In the latest episode of Founded & Funded, Madrona Managing Director Tim Porter hosts Pradeep Rathinam, a seasoned software executive with over three decades of leadership experience. Paddy was the Founder and CEO of Madrona portfolio company AnswerIQ, which Madrona invested in back in 2017. It was one of the early machine learning applied to SaaS companies that Madrona invested in. Paddy sold AnswerIQ in 2020 to Freshworks, where he started out as chief customer officer, helped take the company public, became chief revenue officer, and really drove a series of incredible accomplishments for Freshworks.

Today, Tim and Paddy dive into that world of SaaS go-to-market. Paddy shares his experiences on how to not just grow a company, as every company needs to do, but how to grow efficiently and how that includes reducing churn, expanding accounts, and landing new logos. This is something that all go-to-market leaders and startup founders have a lot of questions about how to unlock, so it is a must-listen for founders.

View the full transcript here: https://www.madrona.com/startup-efficient-growth-gtm-pradeep-rathinam/

You can find Paddy's writings on these topics here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paddyrathinam/recent-activity/articles/

Chapters:

(00:00) Introduction

(00:31) Meet Pradeep Rathinam

(01:36) The AnswerIQ Journey

(04:06) Joining Freshworks: Tackling Churn and Growth

(05:25) Efficient Growth Strategies

(06:10) Framework for Efficient Growth

(09:09) Challenges and Solutions in Sales Transformation

(14:12) Change Management and Organizational Alignment

(17:28) New Business Development

(23:01) Customer Retention Strategies

(36:05) Driving Expansion Within Accounts

(41:10) When to Hire a CRO