OpenView

Co-Founders Robert Wahbe and Oliver Sharp from Highspot share their insights on how to build during a downturn on the final episode of Building to Last.

Robert Wahbe and Oliver Sharp from Highspot share their insights on how to build during a downturn on the final episode of Building to Last.

Building to Last | Robert Wahbe & Oliver Sharp Co-Founders of Highspot

Adding a top-down sales motion is a make-or-break moment for PLG companies. If it’s done right, it can make you the next big thing in your category. If it’s not done right, it can break your team and ultimately compromise your position in the market. The answer? All-in commitment from the founders and key leaders. Enterprise PLG is a team sport! Key Takeaways:<ul><li>[00:06] The most common mistakes John sees PLG founder make when adding sales to a bottom-up or self-service motion </li><li>[02:15] The hidden subtext to be helpful</li></ul> Mentioned in this episode:<a href="https://openviewpartners.com/newsletter/#.YfRAM-rMIuU" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sign up for OpenView's weekly newsletter</a><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/johneitel/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">John Eitel, Former Global Vice President of Sales &amp; Success at Canva</a><a href="https://www.canva.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Canva</a>Subscribe to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaVvQTEaCyt2bbkoAh7wPyg" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Blake Bartlett on YouTube</a>.Podcast produced by&nbsp;<a href="https://openviewpartners.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">OpenView</a>.View our&nbsp;<a href="https://openviewpartners.com/blog" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">blog&nbsp;</a>for more context/inspiration.<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/openview-/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">OpenView on Linkedin</a><a href="https://twitter.com/openviewventure" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">OpenView on Twitter</a><a href="https://www.instagram.com/openviewventure/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">OpenView on Instagram</a><a href="https://www.facebook.com/OpenViewVenture/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">OpenView on Facebook</a>

Technology-savvy, customer-focused executive with more than two decades of progressive sales, marketing, and operations leadership in intensely competitive enterprise technology markets. Track record of top-tier sales performance as both a leader and individual contributor, throughout career. Dynamic and decisive leader, with a history of building high-performance sales teams from the ground floor, turning around under-performing sales / service operations, and fueling multi-million sales growth with both new and existing accounts.

John Eitel

Former Global Vice President of Sales & Success /GM North America

Adding a top-down sales motion is a make-or-break moment for PLG companies. If it’s done right, it can make you the next big thing in your category. If it’s not done right, it can break your team and ultimately compromise your position in the market. The answer? All-in commitment from the founders and key leaders. Enterprise PLG is a team sport!


John Eitel (Canva): How PLG Founders Can Avoid Common Mistakes in Adding a Top-Down Sales Motion

John built the global sales team at Canva, which allowed the company to expand further into the enterprise. He walks us through everything a PLG founder needs to know about adding a top-down motion to a bottom-up, product-led foundation. When should PLG companies do this? Why is it necessary? What is the strategy? And how do you do it IRL?&nbsp; Key Takeaways: <ul><li>[4:35] Repeatability in enterprise customers and understanding where these deals stall out</li><li>[8:01] Stall points in enterprise spending and getting purchase approval</li><li>[10:30] Embracing a top-down motion for PLG companies</li><li>[14:17] Combining bottom-up and top-down to scale business using customer success stories</li><li>[17:24] Communicating to executives the story of what software adoption saves</li><li>[20:24] A broader context and story of how the platform improves customer lives</li><li>[22:47] How the data component can make or break sales efforts</li><li>[27:40] Where is adoption happening and using data to determine who gets involved</li><li>[30:10] How to get the entire company working with sales</li></ul> Mentioned in this episode:<a href="https://openviewpartners.com/newsletter/#.YfRAM-rMIuU" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sign up for OpenView's weekly newsletter</a><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/johneitel/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">John Eitel, Former Global Vice President of Sales &amp; Success at Canva</a><a href="https://www.canva.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Canva</a>Subscribe to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaVvQTEaCyt2bbkoAh7wPyg" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Blake Bartlett on YouTube</a>.Podcast produced by&nbsp;<a href="https://openviewpartners.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">OpenView</a>.View our&nbsp;<a href="https://openviewpartners.com/blog" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">blog&nbsp;</a>for more context/inspiration.<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/openview-/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">OpenView on Linkedin</a><a href="https://twitter.com/openviewventure" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">OpenView on Twitter</a><a href="https://www.instagram.com/openviewventure/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">OpenView on Instagram</a><a href="https://www.facebook.com/OpenViewVenture/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">OpenView on Facebook</a>

John built the global sales team at Canva, which allowed the company to expand further into the enterprise. He walks us through everything a PLG founder needs to know about adding a top-down motion to a bottom-up, product-led foundation. When should PLG companies do this? Why is it necessary? What is the strategy? And how do you do it IRL? 


