The Platform Journey

• 28. Lara Caimi

  In this episode, Avanish and Lara discuss:The four distinct phases of software company growth and what each requires - from finding product-market fit ($0-100M) to demonstrating platform vision ($100M-1B) to scaling enterprise deals ($1B-5B)The critical importance of not neglecting your core business while scaling - how ServiceNow used tiered pricing models to continue monetizing their core productsWhy platform and ecosystem strategies are "two sides of the coin" but must be tailored to each company's specific situation - there is no one-size-fits-all approachThe "win-win-win equation" that must exist for successful partnerships - creating value for customers, partners, and your companyCreating cultural alignment around ecosystem strategy - including Dave Schneider's innovative approach of inviting partners to ServiceNow's sales kickoffHow to avoid "throwing money against the wall" with partnerships that lack strategic foundationBuilding unfair advantages at scale through customer relationships, installed base data, and continuous innovation to stay ahead of imitatorsHost: Avanish SahaiAvanish Sahai is a Tidemark Fellow and has served as a Board Member of Hubspot since April 2018 and of Birdie.ai since April 2022. Previously, Avanish served as the vice president, ISV and Apps partner ecosystem of Google from 2019 until 2021. From 2016 to 2019, he served as the global vice president, ISV and Technology alliances at ServiceNow.  From 2014 to 2015, he was the senior vice president and chief product officer at Demandbase.  Prior to Demandbase, Avanish built and led the Appexchange platform ecosystem team at Salesforce, and was an executive at Oracle and McKinsey & Company, as well as various early-to-mid stage startups in Silicon Valley.About Lara CaimiLara Caimi is the President of Worldwide Field Operations at Samsara. Lara brings nearly 25 years of experience to Samsara, where she is responsible for leading Sales and Customer Outcomes. Before Samsara, Lara was Chief Customer and Partner Officer for ServiceNow, overseeing nearly 2,500 global employees across organizations including customer success, professional services, and channel ecosystem. Previously, she served as ServiceNow’s Chief Strategy Officer. Before joining ServiceNow, Lara was a partner at Bain & Company, where she advised technology companies on growth and go-to-market strategy.Lara holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics and English Literature from St. Olaf College, a MIB from the University of Sydney as a Fulbright Scholar, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.About TidemarkTidemark is a venture capital firm, foundation, and community built to serve category-leading technology companies as they scale.  Tidemark was founded in 2021 by David Yuan, who has been investing, advising, and building technology companies for over 20 years.  Learn more at www.tidemarkcap.com.LinksFollow our guest, Lara CaimiFollow our host, Avanish SahaiLearn more about Tidemark

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  38:34
• 27. Jim Steele, Salesforce

  In this episode, Avanish and Jim discuss:Jim's 46-year journey from IBM to Salesforce, including his role in scaling Salesforce from $22M to $5B in revenueHow customer demands, particularly from companies like Cisco and Merrill Lynch, shaped Salesforce's platform strategyThe strategic decision to separate the application layer from the platformCreating a successful customer success organization to drive adoption and showcase customer storiesThe evolution of Salesforce's partner strategy and metrics for measuring ecosystem successHow the "tactics dictate strategy" philosophy helped Salesforce respond to market needsAbout Our GuestJim Steele is the President of Global Strategic Customers and Partners at Salesforce. Previously, Jim served as Salesforce’s President of Worldwide Sales and Chief Customer Officer for over 12 years, from 2002 through 2014 where he led the growth of the company from $22 million to more than $5 billion in revenue. Jim rejoined Salesforce in 2020 as President of Global Strategic Sales with his primary focus to bring the full power of Salesforce to its largest and most strategic customers. Most recently, Jim has also assumed responsibility for Salesforce's Alliances & Channels organization, the Emerging Business operating unit, and Private Equity practice. Previously Jim served as Chief Revenue Officer and President of Yext, President and Chief Revenue Officer of InsideSales.com and President of Worldwide Sales at Ariba. Jim started his career at IBM where he spent over 22 years in executive leadership and senior sales roles including VP and GM of Sales in Asia, based in Tokyo.About our HostAvanish Sahai is a Tidemark Fellow and has served as a Board Member of Hubspot since April 2018 and of Birdie.ai since April 2022. Previously, Avanish served as the vice president, ISV and Apps partner ecosystem of Google from 2019 until 2021. From 2016 to 2019, he served as the global vice president, ISV and Technology alliances at ServiceNow.  From 2014 to 2015, he was the senior vice president and chief product officer at Demandbase.  Prior to Demandbase, Avanish built and led the AppExchange platform ecosystem team at Salesforce, and was an executive at Oracle and McKinsey & Company, as well as various early-to-mid stage startups in Silicon Valley.About TidemarkTidemark is a venture capital firm, foundation, and community built to serve category-leading technology companies as they scale.  Tidemark was founded in 2021 by David Yuan, who has been investing, advising, and building technology companies for over 20 years.  Learn more at www.tidemarkcap.com.LinksFollow our guests, Jim SteeleFollow our host, Avanish SahaiLearn more about Tidemark

