Early in a startup’s life, founders are the ones selling and finding those critical early customers. As the startup scales, this responsibility often transitions to a sales team. The transition is a vital moment in the company’s journey, and mistakes can set the organization back years. In this episode, we speak to Josh Leslie, who has decades of sales and leadership experience spanning companies like VMware, Coraid, and Cumulus Networks. We explore the intricacies of building and scaling a sales organization and what are some of the pitfalls for founders.

This is the last episode of our first season! Thanks so much to all our guests so far - and everyone who tuned in. We are looking forward to coming back in 2022.

Make sure also to follow us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/stormventures) and check out our website (www.stormventures.com/thoughts) for a lot more content on building & scaling successful B2B SaaS businesses.

About Storm Ventures

Storm Ventures is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm focused on building enterprise leaders with over $1 billion in capital under management. Over its 20 year history, Storm has partnered with entrepreneurs on the startup journey to address some of the most challenging problems that businesses face across the B2B enterprise software space. Portfolio companies include Algolia, Marketo (IPO/Vista), MobileIron (IPO/Ivanti), Pipedrive (Vista), Qualio, SalesLoft, Splashtop, Talkdesk, Tekion, and Workato.

The engineering function has rapidly evolved over the last few years. Rapid growth in the tech sector and the introduction of new technologies have forced engineering teams to innovate faster, be more agile and adept at cross-functional collaboration than ever before.

In this episode, we talk about how engineering leaders can rise up to these challenges and more with Srini Kakkera. Srini is the head of engineering, AI/ML & Analytics at Marketo/Adobe, and previously held senior engineering leadership roles at organizations like SAP, Accela, and AlertEnterprise.

Make sure to also follow us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/stormventures) and check out our website (www.stormventures.com/thoughts) for a lot more content on building & scaling successful B2B SaaS businesses.

About Storm Ventures

Storm Ventures is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that is focused on building enterprise leaders with over $1 billion in capital under management. Over its 20 year history, Storm has partnered with entrepreneurs on the startup journey to address some of the most challenging problems that businesses face across the B2B enterprise software space. Portfolio companies include Algolia, Marketo (IPO/Vista), MobileIron (IPO/Ivanti), Pipedrive (Vista), Qualio, SalesLoft, Splashtop, Talkdesk, Tekion, and Workato.

Healthcare can be an incredibly challenging industry to navigate for startup founders. Complex decision-making processes, numerous stakeholders, long sales cycles make it very hard for startups to enter the market. This is where the ability to utilize partnerships with bigger players in the industry can be extremely valuable.

Lisa Maki, a serial entrepreneur currently managing strategic partnerships for health and life science at Microsoft, has had a long and distinguished career in healthcare. Listen to our latest interview to get insights on how to navigate the industry.

Make sure to also follow us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/stormventures) and check out our website (www.stormventures.com/thoughts) for a lot more content on building & scaling successful B2B SaaS businesses.

About Storm Ventures

Storm Ventures is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that is focused on building enterprise leaders with over $1 billion in capital under management. Over its 20 year history, Storm has partnered with entrepreneurs on the startup journey to address some of the most challenging problems that businesses face across the B2B enterprise software space. Portfolio companies include Algolia, Marketo (IPO/Vista), MobileIron (IPO/Ivanti), Pipedrive (Vista), Qualio, SalesLoft, Splashtop, Talkdesk, Tekion, and Workato.

The role of a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) has evolved tremendously over the years. What was once about building the brand and advertising has grown to include technology, analytics, and impact. Additionally, marketing works more closely with sales and customer success than ever before to ultimately bring a unified vision and value to customers. Amit Pande, global head of product marketing at Wrike, explores this evolution and draws upon his experiences at companies like Aviso, Tact, and HP, to build a roadmap for a successful marketing organization.

Wrike, recently acquired by Citrix, is the most versatile work management platform for enterprises. Over 20,000 customers, including Airbnb, Apple, Walmart, Estée Lauder, Oracle, and Tiffany & Co., and 2M+ users across 140 countries depend on Wrike to help teams plan, manage, and complete work at scale.

