Jess Reagan

Ryan Westwood has been involved in 100 companies as an operator, investor, board member and advisor. He grew his last company to over $650m in revenue. His current company has quickly become THE RevOps platform. He’s played a big role in putting the Utah tech scene on the map. Ryan dropped so much knowledge in an hour. It’s impossible to summarize it all… but I promise it’s worth the listen. Ryan Westwood, Chairman and CEO at Fullcast, The Go-to-Market Cloud, is my guest for this week’s episode of Not Another CEO Podcast. I was introduced to Ryan by Nick Cromydas. On our first 30 minute call I ended up taking two pages of notes. Ryan’s obviously had amazing success over the course of his career. But what I appreciate the most is how thoughtful and deliberate he is about how to build a business and the ability he has to boil his strategies and tactics down into easy to understand nuggets. My highlights from this episode are: Taking 6 months to get into CEO shape - After selling his last company, Simplus, Ryan spent time investing, serving on boards and advising companies. Basically everything but operating a company. When he and his co-founders bought FullCast and he took over as CEO he had to get back in CEO shape. Everything from the hours he had to work, the number of decisions he had  to make on a daily basis, the dynamics with his family, his own health, really everything. Good reminder… the CEO job is hard. Talking to 60 RevOps leaders in two quarters - To understand his ICP and ideal buyer persona, Ryan met with 60 RevOps leaders in his first two quarters as CEO of FullCast. He learned so much about the persona he was building for, the way they think, what they’re responsible for, the challenges they face. By the end of those two quarters he felt like he was one of them. It’s such a simple thing, talk to your customers, but I don’t think founders/CEOs do this enough, both in the number of customers and the frequency. The power of the dream team - Ryan’s three co-founders are people he’s worked with before… for over a decade. He talked about how he’s been keeping a spreadsheet of every person he’s interacted with over the course of his career that he wanted to work with again and when it came time to recruit his founding team he knew exactly who he was going to approach and he was able to assemble the dream team. There is so much more: the power in a cap table, running a board meeting, product roadmap prioritization, defining an ICP, missing hip hop when he moved from Philly to Provo, why we’re seeing so many success stories coming out of Utah and more. Here are the links to the full episode: YouTube: https://lnkd.in/ey3AKu5w Spotify: https://lnkd.in/emKyjsBF Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/eyXUJHvn If you enjoy the episode, please like and subscribe on your favorite platforms and share with your networks.

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🚨 Brag alert: If you've attended one of our Adobe Express for Edu trainings in Utah, chances are... you've had the opportunity to work with Zachary Ordoñez, who is undeniably one of my favorite people I've had the opportunity to partner with since starting at Adobe. 💪 Zach is known as someone who will take a training from "professional development" to "a creative PD experience." He's known for his dad jokes, his "swag bars," his innovative approaches to weaving creativity into student work, and-- most importantly, his deep understanding of teachers, students, and Adobe Express. As the brilliant school counselor I worked with at my old school always said, "If you see something you appreciate, SAY IT. Compliments make people feel good, and they make you feel good too." So-- Zach, you are awesome! 👍 If you need to give a shout out to someone who you appreciate, do it!! (Silly AI picture of Zach & I featured below)

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When you hire someone in a new state, do you need to register to do business there when you use a PEO? If you ask most PEOs, they would say, "Yes - you should also register your entity with the state if you have employees there." But why? Technically with a PEO you are "co-employing" people. Typically PEOs don't handle foreign registrations or secretary of state filings for your entity, so that's on you. If you're not registering in a new state is because you don't know how or don't have time, Discern makes it extremely easy. You can complete your foreign registration filing in a few minutes directly out of our product. I don't know if I fully realized it when we were building the product, but it is by far one of our biggest points of value add for companies growing across state lines. Registering in a new state is a shockingly annoying process to do on your own. You typically need to get a certificate of good standing before you can even file, and sometimes the filing involves publication requirements where you need to advertise your foreign registration in an actual newspaper. We handle all of that behind the scenes. All you do is complete the digital form in Discern. IFYKYK

