Joining a firm as CEO requires a very specific skillset, and today we chat with Dennis Fois about his journey with Copper in this capacity, and what differentiates the company in the CRM space. Most CRMs have placed too much focus on increasing visibility at the company level at the cost of productivity at the user level, but Copper is different. In a nutshell, Copper is a productivity CRM designed for companies that use G Suite. Dennis begins by sketching out his experience and specialty of joining firms as their CEO to boost their scaling process and journey to product-market fit. From there, he gives us an idea of the vision at Copper – to be truly user-focused and increase adoption while making it more organic by honing in on amazing UX. We drill down on the process whereby a company onboards a CEO next, and Dennis does a great job of explaining when, how, and why this should happen, the typical differences between CEOs and founders, and what his experience joining Copper in the middle of their journey looked like. Building a great company culture across distributed and remote teams becomes our next main talking point, and Dennis lays out his brilliant thinking and approach to this matter. Make sure you catch today’s interview to learn how a CEO should run a firm from a man that was born for the role.

TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES:

• [00:41] Before we jump into today’s interview, please rate, review, and subscribe to the Leveling Up Podcast!
• [00:52] Dennis’s travels, his professional experience, and the value he provides as a CEO.
• [01:35] What differentiates Copper from other CRMs: Focusing on UX and productivity. 
• [02:19] How Copper charges on a per-user/per-month basis in a three-tiered model.
• [02:29] Growth rates for Copper after the pandemic and how their user focus affects this.
• [03:46] What captured Dennis’s attention at Copper and the roles of CEOs versus founders.
• [06:08] When and how CEOs should be hired according to Dennis’s experience of this process. 
• [07:22] Why an external CEO should be hired and how to find one.
• [08:40] The process for Dennis as far as his onboarding with Copper and what went right. 
• [10:38] Building a healthy company culture in a virtual/remote work landscape after COVID.
• [16:45] Considerations and insight while building a long-form writing culture in the company.
• [19:25] Growth areas for Copper: Scaling spend down while getting more conversions.
• [19:55] How people are finding/adopting Copper because they need it, not because they found it on an app store.
• [20:23] Dennis’s favorite tool that isn’t Copper and how he uses it.
• [20:49] A book recommendation from Dennis and other media he likes to consume.
• [21:44] Where to learn more about Copper as well as Dennis.

 

Resources From The Interview:

 

• Dennis Fois on LinkedIn
• Copper
• G Suite
• Jon Lee on LinkedIn
• Vonage (NewVoiceMedia)
• Peloton
• Basecamp
• Amazon
• Confluence
• Bear
• Malcolm Gladwell
• Tim Ferriss

Must read book: Talking to Strangers

 

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