Nick Mehta is the CEO @ Gainsight, the #1 customer success platform for corporate services, turning your customers into your best growth engine. To date Gainsight have raised over $156m from some of the world’s best VCs in the form of Lightspeed, Bessemer, Insight Venture Partners, Battery Ventures and Salesforce Ventures. As for Nick, prior to Gainsight he was the CEO @ LiveOffice where he grew cloud archiving ARR from $2m in 2008 to $25m in 2011 and drove and negotiated the acquisition by Symantec for $115m in cash. Before LiveOffice Nick was Senior Director of Product Management @ Symantec where he led $378 MM market-leading email archiving / security businesses managing over 180 people across 3 continents. I do also have to say a huge thank you to both Byron Deeter and Jason Lemkin for the intro to Nick over two years ago.
In Today’s Episode We Discuss:
How Nick made his way into the world of SaaS and came to lead the charge in the category creation of customer success as CEO with Gainsight? What were some of his big lessons from being CEO at 2 companies during 2 macro market crashes? What does Nick mean when he says, “customer success will fail if it is just a role and not a strategy?” What can the leader and CEO do to imbue this company wide approach to customer success? What tangible actions are on offer? What works? Where do many make mistakes? Nick has previously said, “burying customer success undel sales does not work”. Why does this have such a high rate of failure? What should the optimal sales to customer success relationship look like? What does Nick mean when he says, “product is to customer success what marketing is to sales”. How should product and customer success work together? Why does Nick believe the mythology of the “A player” when business building is fundamentally dangerous? What can leaders and CEOs proactively do to ensure a diverse and differentiated talent pipeline? What question does Nick find most revealing in terms of one’s character and potential? Where do many go wrong in building and scaling their teams in SaaS? Why does Nick push back against the “hire fast and fire fast” thesis? What are the negative consequences of it? Why is it short-sighted and premature in many cases? What does Nick suggest for individuals struggling to find their optimal role within an organisation? How much time does one give someone struggling to find their role?Nick’s 60 Second SaaStr:
Who must fundamentally own the renewal, sales or customer success? What Nick know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning? What would Nick most like to change in the world of SaaS? Most surprising action that has moved the needle for a company in terms of retention?If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here:
Jason Lemkin
Harry Stebbings
SaaStr
Nick Mehta
SaaStr 719: What's New at WordPress with Matt Mullenweg, CEO of Automatic and Co-Founder of WordPress. Hosted by Jason Lemkin, Founder and CEO at SaaStr
SaaStr 718: Predictions for Venture, IPOs and the State of SaaS in 2024 with SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin and Harry Stebbings, Founder and Host of the 20 Minute VC
SaaStr 717: How Enterprise SaaS Companies are Buying AI (or Not) with ContextualAI, Anthropic, and Glean
SaaStr 716: The Future of Customer Success in 2024: Insights and Predictions from Gainsight CEO Nick Mehta and SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin
SaaStr 715: The 7 Biggest Mistakes CMOs Make (And How to Avoid Them) with the CMOs of Databricks, Zoom, and Okta
SaaStr 714: From Zero to Hero: How to Dominate Outbound SaaS Sales with Rippling and Founders Fund on CRO Confidential
SaaStr 713: Why the Future of Customer Success, Sales and Marketing Has Changed: Ask-Me-Anything Part 2 with SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin
SaaStr 712: Is AI the Only Thing in SaaS that Anyone Cares About Anymore? Ask-Me-Anything Part 1 with SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin
SaaStr 711: 5 Lessons from Scaling Six Products to $100M+ with Samsara's Chief Strategy Officer Kiren Sekar
SaaStr 710: Running a PLG and Sales-Led Motion at the Same Time: What’s New at ZoomInfo with CEO Henry Schuck and SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin
SaaStr 709: 15 Signs You Have A SaaS Metrics Problem (and How to Fix it) with Dave Kellogg, EIR at Balderton Capital
SaaStr 708: The Top 10 Mistakes People Make When Hiring a VP of Sales with SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin
SaaStr 707: The Where, When, and How of AI with Theory Ventures, Open AI, MotherDuck and Lamini
SaaStr 706: What's New at Box with Aaron Levie, CEO and Co-Founder of Box and Jason Lemkin, CEO and Founder at SaaStr
SaaStr 705: Decoding the 2024 Market: How to Scale from Go-to-Market Through IPO for the Year Ahead with ICONIQ Growth’s General Partner Doug Pepper and Head of Analytics, Christine Edmonds
SaaStr 704: CRO Confidential: The Hangover's Over: 5 Ways to Get Your SaaS Revenue Back On Track with Gong's SVP Sales, Jameson Yung, and Sam Blond, Partner at Founders Fund
SaaStr 703: Who Will Win the Go-to-Market AI Race — Startups or Incumbents? with Stage 2 Capital's Managing Director and Co-Founder Mark Roberge
SaaStr 702: Hitting Hypergrowth: How to Take Your SaaS Company from $25M to $100M+ and Beyond with Amplitude CEO, Spenser Skates
SaaStr 701: The 5 Ways AI Will Transform Creativity with Adobe CSO & EVP Scott Belsky
SaaStr 700: My Top 10 Failures as a SaaS CEO & What I've Learned with Nick Mehta, CEO at Gainsight
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