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What an incredible Denver Startup Week! 🙌 The energy, innovation, and collaboration in Denver's startup community is truly something special. Seeing leaders share genuine stories of both their successes and failures as entrepreneurs was a great reminder of the value of vulnerability in the workplace. Denver isn't just a startup hotspot— it's a city determined to stay on the map as a tech hub worth paying attention to. Now officially recognized as a tech hub for the quantum industry under the CHIPS Act, and with SpaceTech booming across Colorado, the momentum here is undeniable. 🚀 Special shoutout to some of my favorite presenters: Cody Moore, VP at Caruso Ventures (and former colleague 😁), shared the numerous applications for SpaceTech emerging in Colorado, from security and defense to climate change monitoring and efforts to make space exploration more sustainable. Brett Guy, Staff Software Engineer at Ibotta, presented "Finding Your True North," a great reminder that a fulfilling career is always attainable, even when the direction may be unclear. He also recommended a personal favorite of mine (perfect for those of us experiencing a 30-something identity crisis): "Designing Your Life" by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans! Stacey Feldman, CPA (Partner and COO of Full Send Finance),⚡️Roman Villard, CPA (Founder of Full Send Finance), and Jesse Randall (CEO of Sweater) shared stories and insights from their finance careers. As a Rev Ops professional, my favorite insight came from Stacey, who highlighted the importance of thinking about your data as if it’s going to scale. Answering basic questions about your business only becomes harder as you grow, so get your Rev Ops ducks in a row early, friends! 🦆 Thank you to everyone who made this week so memorable! #DenverStartupWeek #TechCommunity #CHIPSHub #SpaceTech #Innovation #revops

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"People hate to be sold to... BUT THEY LOVE TO BUY." I'm taking everything I've learned from the "Great Day in Sales" podcast [especially the live episode with Jen Allen-Knuth] and presenting at the performance track at Utah Business Forward in November. Why? First - I'm a Melanie Paris Jones fan through and through so if you're not following her what are you doing. Second - I feel like my perspective on sales, building pipeline, generating demand [leads] and actually treating customers has COMPLETELY changed in the last year. The concept of "Sell Like a Buyer" comes from the idea that you don't have to sell your products the same way as everyone else or like it was sold 20 years ago. B2B is feeling more B2C every day. We need to adapt and make sure the selling process is actually what the buyer wants. That process may not look anything like it did 20 years ago. That's the funnest part - got to be ready to adapt. They gave me a code so use this to get your tickets! Last year was awesome and its trending 3x where it was last year for attendees.

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Are you the hero in your business–or is your customer? In my conversation with Josh Cadillac on the Know Your Shit podcast, we talked about this mindset shift that can transform your business. Too often we focus on being the best, but we should be focused on being the most understanding about our customers. It’s about helping them make sense of their world, not just selling them a product/service. The key? 🔑 Listen to the episode to find out: Apple: https://hubs.ly/Q02VWk6Z0 Spotify: https://hubs.ly/Q02VWdB50 What strategies do you use to make your customers the heroes in their journey? #KnowYourShit #TheRevenueAccelerationFramework #CustomerSuccess #BusinessGrowth

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🎉 The Winter Olympics are coming back to Utah in 2034! 🎉 And guess what? I just happen to live in Utah! 🏔️ Coincidence? I think not! 😉 Here's the fun part: The Winter Olympics need a RevOps superstar, and I just happen to be open to work. Sounds like a match made in snowy heaven, right? ❄️ Imagine this: It's a 10-year runway to land the coolest job ever (pun intended). Helping the Olympics run smoothly, from the slopes to the spreadsheets. Living the dream right in my backyard! So, if you’re reading this and happen to know someone who knows someone (you get the idea) involved with the 2034 Winter Olympics, let’s connect! ⛷️ Who wouldn’t want a RevOps guru who’s as passionate about efficiency as they are about hot cocoa and ski lifts? ☕🚡 P.S. Do you have any tips on how to make my LinkedIn post go viral? Asking for a friend. 😜 P.P.S. Repost this if you believe in dream jobs and serendipity. ♻️ Thank you! #WinterOlympics #Utah2034 #RevOps #OpenToWork #DreamJob #JobSearch #CareerGoals #Networking #Olympics2024 #SnowyHeaven #EfficiencyExpert #HotCocoa #SkiLifts #LinkedInTips #GoingViral #Serendipity