Make sure to also follow us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/stormventures) and check out our website (www.stormventures.com/thoughts) for a lot more content on building & scaling successful B2B SaaS businesses.

About Storm Ventures

Storm Ventures is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that is focused on building enterprise leaders with over $1 billion in capital under management. Over its 20 year history, Storm has partnered with entrepreneurs on the startup journey to address some of the most challenging problems that businesses face across the B2B enterprise software space. Portfolio companies include Algolia, Marketo (IPO/Vista), MobileIron (IPO/Ivanti), Pipedrive (Vista), Qualio, SalesLoft, Splashtop, Talkdesk, Tekion, and Workato.

Chief Revenue Officer is a wide-reaching and highly strategic role within a business, spanning sales, marketing, customer success, etc. Christof Baumgartner, former CRO at MobileIron, went through a unique journey with the company, from its startup days all the way to an IPO and ultimately acquisition. In the latest episode of the Enterprise Leaders podcast, Arun Penmetsa, partner at Storm Ventures, talks to Christof about what the “day in the life” of a CRO looks like - and how to scale to 15,000 customers and beyond.

MobileIron helps companies worldwide enable their employees to choose the best devices and the best apps they want to do their work. MobileIron has over 17,000 customers worldwide. The company was founded in 2007 and backed by top-tier investors, including Sequoia Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, and Storm Ventures. MobileIron conducted a successful IPO in 2014 (NASDAQ: MOBL). MobileIron was acquired by Ivanti for $872m on December 1, 2020.

Make sure to also follow us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/stormventures) and check out our website (www.stormventures.com/thoughts) for a lot more content on building & scaling successful B2B SaaS businesses.

About Storm Ventures

Storm Ventures is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that is focused on building enterprise leaders with over $1 billion in capital under management. Over its 20 year history, Storm has partnered with entrepreneurs on the startup journey to address some of the most challenging problems that businesses face across the B2B enterprise software space. Portfolio companies include Algolia, Marketo (IPO/Vista), MobileIron (IPO/Ivanti), Pipedrive (Vista), Qualio, SalesLoft, Splashtop, Talkdesk, Tekion, and Workato.

In the next episode of Enterprise Leaders, we explore the role of the engineering team. Arun Penmetsa, a partner at Storm Ventures, is joined by Vahed Qazvinian, co-founder and CTO at Praisidio. Drawing on his experience as a CTO and an engineer at companies ranging from startups to multinational organizations like Google, Vahed talks about how the engineering team can be a true partner to the rest of the organization and how to develop an engineering-driven culture within the company, and much more.

Praisidio is a venture capital-backed Enterprise Risk Management AI software company. Founded in 2019 and headquartered in Silicon Valley, their patent-pending product Procaire is the first of its kind Talent Risk Management platform which provides early employee attrition risk detection, assessment, prioritization, explanations, and action workflows to materially improve retention and employee work life.

Make sure to also follow us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/stormventures) and check out our website (www.stormventures.com/thoughts) for a lot more content on building & scaling successful B2B SaaS businesses.

About Storm Ventures

Storm Ventures is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that is focused on building enterprise leaders with over $1 billion in capital under management. Over its 20 year history, Storm has partnered with entrepreneurs on the startup journey to address some of the most challenging problems that businesses face across the B2B enterprise software space. Portfolio companies include Algolia, Marketo (IPO/Vista), MobileIron (IPO/Ivanti), Pipedrive (Vista), Qualio, SalesLoft, Splashtop, Talkdesk, Tekion, and Workato.

In this episode, we do a deep dive into the product role within a company - one of the most vital functions for any business. Arun Penmetsa, partner at Storm Ventures, interviews Charanya (CK) Kannan, chief product & engineering officer at TalkDesk. CK shares the lessons from her journey to where she is today - leading a team of more than 850 employees.

Talkdesk is a global “unicorn”, providing a better way for businesses and customers to engage with one another through its cloud contact center solution. Over 1,800 innovative companies around the world, including IBM, Acxiom, Trivago, and Fujitsu partner with Talkdesk to deliver a better way to great customer experience.

