BUILD with Blake Bartlett

pScott Williamson, VP of Product at SendGrid (recently acquired by Twilio), is no stranger to utilizing a product to drive growth. He explains the nature of product led growth at SendGrid and how it calls for ruthless prioritization in the core product and a focus around making changes that positively impact the most people. He also discusses the importance of listening to your customers, prioritization of your roadmap, launching a new product within an existing company and much more./p

pJustin Gallagher, Head of Product Management at Trello, is no stranger to building a simple, yet extremely valuable, product for users. On this episode of BUILD, he explains how Trello came to be, the importance of demonstrating value in your product from the very beginning to drive virality, the concepts that are most important to get right in a self-serve model and much more./p

pWelcome to Season 5 of the BUILD podcast! Todays episode is all about virality. In this episode, well hear from Oji Udezue, VP of Product Design at Calendly. Oji previously worked at Atlassian where he was the product owner for Atlassians communication products like HipChat.br / br / Oji discusses the story behind Calendly and how they built virality, network effects, and viral loops into their product. He also explains how to add virality to a product that isnt inherently viral, how to prioritize building out the core product vs. product enhancements, who should own the growth function in a product led growth business and more./p

pWere taking a break in between seasons to chat with Lessonlys CEO, Max Yoder. Max discusses the background behind his new book, Do Better Work, and how the principles laid out in the book are integrated throughout the Lessonly organization. Learn more and preorder your copy by going to www.dobetter.work./p

pJim Baum is currently a Venture Partner at OpenView and serves on multiple boards including Logz.io, Applitools, project44 and DataStax. Jim previously served as President and CEO of Netezza where he drove the nearly $2B acquisition of Netezza by IBM in 2010. Jim also led Endeca’s early rise from tiny startup to the leading provider of innovative information access and delivery software solutions. Prior to Endeca and Netezza, he served at PTC as an Executive Vice President and General Manager.br / br / On this episode, Jim discusses his experience as a venture partner and the difference between joining a board as an investor vs. an independent board member, why sitting on a board is a great opportunity for executives and advice for expansion stage CEOs looking for the right board members./p

div div pBill Wagner started his tenure at LogMeIn in 2013 as their first-ever Chief Operating Officer. In 2015 he was promoted to President CEO and joined the board shortly after where hes played a key role in their rapid growth. Prior to LogMeIn, he was COO at Vocus, a cloud-marketing software company, and held multiple executive and operator roles prior to that. Bill discusses the largest drivers of growth when he joined LogMeIn, the philosophy behind their freemium model and his role on the board when he first started his tenure. Bill also explains how to get the most leverage out of the board, the importance of a diverse board that brings different experiences to the table, and how to search for key external board members./p /div /div

pJohn True has had an impressive professional run, both as an operator and as a board member. He is currently a GP at Cultivation Capital and has previously held executive roles at Guidewire Software, Fortify Software and EqualLogic. John takes us through his remarkable career, including his experience joining his first board and what hes learned from his (currently) 7 board seats. He also discusses the importance of devoting time to building relationships so youre top of mind when opportunities come about and how to make the biggest impact once you get a seat at the table./p

pBill Welch was most recently the President COO of Duo Security, guiding them through a successful sales to Cisco. Hes also held key leadership roles at Zscaler (which went public in early 2018), Hewlett-Packard and Symantec and most recently took an independent board seat at Logikcull. Bill explains the importance of hiring the right individuals for your company and making sure everyone has a role in the journey (employees, customers, partners, etc.). He also explains how he explored board opportunities and the power of board mentors in your company./p

pA Chief People Officer may not be the first choice to add to a board, but it is a choice that all early stage startups should make from the very beginning. Marty Reaume, Chief People Officer at Twilio, has held multiple HR and People positions at companies like NetSuite and Fitbit. She also holds board positions at Ambra Health and SPS Commerce. Marty explains the importance of hiring HR and People talent early on in a business and key initiatives that are currently top of mind as the CPO at Twilio. She also explains when she started to get serious about joining a board and advice for a CEO building out her board for the first time./p

pElisa Steele is currently the CEO of Namely and holds board positions at Cornerstone OnDemand (Chair) and Splunk as well as advisor roles at People.ai and Tile. Her past CMO experiences at Yahoo, Skype and Microsoft naturally led her to explore board seats where she could add her expertise and perspective. Learn how leadership teams can and should use their board as a resource, how roles differ on a board, the importance of using your network to explore opportunities and how to establish your voice on the board./p