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3️⃣ reasons why retention must be more emphasized in vSaaS. 1️⃣ Winning the Control Point This is foundational table stakes to the vertical SaaS playbook. There’s no expansion opportunity if you churn customers here. Winning the Control Point is your anchor that opens up the multi-product play that will eventually grow your ARPA. 2️⃣Setting Up Multi-Product In order to deepen the anchor, and become the operating system of your accounts, both in workflow and data, product education and customer marketing are a must. Marketing has to be able to convey brand narrative and messaging that shows a roadmap to a seamless workflow and operation if surrounded by your ecosystem of products. 3️⃣ Extending the Value Chain The pinnacle of the vSaaS business model, according to David Yuan, is being able to sell to different stakeholders both forward and backward. You can never achieve this pinnacle if retention is not one of, if not, the top metric for marketing post-acquisition. Marketing no longer stops at pipeline generation, but now will be integral in shaping a future narrative that builds demand for your product ecosystem. Shoot me a DM if you want to go deeper into the topic and see what this looks like in practice! #RevenueEngineering #GTM #VerticalSaaS #DemandGeneration #Evron #vSaaS

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Event SWAG is a big NOPE for me and Acorn. Here's why: -Brand-our value proposition should capture someone's interest, not a stuffy. -CRM-our leads are supposed to be expressions of interest in our product, not a pen. -Team-our sales team should be following up on people who want continue conversations about our solution not, a water bottle. -The world-a 10k person event=16k lbs SWAG. 50% is trashed (approx 3 cars in weight). This is gross. -Innovation-We challenged our own status quo, and innovated so with a free AI agent for our last event to help people who use our product. It worked (people loved it), check this out...https://lnkd.in/gK_FfJi9 Our CRM is clean, our reps are making the most of calling real event leads, we've helped the world and our prospects have appreciated our AI Capability Coach to help them with their work. If you want a 'no SWAG sticker' for your booth let me know and I'll send one along. Let's eliminate this wasteful practice.

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Who's your favorite CMO / VP Marketing in Austin? We (the Exit Five team) are traveling to Austin in November for a team offsite, and we're going to host a meetup (happy hour, networking, etc.) I'd love to do a fireside chat with a B2B CMO for this event, but I'm not plugged in down in Texas. So: who's your favorite CMO in Austin? Who should be on my list to reach out to interview for a live podcast / Q&A with 100 B2B marketers in November?

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The #1 hack I share to 10X your deck’s quality… Sitting in the customer's pain. I had to stop myself as I was presenting at Utah State University - Jon M. Huntsman School of Business on Monday. (shoutout to Cassidy C. and Gabby März for the warm welcome) I stopped myself because it sounded so lame, so quaint. Sure John, we’ve heard about customer pain before. But y’all, I cannot explain how fast it goes out the window. I’m talking deeply experienced businesspeople. Some have sold dozens of companies. Others have generated billions. They hop on a call… And still want to talk about features. We give lip service to sitting in customer pain. But actually doing it? Going through 5 Why’s?  Rare enough that it feels like a differentiator. Connect with their emotional needs first. This creates a psychological bucket. The rest of your pitch fills it.  You’re more likely to close. Promise. Question for you: How do you stay centered on your customer pain?