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  47:33
• 26. Kevin Haverty, ServiceNow

  This season will feature conversations with key decision-makers who have to support the journey to a platform or any ecosystem. We will talk to C-suite executives, board members, investors, and others who must be bought into the platform journey. In this episode, Avanish and Kevin discuss:Kevin's career journey and his experiences shaping ServiceNow's growth.What it means to authentically be a platform company and how ServiceNow approached platform-first scaling.How customer feedback drove ServiceNow’s expansion into new domains like HR and customer workflows.The key factors for entering new markets, including market fit, size, and differentiation.The importance of hiring domain-specific experts and adapting go-to-market strategies.Building and leveraging ecosystem partnerships to drive growth and scale.Balancing core revenue innovation with new domain expansion to ensure sustainable growth.Guest: Kevin HavertyKevin Haverty was formerly the Vice Chairman, Global Public Sector at ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW). In this role, he worked directly with CEO Bill McDermott on expanding ServiceNow’s strategic footprint in the public sector and mentoring the company’s next generation of early-in-career professionals.During the past decade, Kevin successfully led and grew ServiceNow’s world-class go-to-market organization. He most recently served as the company’s Chief Revenue Officer, and also held the roles of EVP and SVP of Worldwide Sales and VP of Americas Sales.Earlier in his career, Kevin held several senior sales leadership roles at EMC, Data Domain, Thomsen Financial, and Brocade. He also served 10 years in the U.S. Army National Guard, attaining the rank of Captain.Kevin holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Providence College, where he was a distinguished military graduate of the Army ROTC program. He currently serves on the Board of Sprinklr.  Host: Avanish SahaiAvanish Sahai is a Tidemark Fellow and has served as a Board Member of Hubspot since April 2018 and of Birdie.ai since April 2022. Previously, Avanish served as the vice president, ISV and Apps partner ecosystem of Google from 2019 until 2021. From 2016 to 2019, he served as the global vice president, ISV and Technology alliances at ServiceNow.  From 2014 to 2015, he was the senior vice president and chief product officer at Demandbase.  Prior to Demandbase, Avanish built and led the Appexchange platform ecosystem team at Salesforce, and was an executive at Oracle and McKinsey & Company, as well as various early-to-mid stage startups in Silicon Valley.About TidemarkTidemark is a venture capital firm, foundation, and community built to serve category-leading technology companies as they scale.  Tidemark was founded in 2021 by David Yuan, who has been investing, advising, and building technology companies for over 20 years.  Learn more at www.tidemarkcap.com.LinksFollow our guests, Kevin HavertyFollow our host, Avanish Sahai

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  31:19
• 25. Dave Yuan, Tidemark