John Eitel (Canva): Bottom-Up + Top-Down

A product professional’s role changes dramatically over time as a company and product scales, and as the individual develops additional skills and experiences. Annie says you need to “product manage” your own career as a PM in this highly dynamic environment. Calendly is an OpenView portfolio company. For a full portfolio list please visit&nbsp;<a href="http://ov.vc/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ov.vc</a> Key Takeaways:[0:13] What it's like for Annie to product manage her career as a PM Mentioned in this episode:<a href="https://openviewpartners.com/newsletter/#.YfRAM-rMIuU" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sign up for OpenView's weekly newsletter</a><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/anniepearl/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Annie Pearl, Chief Product Officer at Calendly</a><a href="https://calendly.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Calendly</a>Subscribe to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaVvQTEaCyt2bbkoAh7wPyg" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Blake Bartlett on YouTube</a>.Podcast produced by&nbsp;<a href="https://openviewpartners.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">OpenView</a>.View our&nbsp;<a href="https://openviewpartners.com/blog" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">blog&nbsp;</a>for more context/inspiration.<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/openview-/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">OpenView on Linkedin</a><a href="https://twitter.com/openviewventure" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">OpenView on Twitter</a><a href="https://www.instagram.com/openviewventure/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">OpenView on Instagram</a><a href="https://www.facebook.com/OpenViewVenture/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">OpenView on Facebook</a>

Before Calendly, Annie led Glassdoor's product vision and user experience for job seekers and employers around the world. She has led enterprise product teams at Box, including before and after its 2015 IPO, and was the VP of Product and a founding member of Xpert Financial. Annie was honored as one of the Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business in 2019 by the San Francisco Business Times. She holds a J.D. from Santa Clara University School of Law and a Bachelor's degree from Claremont McKenna College. She loves spending time outdoors, especially skiing hiking, and running.

Annie Pearl

Chief Product Officer at Calendly

A product professional’s role changes dramatically over time as a company and product scales, and as the individual develops additional skills and experiences. Annie says you need to “product manage” your own career as a PM in this highly dynamic environment.

Calendly is an OpenView portfolio company. For a full portfolio list please visit ov.vc


Annie Pearl (Calendly): Career Growth in Product Management

A product professional’s role changes dramatically over time as a company and product scales, and as the individual develops additional skills and experiences. Annie says you need to “product manage” your own career as a PM in this highly dynamic environment.



Every PLG business will eventually have to build for the enterprise. Why? Bottom up adoption can indeed go “all the way up”...to the C-level of large organizations. But to get that 6- or 7-figure contract, you’ll need to beef up the product for the big leagues. Annie has gone through the journey at Glassdoor, and now at Calendly. She shares her playbook with us in today’s episode. Calendly is an OpenView portfolio company. For a full portfolio list please visit&nbsp;<a href="http://ov.vc/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ov.vc</a> Key Takeaways:[2:10] What it looks like for PLG businesses to embrace enterprise[4:42] Three components that make adopting enterprise easier said than done[7:49] How to tackle the PLG plus enterprise transition in terms of people [17:00] Maintaining simplicity and the end user experience as a philosophical north star[19:51] Trades offs of embracing enterprise products from the PLG standpoint, and how to manage them[22:57] Building solutions for personas and horizontal platforms[28:06] Platforms and opting into layers of complexity[30:01] Foundational step number one to building towards enterprise Mentioned in this episode:<a href="https://openviewpartners.com/newsletter/#.YfRAM-rMIuU" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sign up for OpenView's weekly newsletter</a><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/anniepearl/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Annie Pearl, Chief Product Officer at Calendly</a><a href="https://calendly.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Calendly</a>Subscribe to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaVvQTEaCyt2bbkoAh7wPyg" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Blake Bartlett on YouTube</a>.Podcast produced by&nbsp;<a href="https://openviewpartners.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">OpenView</a>.View our&nbsp;<a href="https://openviewpartners.com/blog" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">blog&nbsp;</a>for more context/inspiration.<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/openview-/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">OpenView on Linkedin</a><a href="https://twitter.com/openviewventure" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">OpenView on Twitter</a><a href="https://www.instagram.com/openviewventure/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">OpenView on Instagram</a><a href="https://www.facebook.com/OpenViewVenture/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">OpenView on Facebook</a>

Every PLG business will eventually have to build for the enterprise. Why? Bottom up adoption can indeed go “all the way up”...to the C-level of large organizations. But to get that 6- or 7-figure contract, you’ll need to beef up the product for the big leagues. Annie has gone through the journey at Glassdoor, and now at Calendly. She shares her playbook with us in today’s episode.