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Great tips Scott Marker! I love the idea of having reps create their own custom sheet with the most common objections and responses. Organizing these objections by persona makes it even more powerful—reps can tailor their approach to specific decision-makers and their unique concerns. Not only does this help them overcome challenges more naturally, but it also turns objections into conversation starters, allowing them to dive deeper into prospects’ needs. By mastering these responses, reps can quickly elevate their status as trusted experts in their field and build stronger connections with confidence.

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Your Sales to CS handoff process needs work. Call Comcast and you'll get a full lesson in how not to treat customers. Ask them to go through a bunch of prompts and repeat the issue 20x before speaking to an agent. You are probably thinking: well our process isn't THAT bad. Are you sure? I bet your process looks something like this: 1. Someone submits a lead or responds to an outbound message (information sharing 1) 2. A BDR follows up to qualify them and set a meeting (person 1, information sharing 2) 3. An AE sets up a Discovery meeting (person 2, information sharing 3) 4. 60-90 day sales cycle (information sharing 4-5) 5. Closed won, handed to implementation for 30 days (person 3, information sharing 6) 6. Moved over to CS (person 4, information sharing 7) Imagine the frustration customers have when they have to share the same info (company information, business problems, etc.) 7 times to 4 different people. It sucks! I had a great time talking about the broken handoff processes in SaaS with Cory Pitt on the Wiser AI podcast.

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"Just a small miss," they said. "We'll make it up next quarter," they promised. Fast forward some quarters, and those "small misses" of your sales team have snowballed into a serious conversation with your PE investors. Let's break down why. Here's some sobering math: Take your average deal size (€50k) and multiply it by your expected quarterly closes (40 deals). That's your €2M target. Now, what happens with a 20% miss? Immediate impact: €400k revenue gap Valuation hit: 5-7x revenue multiple = €2-2.8M lower valuation PE consequences: > Increased reporting frequency > Tighter covenant restrictions > Reduced follow-on investment appetite Hidden costs: > Discounting Impact: ProfitWell's research shows desperate end-of-quarter discounting leads to 30-40% lower customer lifetime value, while Gartner found last-minute deals are 2.3x more likely to result in price concessions > Churn Impact: OpenView Partners' data reveals companies missing targets face 1.5-2x higher logo churn, with SaaS Capital confirming rushed sales lead to 40% higher first-year churn > Team Impact: HubSpot's research shows 34% higher sales rep turnover in teams missing targets, while Bridge Group found these teams suffer 18-22% lower activity levels Let's calculate your impact: ▪ Your quarterly target: €2M ▪ Expected miss: 20% = €400k miss ▪ Revenue multiple: 6x = €2.4M single quarter impact ▪ Quarters of consistent miss: 3 ▪ Total impact = €7.2M cumulative valuation impact (€2M × 20% × 6x × 3Q) The kicker? In today's market, PE firms are scrutinizing forecast accuracy more than ever. Three consecutive misses often trigger major governance changes. This is why modern revenue teams are moving away from gut-feel forecasting. Data-driven forecasting isn't just about hitting numbers—it's about maintaining control of your company's destiny. Share your thoughts below: What's your biggest forecasting challenge? #SalesLeadership #RevenueForecasting #B2BGrowth #PredictableGrowth #GetYourRevsUp RevsUp

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I'm going to be hiring for our marketing team next year - and here's the advice I'm following to make sure I DON'T write a 💩 job description Paul Stansik has helped make a hire or two (or hundreds) for his portfolio companies So when I had him on our podcast, one of the topics I knew we had to get into was how they attract the right people + set appropriate expectations for the job And when he boiled it down to 3 question framework, I couldn't wait until I could use it myself for some of the upcoming roles I'll be hiring for The 3 questions? 🤝 What does this person need to do to establish immediate credibility and trust with the team? ⭐️ What are the 3 things that they need to do in the first 6 months to be considered a success in the role? 🤓 What are the essential skills that they need to hit the ground running? If you can speak to these three things in your job description, it'll be better than 99% of what's out there as it's specific, relevant, and tailored to what the hiring manager needs in this role uniquely for the organization - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - And for those curious, here are the 4 roles we'll be looking to add to our marketing team over the next 6-12 months: 💙 Community Marketer ✏️ Content Marketer 🍾 Field Marketer 🏴‍☠️ Product Marketer

