In Depth

A crash course on founder-led customer success — Sydney Strader’s lessons from Catalyst & InVision


Listen Later

Today’s episode is with Sydney Strader, VP of Customer Success at Catalyst. Prior to joining Catalyst, Sydney was the VP of Customer Success at InVision.


In our conversation we focus on founder-led customer success, an area of early company building that’s often overlooked. Here’s a preview of her tactical advice:


  • How to structure early customer check-ins, plus a framework to help surface more specific feedback. 
  • The most impactful questions that founders and customer success managers should ask all their customers.
  • Why everyone at the company owns the net revenue retention metric — not just the customer success function.
  • How to make your first customer success hire, from the ideal profile to structuring the interview process and setting comp. 

  • You can follow Sydney on Twitter at @sydneystrader. You can email us questions directly at [email protected] or follow us on Twitter @firstround and @brettberson.

    ...more
    View all episodesView all episodes
    Download on the App Store

    In DepthBy First Round

    • 4.8
    • 4.8
    • 4.8
    • 4.8
    • 4.8

    4.8

    57 ratings


    More shows like In Depth

    View all
    This Week in Startups by Jason Calacanis

    This Week in Startups

    1,273 Listeners

    a16z Podcast by Andreessen Horowitz

    a16z Podcast

    1,061 Listeners

    The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch by Harry Stebbings

    The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

    521 Listeners

    The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors by SaaStr

    The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors

    174 Listeners

    Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy by Colossus | Investing & Business Podcasts

    Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

    2,281 Listeners

    Masters of Scale by WaitWhat

    Masters of Scale

    3,989 Listeners

    Y Combinator Startup Podcast by Y Combinator

    Y Combinator Startup Podcast

    225 Listeners

    Grit by Kleiner Perkins

    Grit

    187 Listeners

    The Logan Bartlett Show by by Redpoint Ventures

    The Logan Bartlett Show

    188 Listeners

    No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups by Conviction

    No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups

    125 Listeners

    Latent Space: The AI Engineer Podcast by swyx + Alessio

    Latent Space: The AI Engineer Podcast

    69 Listeners

    AI and I by Dan Shipper

    AI and I

    31 Listeners

    AI + a16z by a16z

    AI + a16z

    32 Listeners

    Lightcone Podcast by Y Combinator

    Lightcone Podcast

    19 Listeners

    Training Data by Sequoia Capital

    Training Data

    44 Listeners