#AskAVC with Ryan Floyd

Transforming Customer Success: From Defense to Offense with Mark Stephenson

In this episode of 'Ask a VC', Storm Ventures Managing Director Ryan Floyd and Go-to-Market Consultant Mark Stephenson discuss the pivotal role of customer success in B2B SaaS companies. They delve into the critical importance of transitioning customer success strategies from a defensive to an offensive mindset, emphasizing the importance of net dollar retention (NDR), and the need for a mentality shift within organizations. Topics covered include the significance of Net Dollar Retention (NDR), aligning customer success with revenue goals, and the value of expanding customer relationships post-sale. The conversation highlights best practices for driving growth and retaining customers, ensuring long-term success in the competitive SaaS market.00:00 Introduction00:51 The Importance of Customer Success02:11 Revenue and Customer Success04:14 Net Dollar Retention (NDR) and Metrics05:42 Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and Expansion08:18 Sales and Customer Success Alignment12:09 Customer Success Quotas and Roles21:46 Onboarding and Achieving Value One06:57 Aligning Marketing and Sales with Customer Success27:18 Best Practices and Final ThoughtsMake sure to also:- Follow Ryan on Twitter @RyanFloyd for more content on building SaaS B2B startups, venture capital, and entrepreneurship in general- Subscribe to Ryan’s blog at https://ryanfloyd.org, where he talks about why he invests in certain companies and broader tech industry issues- Connect with Mark on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/markstephenson-consultant/- Check out the #AskAVC podcast based on this channel - https://anchor.fm/ask-a-vcAbout Ryan Floyd:Ryan is a founding Managing Director of Storm Ventures, where he invests in, and works with, early-stage enterprise SaaS startups. His primary focus is applications and cloud infrastructure-related companies. He is always interested in hearing from passionate technology entrepreneurs. Ryan is a skilled writer and commentator on all things SaaS. He's written for TechCrunch, Sifted, Thrive Global and regularly contributes to The UK Newspaper. He's the host of the recently launched #AskAVC YouTube channel aimed at enterprise entrepreneurs. In each episode, he tackles a different issue relating to building and scaling B2B startups - topics such as pitching to an investor and tackling sales churn. When he's not working with his portfolio founders, Ryan is active with Code2040, a nonprofit organization that creates pathways to educational, professional, and entrepreneurial success in technology for underrepresented minorities. And occasionally, he finds time for surfing!About Mark Stephenson:Mark has over 30 years of solution sales GTM leadership experience with high-growth venture backed Series A through E SaaS modern software disruptors such as Evisort, Avi Networks as well as large matrix sales organizations such as HP and Cisco. Mark started sales at Xerox. Over the years as a strategic go-to-market executive, he has developed a four-pronged growth approach to drive consistent exceptional results delivering above quota performance in 24 of 27 operating years. Mark loves building teams that work well together and has a proven ability to lead direct and indirect sales teams at the 3rd and 4th line level as well as Marketing and Customer Success Orgs. He is a high-energy, cross-functional business partner known as a creative thinker with a method for aligning GTM with the business, who has a passion for finding and developing talent, and building repeatable customer engagement and growth process that leverages the team for impact. Great results come from great teams -- Mark can help you hire great GTM team members, put them to work on the right things to scale results.