Calendly is an OpenView portfolio company. For a full portfolio list please visit ov.vc


Annie Pearl (Calendly): Building Enterprise Products

Every PLG business will eventually have to build for the enterprise. Why? Bottom up adoption can indeed go “all the way up”...to the C-level of large organizations. But to get that 6- or 7-figure contract, you’ll need to beef up the product for the big leagues. Annie has gone through the journey at Glassdoor, and now at Calendly. She shares her playbook with us in today’s episode.


Founders often shoot themselves in the foot when it comes to running an M&amp;A process. Andrew points out the most common mistakes he’s seen, and how to avoid them. Key Takeaways:[0:23] The Biggest Mistake Founders Make Selling Their Business Mentioned in this episode:<a href="https://openviewpartners.com/newsletter/#.YfRAM-rMIuU" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sign up for OpenView's weekly newsletter</a><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/agazdecki/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Andrew Gazdecki, CEO of MicroAcquire</a><a href="https://microacquire.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">MicroAcquire</a>Subscribe to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaVvQTEaCyt2bbkoAh7wPyg" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Blake Bartlett on YouTube</a>.Podcast produced by&nbsp;<a href="https://openviewpartners.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">OpenView</a>.View our&nbsp;<a href="https://openviewpartners.com/blog" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">blog&nbsp;</a>for more context/inspiration.<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/openview-/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">OpenView on Linkedin</a><a href="https://twitter.com/openviewventure" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">OpenView on Twitter</a><a href="https://www.instagram.com/openviewventure/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">OpenView on Instagram</a><a href="https://www.facebook.com/OpenViewVenture/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">OpenView on Facebook</a>

I’m Andrew Gazdecki and I’ve been an entrepreneur for longer than I can remember. I like to build stuff, mostly companies, and try to tell a story that goes beyond what the company does to how it’s changing markets.

Andrew Gazdecki

CEO at MicroAcquire

Founders often shoot themselves in the foot when it comes to running an M&A process. Andrew points out the most common mistakes he’s seen, and how to avoid them.


Andrew Gazdecki (MicroAcquire): Founder M&A Mistakes

There is a dearth of good advice on how to sell or exit your startup. Most people use outdated slogans like “companies are bought, not sold” but offer little practical advice to navigate a daunting M&amp;A process. Andrew has sold two software companies previously, and now is building MicroAcquire, the founder-friendly marketplace for selling startups. He shares everything he knows about selling companies. Key Takeaways:[1:17] Andrew talks about Bizness Apps—his first company—and the experience of being a founder[3:01] What selling his first company was like for Andrew[4:09] Paths available to folks considering selling their startup outside huge IPOs and unicorn acquisitions[6:25] What does it take to sell the company?[8:35] The role of marketing in telling the story of your company for someone else to believe in and buy the company[10:39] Addressing myths about selling, and the reality that founders aren't trained to sell their businesses[16:03] Understanding why you want to sell, and setting it up for success[18:33] What is MicroAcquire, and how can startup founders leverage the service? Mentioned in this episode:<a href="https://openviewpartners.com/newsletter/#.YfRAM-rMIuU" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sign up for OpenView's weekly newsletter</a><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/agazdecki/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Andrew Gazdecki, CEO of MicroAcquire</a><a href="https://microacquire.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">MicroAcquire</a>Subscribe to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaVvQTEaCyt2bbkoAh7wPyg" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Blake Bartlett on YouTube</a>.Podcast produced by&nbsp;<a href="https://openviewpartners.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">OpenView</a>.View our&nbsp;<a href="https://openviewpartners.com/blog" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">blog&nbsp;</a>for more context/inspiration.<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/openview-/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">OpenView on Linkedin</a><a href="https://twitter.com/openviewventure" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">OpenView on Twitter</a><a href="https://www.instagram.com/openviewventure/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">OpenView on Instagram</a><a href="https://www.facebook.com/OpenViewVenture/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">OpenView on Facebook</a>

There is a dearth of good advice on how to sell or exit your startup. Most people use outdated slogans like “companies are bought, not sold” but offer little practical advice to navigate a daunting M&A process. Andrew has sold two software companies previously, and now is building MicroAcquire, the founder-friendly marketplace for selling startups. He shares everything he knows about selling companies.


Andrew Gazdecki (MicroAcquire): How to Sell Your Startup

Subscribe on YouTube

Blog

It takes 3 ingredients to build a software startup in today’s wild market: people, product and growth. Easier said than done. 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.

Adding a top-down sales motion is a make-or-break moment for PLG companies. If it’s done right, it can make you the next big thing in your category. If it’s not done right, it can break your team and ultimately compromise your position in the market. The answer? All-in commitment from the founders and key leaders. Enterprise PLG is a team sport!

Building to Last | Robert Wahbe & Oliver Sharp Co-Founders of Highspot

DESCRIPTION

Today's Host

Blake Bartlett

Recent Episodes