In this special episode recorded live at Startup Boston Week, we sit down with Dr. Shari Worthington, Associate Professor and Associate Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at Suffolk University. Shari brings a unique perspective as both a serial entrepreneur and an academic, sharing insights from her research on founder identities. In our conversation, we explore the different types of entrepreneurs, how she brings practical, real-world examples into a theoretical academic environment, and why embracing serendipity might be the key to success.

Like this episode? Be sure to leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review and share the pod with your friends! You can connect with Sean on LinkedIn or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Want to work with Sean? Reach out to him and the team at BeaconGTM to help with GTM execution at your company.

Anyone interested in ordering The Revenue Operations Manual can go here and use the code REVOPS20 for 20% off (or buy from any of your preferred booksellers here)!

In this episode of Operations, Sean dives into the world of community-building with Matt Volm, CEO and Co-Founder of RevOps Co-op —a vibrant network of over 14,000 RevOps professionals.

Matt shares how he transitioned from running a software startup to creating a thriving community, the lessons he’s learned about driving vs. moderating engagement, and why RevOps is attracting members from outside the tech industry. Tune in to discover how Matt and his team keep their content practical, their community engaged, and their mission alive in an ever-evolving landscape.

Like this episode? Be sure to leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review and share the pod with your friends! You can connect with Sean on LinkedIn or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Want to work with Sean? Reach out to him and the team at BeaconGTM to help with GTM execution at your company.

Anyone interested in ordering The Revenue Operations Manual can go here and use the code REVOPS20 for 20% off (or buy from any of your preferred booksellers here)!

This episode is brought to you by Default, the inbound growth platform for B2B marketing teams. Visit Default.com/seanlane today to learn more and revolutionize your RevOps today!

Product-led and sales-led growth motions aren't binary; they exist on a spectrum. In this episode of Operations, we dive into the fascinating story of Canva’s go-to-market evolution with Aarti Raman, former Global Head of Revenue Strategy and Operations. Canva, the design platform valued at over $30 billion, had already surpassed $1B in ARR through a bottom-up product-led growth model. However, their B2B Enterprise sales model required a shift.

In our conversation, Aarti shares the strategy behind transitioning Canva’s Enterprise team from a sales-led to a product-led model, the complexities of implementing pricing changes at their size, and why even at their scale, you still have to argue about what a PQL is. Don’t miss this deep dive into how Canva balanced product-led adoption with human-driven enterprise sales.

Like this episode? Be sure to leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review and share the pod with your friends! You can connect with Sean on LinkedIn or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Want to work with Sean? Reach out to him and the team at BeaconGTM to help with GTM execution at your company.

Anyone interested in ordering The Revenue Operations Manual can go here and use the code REVOPS20 for 20% off (or buy from any of your preferred booksellers here)!

This episode is brought to you by Default, the inbound growth platform for B2B marketing teams. Visit Default.com/seanlane today to learn more and revolutionize your RevOps today!

What separates the best CROs from up-and-coming sales leaders? In this episode of Operations, we dive deep with Chris Orlob, CEO at pclub.io, to uncover the skills and traits that distinguish world-class revenue leaders. After nearly 1,000 conversations with CROs and VPs of Sales, Chris has identified the key differences between those who succeed at the highest levels and those on the rise.

In our conversation, we talk about the spectrum of CROs that are out there, the importance of thinking in systems rather than deals, and why the traditional sales career path might leave some leaders unprepared for the top seat.

(Here's the LinkedIn post that prompted this whole conversation)

Like this episode? Be sure to leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review and share the pod with your friends! You can connect with Sean on LinkedIn or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Want to work with Sean? Reach out to him and the team at BeaconGTM to help with GTM execution at your company.

Anyone interested in ordering The Revenue Operations Manual can go here and use the code REVOPS20 for 20% off (or buy from any of your preferred booksellers here)!

This episode is brought to you by Default, the inbound growth platform for B2B marketing teams. Visit Default.com/seanlane today to learn more and revolutionize your RevOps today!

This fall, my new book, The Revenue Operations Manual, a blueprint for running a world-class RevOps org, was released. The book includes interviews with 50+ world-class Operators (many of which came from this show!), success stories from real world role models, and cautionary tales from when things didn’t go according to plan. 

Our guest on this episode is Laura Adint, my co-author for the book (and my former boss). It’s been a whirlwind since the book came out, so it was time to sit down with Laura and reflect not only on the process of writing a book like this, but what we hope Operators get out of it.

In our conversation, we chat about how the idea for the book came to be, which section of the book is like getting your Masters in Operations, and why learning about cake mixes in the 1950s will make you a better Operator.

Like this episode? Be sure to leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review and share the pod with your friends! You can connect with Sean on LinkedIn or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Want to work with Sean? Reach out to him and the team at BeaconGTM to help with GTM execution at your company.

Anyone interested in ordering The Revenue Operations Manual can go here and use the code REVOPS20 for 20% off (or buy from any of your preferred booksellers here)!

This episode is brought to you by Default, the inbound growth platform for B2B marketing teams. Visit Default.com/seanlane today to learn more and revolutionize your RevOps today!

Have you ever had a conversation that just sticks with you for days? It challenges everything you previously thought to be true. You sit up at night re-running parts of it in your head. I had one of those recently with Brett Queener, Managing Director at Bonfire Ventures.

Brett's recent writings on The Implications of the AI Age on the Application Software Market caught my attention, and ultimately led to this conversation that has caused me to question everything I thought I knew about SaaS businesses. In our conversation, Brett breaks down the 3 ages of applications software, we dive head-first into an agentic future, and why all of us need to question what we think it means to do our job.