An Insider’s Take on Hiring Your First VP of Sales

Storm Ventures Managing Director Ryan Floyd and Go-to-Market Consultant Mark Stephenson discuss how early-stage companies can hire the right VP of Sales using a few essential strategies. #b2bsaas [https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/b2bsaas] #venturecapital [https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/venturecapital] #hiring [https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/hiring] #salesexecutive [https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/salesexecutive] #gotomarket [https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/gotomarket] Here's what's covered: 0:00 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHRAjn4bfPA&t=0s] Intros: Ryan & Mark 1:13 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHRAjn4bfPA&t=73s] Hiring the Right VP of Sales 2:58 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHRAjn4bfPA&t=178s] Preparing with a Strategic Plan 4:55 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHRAjn4bfPA&t=295s] Importance of Defining the Spec (Functional Experience, Domain Experience, and Customer Experience) 6:00 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHRAjn4bfPA&t=360s] Functional Experience 8:02 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHRAjn4bfPA&t=482s] Domain Experience 10:39 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHRAjn4bfPA&t=639s] Customer Experience 11:34 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHRAjn4bfPA&t=694s] Should Be Stage-Appropriate for the Company 12:34 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHRAjn4bfPA&t=754s] Hypothetical Situation — Business with $1m ARR 14:25 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHRAjn4bfPA&t=865s] The Interview Process 21:39 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHRAjn4bfPA&t=1299s] Questions to Ask the Candidate 23:06 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHRAjn4bfPA&t=1386s] Sales is a Systematic Process 25:18 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHRAjn4bfPA&t=1518s] Set Objective Criteria — How to See Green, Yellow, and Red Flags 27:13 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHRAjn4bfPA&t=1633s] How Important is Culture? 33:23 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHRAjn4bfPA&t=2003s] What About Diversity? 37:15 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHRAjn4bfPA&t=2235s] Three Es for Top Sales Hires (Ego, Empathy, Energy) 38:57 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHRAjn4bfPA&t=2337s] Take Your Time to Hire Well 40:08 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHRAjn4bfPA&t=2408s] Importance of References 44:55 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHRAjn4bfPA&t=2695s] Thanks! Make sure to also: * Follow Ryan on Twitter @RyanFloyd for more content on building SaaS B2B startups, venture capital, and entrepreneurship in general * Subscribe to Ryan’s blog at https://ryanfloyd.org [https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbmgxY0FaVnNEZXN5bWdYcTRURk5fTkFZQUxDZ3xBQ3Jtc0ttNk1IUF9iZHZZRXBXSFlmeWlTLUdVQl9RRVVUaFp5YlFjd2NPUDU1aVVSMXRsdDU0bkswTTVFM0VMeWFrRnAwTTV5RHRIWnRhcnBMUExyRmhqdWpWSjZXTUtkM2I1LW9MLV9sNmU3MEZjZW16X1RSTQ&q=https%3A%2F%2Fryanfloyd.org%2F&v=eHRAjn4bfPA], where he talks about why he invests in certain companies and broader tech industry issues * Connect with Ajay on LinkedIn   / ajayawatramani   [https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbkhrRy1iQXZ6blVrZW9tSC1hVFRITjFqZV90Z3xBQ3Jtc0trRHNHWm1NOF9Eb185R1JWck5FVlBOcGhYSUtCMkJPZG1pM1NlQkV1TmxHa19kaHBKSklGbE9fa1VxcFREMkh3NER0dHJUOFItTkxmR0pOUXlub240RFF1cGowcTBxMG5YNjB4UmpHdUh1MmN2aUhwVQ&q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fin%2Fajayawatramani%2F&v=eHRAjn4bfPA] * Check out the #AskAVC [https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/askavc] podcast based on this channel - https://anchor.fm/ask-a-vc [https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbkV6RHlnNU5haXhlejN5S0dvX3gzNE82REc5QXxBQ3Jtc0tsR0w3Qy1PRGtqSmFUY3A4bkRweU12UmtSWU9QeFpGbnBrVklwcFFaSFhIT2g4NGM3Z1VYTHJSdXc2T0J2Qm1EcjdEcUFXYWtKaGRXQlp3RERMaGY1enI3V3oyNml5VTM3TE9sc29qdFI3TllRX0Z6MA&q=https%3A%2F%2Fanchor.fm%2Fask-a-vc&v=eHRAjn4bfPA] About Ryan Floyd: Ryan is a founding Managing Director of Storm Ventures, where he invests in, and works with, early-stage enterprise SaaS startups. His primary focus is applications and cloud infrastructure-related companies. He is always interested in hearing from passionate technology entrepreneurs. Ryan is a skilled writer and commentator on all things SaaS. He's written for TechCrunch, Sifted, Thrive Global and regularly contributes to The UK Newspaper. He's the host of the recently launched #AskAVC [https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/askavc] YouTube channel aimed at enterprise entrepreneurs. In each episode, he tackles a different issue relating to building and scaling B2B startups - topics such as pitching to an investor and tackling sales churn. When he's not working with his portfolio founders, Ryan is active with Code2040, a nonprofit organization that creates pathways to educational, professional, and entrepreneurial success in technology for underrepresented minorities. And occasionally, he finds time for surfing! About Mark Stephenson: Mark has over 30 years of solution sales GTM leadership experience with high-growth venture backed Series A through E SaaS modern software disruptors such as Evisort, Avi Networks as well as large matrix sales organizations such as HP and Cisco. Mark started sales at Xerox. Over the years as a strategic go-to-market executive, he has developed a four-pronged growth approach to drive consistent exceptional results delivering above quota performance in 24 of 27 operating years. Mark loves building teams that work well together and has a proven ability to lead direct and indirect sales teams at the 3rd and 4th line level as well as Marketing and Customer Success Orgs. He is a high-energy, cross-functional business partner known as a creative thinker with a method for aligning GTM with the business, who has a passion for finding and developing talent, and building repeatable customer engagement and growth process that leverages the team for impact. Great results come from great teams -- Mark can help you hire great GTM team members, put them to work on the right things to scale results.