Make sure to also follow us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/stormventures) and check out our website (www.stormventures.com/thoughts) for a lot more content on building & scaling successful B2B SaaS businesses.

About Storm Ventures

Storm Ventures is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that is focused on building enterprise leaders with over $1 billion in capital under management. Over its 20 year history, Storm has partnered with entrepreneurs on the startup journey to address some of the most challenging problems that businesses face across the B2B enterprise software space. Portfolio companies include Algolia, Marketo (IPO/Vista), MobileIron (IPO/Ivanti), Pipedrive (Vista), Qualio, SalesLoft, Splashtop, Talkdesk, Tekion, and Workato.

In the 3rd episode of the “Enterprise Leaders” podcast, Arun Penmetsa, partner at Storm Ventures, interviews Jared Lucas, former Chief People Officer at MobileIron and HR leader at companies like LinkedIn and HP. Jared shares insights on building a successful human resources function at your company - and how to become an effective HR leader. 

MobileIron helps companies worldwide enable their employees to choose the best devices and the best apps they want to do their work. MobileIron has over 17,000 customers worldwide. The company was founded in 2007 and backed by top-tier investors, including Sequoia Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, and Storm Ventures. MobileIron conducted a successful IPO in 2014 (NASDAQ: MOBL). MobileIron was acquired by Ivanti for $872m on December 1, 2020.

In the 2nd episode of the “Enterprise Leaders” podcast, Arun Penmetsa, partner at Storm Ventures, interviews Mahesh Baxi, co-founder & CEO of Provus. Drawing on his vast experience at companies like Apttus and MyAlly, Mahesh shares insights on building a successful customer success function at your company - and how to become an effective CS leader.

Provus (https://www.provusinc.com/) provides a revolutionary CPQ services solution that finally solves the age-old legacy problem of excessively long quoting and deal construction processes. Customers can accelerate turnaround time, grow deal sizes, and increase win probability faster – all while improving their gross margin and mitigating compliance risk - with AI-driven what-if scenarios, real-time collaboration, flexible approval workflows, automated SOW generation and more.

Make sure to also follow us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/stormventures) and check out our website (www.stormventures.com/thoughts) for a lot more content on building & scaling successful B2B SaaS businesses.

About Storm Ventures

Storm Ventures is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that is focused on building enterprise leaders with over $1 billion in capital under management. Over its 20 year history, Storm has partnered with entrepreneurs on the startup journey to address some of the most challenging problems that businesses face across the B2B enterprise software space. Portfolio companies include Algolia, Marketo (IPO/Vista), MobileIron (IPO/Ivanti), Pipedrive (Vista), Qualio, SalesLoft, Splashtop, Talkdesk, Tekion, and Workato.

Welcome to the inaugural episode of the “Enterprise Leaders” podcast! In this one Arun Penmetsa, partner at Storm Ventures, interviews Travis McPeak, head of product security at Databricks. Drawing on his illustrious career across companies like Netflix, IBM and Symantec, Travis shares his unique tips on breaking into the security industry and becoming successful.

Built on a modern Lakehouse architecture in the cloud, Databricks combines the best of data warehouses and data lakes to offer an open and unified platform for data and AI. More than five thousand organizations worldwide — including Shell, Comcast, CVS Health, HSBC, T-Mobile and Regeneron — rely on Databricks.

About Storm Ventures

Storm Ventures is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that is focused on building enterprise leaders with over $1B in capital under management. Over its 20 year history, Storm has partnered with entrepreneurs on the startup journey to address some of the most challenging problems that businesses face across the B2B enterprise software space. Portfolio companies include Algolia, Marketo/IPO, MobileIron/IPO, Pipedrive, Qualio, Salesloft, Splashtop, Talkdesk, Tekion, and Workato.

Make sure to also follow us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/stormventures) and check out our website (www.stormventures.com/thoughts) for a lot more content on building & scaling successful B2B SaaS businesses.