You can read the Substack articles that inspired our conversation here:

• The Three Ages of Applications Software
• The Implications of the AI Age for the Application Software Market

Like this episode? Be sure to leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review and share the pod with your friends! You can connect with Sean on LinkedIn or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Want to work with Sean? Reach out to him and the team at BeaconGTM to help with GTM execution at your company.

Anyone interested in pre-ordering The Revenue Operations Manual can go here and use the code REVOPS20 for 20% off (or buy from any of your preferred booksellers here)!

If you spend most of your career in a particular business model, it might be difficult to translate some of the things you believe to be foundational into a completely different model. A great example of this is for Operators who are used to the typical SaaS subscription bookings model, but find themselves working in a consumption, or usage-based business.

Consumption-based software businesses are definitely on the rise, so I wanted to talk with someone who understand the nuances and complexities that are required to run Operations for a consumption-based business. I found that person in Lauren Davis, Director of Revenue Operations at Checkr, where their business model is based on the number of those background checks their customers use.

In our conversation, Lauren and I talk about all of the system plumbing complexities of a consumption based business, whether her 6 years of institutional knowledge are an asset or a burden to her work, and she reveals the single biggest compensation mistake she made in comp design at the company.

Like this episode? Be sure to leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review and share the pod with your friends! You can connect with Sean on LinkedIn or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Want to work with Sean? Reach out to him and the team at BeaconGTM to help with GTM execution at your company.

This episode is brought to you by TigerEye. GTM is faster and smarter with TigerEye. To learn more about them, visit tigereye.com and tell them Sean sent you!

If you’re having a conversation about the world’s most innovative companies, it’s hard to imagine a conversation taking place that doesn’t mention OpenAI.

OpenAI, specifically OpenAI’s ChatGPT, has opened up a whole new world of possibilities for everyone, but of course, on this show, we care about its impact on Operators. 

So who better to talk to about this impact than someone who actually leads Systems and Operations at OpenAI, Keith Jones, the company’s GTM Systems Lead.

And while of course, I wanted to know what Keith is doing for his internal Sales customers at OpenAI, I also wanted to learn how he’s serving himself and other Ops folks within the company. In our conversation, we talk about a world in which teams spend less time entering data into the CRM and more time conversing with it, we explore a very specific internal use case for a GPT he built for himself at OpenAI, and how he makes the call of whether to use his own technology or not.

Like this episode? Be sure to leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review and share the pod with your friends! You can connect with Sean on LinkedIn or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Want to work with Sean? Reach out to him and the team at BeaconGTM to help with GTM execution at your company.

This episode is brought to you by TigerEye. GTM is faster and smarter with TigerEye. To learn more about them, visit tigereye.com and tell them Sean sent you!

It’s funny how certain stereotypes emerge about different roles in an organization. On today’s episode, we’re talking to not 1, but 2 incredibly accomplished Sales Leaders who are pushing back on the stereotypes of the typical Sales leader, particularly when it comes to planning. Those guests are Will Magnuson and Anna Randall, both Sales leaders at TigerEye, the GTM Planning platform. Will is the CRO and Anna is the VP of Sales, and their partnership goes back years (in fact, this is their 3rd company together!).

I was excited to talk to Will and Anna because they feel strongly about Sales leaders participating in, and taking ownership of, the Sales Planning process. In our conversation, we talk about how Sales leaders can be owners and not just recipients of the Sales Planning process, we cover how hard it is to balance the planning process while still hitting your Q4 numbers, and how a Sales leader’s attitude about the Plan will reflect how their team feels about it.

Like this episode? Be sure to leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review and share the pod with your friends! You can connect with Sean on LinkedIn or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Want to work with Sean? Reach out to him and the team at BeaconGTM to help with GTM execution at your company.

It can be hard sometimes to keep up with the pace of change in the tech landscape. New tools, new possibilities, new categories emerge. Luckily, there are folks whose job is to not only keep tabs on all these trends, but decipher what they mean for the rest of us. One such person, Anthony McPartlin, is our guest today.

Anthony is a Principal Analyst at Forrester, and he recently co-authored an article about a new category that he and his colleagues at Forrester had identified: the Revenue Orchestration Platform.

Revenue Orchestration is actually the consolidation of of other categories like sales engagement, conversational intelligence, and revenue intelligence platforms (enough buzz words for you?). In our conversation, Anthony teaches me about the market conditions that led to to the creation of this category, why too many people solve for tech, not business outcomes, and of course, how generative AI is going to disrupt this newly formed category all over again.

Like this episode? Be sure to leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review and share the pod with your friends! You can connect with Sean on LinkedIn or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Want to work with Sean? Reach out to him and the team at BeaconGTM to help with GTM execution at your company.

This episode is brought to you by TigerEye. GTM is faster and smarter with TigerEye. To learn more about them, visit tigereye.com and tell them Sean sent you!

The best Operators I know exhibit "adaptive excellence." They can be dropped into any brand new situation, use their experience and the context of the new situation to figure out what will work best in this new environment, and ultimately thrive.

Our guest today is a perfect example of someone who exhibits adaptive excellence. That someone is Dina Otero, VP Demand Generation at Mission Cloud. After a decade of working in SaaS at companies like Confirmit (now Forsta) and Aprimo, Dina made the jump last year to a Mission Cloud, an AWS Premier Tier managed services provider.

Not only did Dina have to transition from her SaaS background into Services, but over the course of her career, she also managed to grow from starting in Marketing Operations roles to ultimately leading all of Demand Generation.

In our conversation, we explore which SaaS lessons she was able to combine with some creativity in a Services business model, how you run marketing within a competitive partner ecosystem like AWS, and why she says her background in Marketing Ops is the single most important factor in her career growth.

Like this episode? Be sure to leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review and share the pod with your friends! You can connect with Sean on LinkedIn or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Want to work with Sean? Reach out to him and the team at BeaconGTM to help with GTM execution at your company.