AI & B2B SaaS: Worth the Hype? - Ask a VC #38

Will every SaaS company become an AI company? Will AI unlock guaranteed ROI? Is the promise of AI real and what’s the hype anyway? Storm Ventures Managing Director Ryan Floyd and Entrepreneur-in-Residence Ajay Awatramani answer these questions and more in the latest episode of Ask A VC! #b2bsaas #AI #venturecapital Make sure to also: - Follow Ryan on Twitter @RyanFloyd [https://twitter.com/RyanFloyd] for more content on building SaaS B2B startups, venture capital, and entrepreneurship in general - Subscribe to Ryan’s blog [https://ryanfloyd.org], where he talks about why he invests in certain companies and broader tech industry issues - Connect with Ryan [https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanfloyd1/] & Ajay on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajayawatramani/] - Find prior Ask a VC podcast episodes [https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ask-a-vc] to listen to! About Ryan Floyd: Ryan is a founding Managing Director of Storm Ventures, where he invests in, and works with, early-stage enterprise SaaS startups. His primary focus is applications and cloud infrastructure-related companies. He is always interested in hearing from passionate technology entrepreneurs. Ryan is a skilled writer and commentator on all things SaaS. He's written for TechCrunch, Sifted, Thrive Global and regularly contributes to The UK Newspaper. He's the host of the recently launched #AskAVC YouTube channel aimed at enterprise entrepreneurs. In each episode, he tackles a different issue relating to building and scaling B2B startups - topics such as pitching to an investor and tackling sales churn. When he's not working with his portfolio founders, Ryan is active with Code2040, a nonprofit organization that creates pathways to educational, professional, and entrepreneurial success in technology for underrepresented minorities. And occasionally, he finds time for surfing! About Ajay Awatramani: ✔ 23 years of growth leadership experience at Adobe, Marketo, Siebel, Oracle and Sun. And transformation experience at Cornerstone. Venture capital and Private equity deal and industry advisorship. Board role at 150M+ portco. 4+ buy-side and 3+ sell-side txns experience. ✔ Accelerated Marketo growth under public, Vista and Adobe ownership through enterprise transformation incl. platform retrofit for scale, multi-product evolution and TAM expansion into ABX. The 3B$ equity value creation in 2.5 years is the largest exit for Vista in 18 years of existence. Co-led acquisition of Bizible, and integrated Toutapp. ✔ Expanded the TAM at Cornerstone beyond mandatory training/certifications/compliance into a Talent Experience Platform. Created value through platform transformation, operational excellence and add-on acquisition of Edcast (strategic) and SumTotal (EBITDA). Added content business responsibility in '22. ✔ Build a business around Hyperion apps for Sales within Oracle ✔ Founding member of industry's #1 Field Service Automation enterprise solution at Siebel

Remote Work: Is it a Revolution? - ep. #35

Remote work is here to stay. But it’s not what you think. Storm Ventures’ managing director Ryan Floyd reflects upon the new way people work and what that means for founders and investors going forward. Make sure to also: - Follow Ryan on Twitter @RyanFloyd for more content on building SaaS B2B startups, venture capital, and entrepreneurship in general - Subscribe to Ryan’s blog at https://ryanfloyd.org [https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqa1hfLThDZi1jN3B1NThoSzZTXzZXV0RCS2xJUXxBQ3Jtc0tuQVoxR213eG1pZklFaTRKdm95SGRiakVINFY2SlJPdVJSN1A0YUY4cGxvaDZJd0h2ZzV2LXBjUmw4cUhCTDdZSC1JQm5TRURmNjYyR3RRMUdrZnc2aEpFSmM3OXNkMlVKckJiVEpjQ25zVUxGQ01DMA&q=https%3A%2F%2Fryanfloyd.org%2F&v=LNZsDRwbF_c], where he talks about why he invests in certain companies and broader tech industry issues - Check out his #AskAVC [https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/askavc] podcast based on this channel - https://anchor.fm/ask-a-vc [https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbjkzbnA3YnJhdEQ3czRrbzdPZEdHZUw2Zk9Qd3xBQ3Jtc0tuRUtEVFBtZ3VybEZBbGQySXRrZGc4SlRvbnJOS1BaNnA2dTU1ZjdiNTlQY2VQWjlWQ1ZtaTVhTWhKbVZzSDlISERZanVTVURKWm54Q2E3XzBtR3R1bFl1UzhHRFlmXzI2d1pxSU9BSnVHTTdIOHFERQ&q=https%3A%2F%2Fanchor.fm%2Fask-a-vc&v=LNZsDRwbF_c] About Ryan Floyd: Ryan is a founding Managing Director of Storm Ventures, where he invests in, and works with, early-stage enterprise SaaS startups. His primary focus is applications and cloud infrastructure-related companies. He is always interested in hearing from passionate technology entrepreneurs. Ryan is a skilled writer and commentator on all things SaaS. He's written for Techcrunch, Sifted, Thrive Global and regularly contributes to The UK Newspaper. He's the host of the recently launched #AskAVC [https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/askavc] YouTube channel aimed at enterprise entrepreneurs. In each episode, he tackles a different issue relating to building and scaling B2B startups - topics such as pitching to an investor and tackling sales churn. When he's not working with his portfolio founders, Ryan is active with Code2040, a nonprofit organization that creates pathways to educational, professional, and entrepreneurial success in technology for underrepresented minorities. And occasionally, he finds time for surfing!