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🔥 Trainual's annual Playbook conference is just around the corner! 🔥 If you're a SMB owner or operator looking to learn from some of the best business operators, strategists, and consultants...then you should be at Playbook 👇 💰 Get $100 off your ticket with the code SASHA100 @ playbook2024.com

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We sent out a survey after last year's Utah Tech Week. It had an NPS score in the high 70s. 💅 That said, we had 4 main bits of constructive feedback that were the most recurring. 1. There should be more *tech* in Utah Tech Week. Too much emphasis on the business side of things, and not enough on the tech. 2. Better representation. Not just race and gender, but lots of the feedback was about underrepresented industries/verticals. 3. Too much time in the car! 4. Keep the quality of events high! We'll discuss each of these in at our event tomorrow at 3pm at Pelion. (link in comments) 150+ founders/community builders/event hosts attending our event, which to my knowledge is the largest gathering of community builders in Utah. Stoked at the ways our community comes together to build. Come tomorrow! And also, lmk if the comments if you feel like a community/industry/group that you're a part of is underrepresented.

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Simple analogy: fly fishing is like #customersuccess and sales. Fly fishing requires patience, strategy, and preparation. So does driving meaningful customer outcomes. Patience: fishing and customer outcomes both take time. Rushing rarely delivers desired results. It’s about understanding the waters you’re in and finding the right moment to engage. Targeting: casting aimlessly doesn’t work. In fly fishing, you study the water, shadows, and movement of fish. In Customer Success, it’s about identifying the right opportunities to add value, focusing efforts where they will make the biggest impact. Fly selection: fish are picky, and their preferences change multiple times each day, let alone each season. You’ll have little success if you cast a bunch of random flies. Customers don’t want every fly in your box. They want what they need. Plan your approach through insights, engagement strategies, or customized solutions to find exactly what that is. Having the right tools: from the appropriate rod and reel to well-tied flies, the right tools make all the difference. In Customer Success, the tools might be CRM platforms, data analytics, or streamlined processes, but their role is the same: enabling you to execute effectively and deliver results. Managing Competition: A crowded river can mean fewer bites. Fish become wary when there’s too much traffic. Similarly, when customers are overwhelmed by competing voices or being over-contacted, they can disengage. It’s critical to find the balance: respecting their space, offering value when it’s needed and ensuring your approach stands out for its thoughtfulness and relevance. Fly fishing teaches us that success isn’t random, it’s the outcome of thoughtful preparation, targeted action, and consistent execution. Whether on the river or in the professional landscape, the principles are the same: patience, precision, and the right tools lead to meaningful outcomes.

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What's the biggest hurdle you've faced when implementing a new CRM system? For many organizations, it's not the technology itself, but getting the team to actually use it. The failure rate of CRM adoption is surprisingly high, with studies showing that up to 70% of CRM projects don't deliver the expected results. Why? Because the true challenge lies in change management and user adoption. Here are a few key strategies to overcome this hurdle: Leadership Buy-In: Ensure top management actively supports and uses the CRM. Their commitment sets the tone for the entire organization. User Training: Invest in comprehensive training programs that go beyond just how to use the software. Explain the benefits and how it fits into their daily workflows. Feedback Loops: Create mechanisms for ongoing feedback from users to continuously improve the system and address concerns. Integration with Existing Processes: Seamlessly integrate the CRM with current business processes to avoid disruption and make it a natural part of the workflow. Incentivize Usage: Recognize and reward teams and individuals who consistently use the CRM effectively. By addressing these human factors, you can turn a daunting CRM adoption process into a successful transformation. What strategies have worked for you in driving CRM adoption in your organization? Share your insights! #CRM #BusinessTransformation #Leadership #ChangeManagement #CustomerEngagement

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