  This season will feature conversations with key decision-makers who have to support the journey to a platform or any ecosystem. We will talk to C-suite executives, board members, investors, and others who must be bought into the platform journey. In this episode, Avanish and Dave discuss: Dave's background and what led him to start TidemarkTidemark's VSKP framework on how a Vertical SaaS company can win their category, expand their offerings, and then, for a select few, extend through the value chainWhat it really means to be a control point and why it mattersThe mindset (and perhaps mindset shift) that is required to build a strong ecosystemThe wedges you need to be mindful of and the problems they can cause on your journeyThinking about the varying horizons of your product roadmap and how to synthesize them in actionable paths forwardHow to determine if your team is ready for the platform journeyAnd much more! Host: Avanish SahaiAvanish Sahai is a Tidemark Fellow and has served as a Board Member of Hubspot since April 2018 and of Birdie.ai since April 2022. Previously, Avanish served as the vice president, ISV and Apps partner ecosystem of Google from 2019 until 2021. From 2016 to 2019, he served as the global vice president, ISV and Technology alliances at ServiceNow.  From 2014 to 2015, he was the senior vice president and chief product officer at Demandbase.  Prior to Demandbase, Avanish built and led the Appexchange platform ecosystem team at Salesforce, and was an executive at Oracle and McKinsey & Company, as well as various early-to-mid stage startups in Silicon Valley.About TidemarkTidemark is a venture capital firm, foundation, and community built to serve category-leading technology companies as they scale.  Tidemark was founded in 2021 by David Yuan, who has been investing, advising, and building technology companies for over 20 years.  Learn more at www.tidemarkcap.com.LinksFollow our guest, Dave YuanFollow our host, Avanish SahaiLearn more about Tidemark

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  33:55
• 24. Tyler Prince, Snowflake

  In this episode, Avanish and Tyler discuss:The opportunity involved in bringing together disparate partner initiatives within an organization (4:35)Leveraging a partner ecosystem at Salesforce to create transformative offerings and expand internationally (6:30)The importance of building an ecosystem to manage data in the face of AI (9:05)Prioritizing customer success and partner growth to drive company value (12:40)Changing the paradigm around bringing applications to data (14:50)The inherent value of the consumption model in a partner ecosystem (18:30)Enabling partners to start delivering value as quickly as possible (19:55)Finding support from the top down, and curating the right talent for the ecosystem journey (22:30)The importance of simplification (27:10)Guest: Tyler PrinceAs the SVP of Worldwide Alliances & Channels, Tyler Prince is responsible for growing the Snowflake global community of Consulting Partners, System Integrators, ISVs, Resellers and Technology Partners. He brings a deep breadth of experience to his role with more than 30 years of delivering transformational capabilities to partners and customers across many industries. Prior to joining Snowflake, Prince served as EVP, Global Alliances at Salesforce and as Partner & Global Oracle Practice Leader at PwC. Prior to PwC, Prince held various management positions at Oracle, PeopleSoft, IBM and Andersen Consulting. He resides in Chicago, IL where he remains active in the local community as a board member of the American Cancer Society and 1871, a non-profit digital startup incubator.Host: Avanish SahaiAvanish Sahai is a Tidemark Fellow and has served as a Board Member of Hubspot since April 2018 and of Birdie.ai since April 2022. Previously, Avanish served as the vice president, ISV and Apps partner ecosystem of Google from 2019 until 2021. From 2016 to 2019, he served as the global vice president, ISV and Technology alliances at ServiceNow.  From 2014 to 2015, he was the senior vice president and chief product officer at Demandbase.  Prior to Demandbase, Avanish built and led the Appexchange platform ecosystem team at Salesforce, and was an executive at Oracle and McKinsey & Company, as well as various early-to-mid stage startups in Silicon Valley.About TidemarkTidemark is a venture capital firm, foundation, and community built to serve category-leading technology companies as they scale.  Tidemark was founded in 2021 by David Yuan, who has been investing, advising, and building technology companies for over 20 years.  Learn more at www.tidemarkcap.com.LinksFollow our guest, Tyler PrinceFollow our host, Avanish SahaiLearn more about Tidemark

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  26:21

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