Startup Funding: How Venture Investors Make Decisions - ep. #34

The venture capital world is notoriously elusive - even for the founders seeking investments. But the process isn't intended to be secretive. Venture Capital investor Ryan Floyd and fellow partner at Storm Ventures, Pascale Diaine take you behind the scenes, revealing their firm's process step-by-step.  Find out what happens after your initial pitch, what to note when talking to different VC firms, and the importance of culture & aligned values. Ryan and Pascale will leave you ready, confident and ready to impress at your next investment meeting. Make sure to also: - Follow me on Twitter (https://twitter.com/RyanFloyd [https://www.youtube.com/redirect?redir_token=QUFFLUhqa3M0YlJaX2p5UkE0TExpbDFpXzlWcE1WcmlPd3xBQ3Jtc0tuRzc1NE5GRDRiOG9oTlR2XzVOaW1EeTFTS3BYcnhRdWhzaGNCaXNNNXktMkRORjAwYTRaOE1WS3ZyU3RzV2g2QVpJcktzQmlFQXJPRjR3aFJIdkNXbGNNNmJpVHc5NzNnXzRXdllqbnBkU2lyTkdlYw%3D%3D&q=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FRyanFloyd&event=video_description&v=78CnZPKfySo]) for a lot more content on building SaaS B2B startups, as well as venture capital and entrepreneurship in general - Subscribe to my blog at http://ryanfloyd.org/ [https://www.youtube.com/redirect?redir_token=QUFFLUhqbEQxS1d4aTJEakdzalFmVXNFQTVKZDM3Ym9yQXxBQ3Jtc0tsazlDS1F1WTVtMDg3OG10Mmc0WERzR29ES09RMG5UbjQ3R1dKTi1BZTZHcEhkU3NQUi1uRkJkY3ZzWmN4V1dwOGxJanUzeW9QMERrMVRHdWZFaDVnSmZMY3ZWeHVydlZFRENZclpqeHBjbnVCcEpPUQ%3D%3D&q=http%3A%2F%2Fryanfloyd.org%2F&event=video_description&v=78CnZPKfySo], where I talk about why I invest in certain companies and broader tech industry issues - Check out my #AskAVC [https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%23AskAVC] podcast based on this channel (https://anchor.fm/ask-a-vc [https://www.youtube.com/redirect?redir_token=QUFFLUhqbjNoXzd1Vm9CQzZydzY2cVo0aUs1bllzUkZIZ3xBQ3Jtc0ttWHF0aERFWEJNTVVhdlNrMEpoVnc4QS1CYS1pQ1RrWk0tcXlUWDVGeHBXeEVOTkk3TDYtdDZPaXNhdXNfZnhJbk1qRGRMUGFvX0ZrVnpIT3doLWdOMUdROFVsdFZaWUFnakNBaTQ4VkJ6ZHFMWmRGcw%3D%3D&q=https%3A%2F%2Fanchor.fm%2Fask-a-vc&event=video_description&v=78CnZPKfySo]) About Ryan Floyd Ryan is a founding Managing Director of Storm Ventures where he invests in, and works with, early stage enterprise SaaS startups. His primary focus is applications and cloud infrastructure related companies. He is always interested in hearing from passionate technology entrepreneurs. Ryan is a skilled writer and commentator on all things SaaS. He’s written for Techcrunch, Sifted, Thrive Global and is a regular contributor to The UK Newspaper. He’s host of the recently launched #AskAVC [https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%23AskAVC] YouTube channel aimed at enterprise entrepreneurs. In each episode he tackles a different issue relating to building and scaling B2B startups - topics such as how to pitch to an investor and how to combat sales churn. When he’s not working with his portfolio founders, Ryan is active with Code2040, a nonprofit organization that creates pathways to educational, professional, and entrepreneurial success in technology for underrepresented minorities. And occasionally he finds time for surfing!