to customer centricity is empathy. But where does empathy come from? Actual knowledge of your customer, their pain and their goals. Everyone on your team shares responsibility in developing this knowledge. But most companies delegate this to user research, annual surveys or maybe the founder’s gut. It’s not enough.&nbsp;

The key to customer centricity is empathy. But where does empathy come from? Actual knowledge of your customer, their pain and their goals. Everyone on your team shares responsibility in developing this knowledge. But most companies delegate this to user research, annual surveys or maybe the founder’s gut. It’s not enough. 


Recent Episodes

SEASON 11

About The Show

BUILD with Blake Bartlett

Blake Bartlett

Partner at OpenView

Recent Episodes

SEASON 11

Sara Varni (Attentive & Twilio): PLG x Marketing

Prashanth Chandrasekar (Stack Overflow): Our Big Mission

Prashanth Chandrasekar (Stack Overflow): Non-Dual Leadership

Godard Abel (G2): Mindfulness At Work

Godard Abel (G2): Conscious Leadership

Hubert Palan (Productboard): Company Goals = Product Goals

Hubert Palan (Productboard): Going Beyond User Research

About The Show

BUILD with Blake Bartlett

Blake Bartlett

Partner at OpenView