Meet Your New Teammate, AI: Asana’s Saket Srivastava
Saket Srivastava, CIO at work management platform Asana, has had technology roles at organizations such as General Electric, IBM, and Fujitsu, moving from back-end IT services positions to more strategic business leadership roles. Asana has already been working with artificial intelligence for several years, Saket notes, and has seen the technology’s role evolve: Rather than simply optimizing tasks, it now often acts as more of a teammate as it’s integrated into core workflows to enhance productivity by taking on cognitive tasks like writing project status updates.
Saket joins this episode to share his observations about the evolution of CIOs from back-end IT managers to front-line business leaders driving innovation and strategy, especially in the context of AI. He also discusses the benefits of being part of a CIO community in which people freely share their knowledge and experience and support one another as they navigate a rapidly evolving tech environment.
Read the episode transcript here.
Guest bio:
Saket Srivastava is the CIO for work management platform Asana. He oversees the company’s educational and information technology organization, which involves optimizing technology systems and processes, connecting technology strategy to overarching business strategy, and ensuring that technology infrastructure supports organizational goals. Previously, Srivastava held executive positions at Square, Guidewire Software, and other leading technology companies. He holds a master’s degree from the Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad and an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.
Me, Myself, and AI is a collaborative podcast from MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group and is hosted by Sam Ransbotham and Shervin Khodabandeh. Our engineer is David Lishansky, and the coordinating producers are Allison Ryder and Alanna Hooper.
Stay in touch with us by joining our LinkedIn group, AI for Leaders at mitsmr.com/AIforLeaders or by following Me, Myself, and AI on LinkedIn.
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#186 COO Asana, Anne Raimondi: Recovering Perfectionist
Guest: Anne Raimondi, COO and Head of Business at Asana
Asana COO Anne Raimondi feels pressure to perform in her job “every day, all the time.” But that pressure doesn’t come from her fellow executives; she imposes it on herself, trying to think carefully about how much each of her decisions will impact her team. “I have a lot of privilege and choice,” Anne says, “of how I spend my time, the resources available to me, and am I doing enough? ... Am I doing the most with the opportunities I have, and making as positive an impact as I can?”
In this episode, Anne and Joubin discuss returning to the office, Scott McNealy, the dotcom bust, Myers-Briggs, Star Trek: The Next Generation, empowering leaders, Blue Nile, Robert, Chatwani, tech leaders with children, Bain Capital, time management, being “in the moment,” Dave Goldberg, Dustin Moskovitz, staying curious, and being prescriptive.
Chapters:
(01:05) - Hybrid remote policies
(05:34) - Employees’ emotional journey
(09:39) - Thoughtful answers and betazoids
(13:17) - Anne’s immigrant parents
(14:50) - Regrettable feedback
(17:46) - Leaders who cast a shadow
(19:36) - Company-hopping
(24:14) - Startups and stability
(28:42) - Pressure to perform
(31:08) - Insecurity and parenthood
(37:12) - Allocating your time
(39:43) - Co-founding One Jackson
(45:36) - Amanda Kleha
(47:01) - Great founders
(52:18) - “It is not glamorous”
(54:03) - From board to operating at Asana
(57:10) - Feedback for founders
(01:00:25) - Recurring meetings
(01:03:07) - Who Asana is hiring
Links:
Connect with AnneLinkedIn
Connect with JoubinTwitter
LinkedIn
Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com
Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm
#686: Dustin Moskovitz, Co-Founder of Asana and Facebook — Energy Management, Coaching for Endurance, No Meeting Wednesdays, Understanding the Real Risks of AI, Embracing Frictionless Work with AI, The Value of Holding Stories Loosely, and More
Brought to you by ROKA Eyewear high-quality sunglasses and glasses, Wealthfront high-yield savings account, and Shopify global commerce platform providing tools to start, grow, market, and manage a retail business.
Dustin Moskovitz (@moskov) is co-founder and CEO at Asana, a leading work-management platform for teams. Asana’s mission is to help humanity thrive by enabling all teams to work together effortlessly. Prior to Asana, he co-founded Facebook and was a key leader within the technical staff, first in the position of CTO and then later as VP of Engineering. Dustin attended Harvard University as an economics major for two years before moving to Palo Alto, California, to work full time at Facebook.
Please enjoy!
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This episode is also brought to you by Wealthfront! Wealthfront is an app that helps you save and invest your money. Right now, you can earn 4.8% APY—that’s the Annual Percentage Yield—with the Wealthfront Cash Account. That’s more than eleven times more interest than if you left your money in a savings account at the average bank, according to FDIC.gov.
It takes just a few minutes to sign up, and then you’ll immediately start earning 4.8% interest on your savings. And when you open an account today, you’ll get an extra fifty-dollar bonus with a deposit of five hundred dollars or more. Visit Wealthfront.com/Tim to get started.
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This episode is also brought to you by Shopify! Shopify is one of my favorite platforms and one of my favorite companies. Shopify is designed for anyone to sell anywhere, giving entrepreneurs the resources once reserved for big business. In no time flat, you can have a great-looking online store that brings your ideas to life, and you can have the tools to manage your day-to-day and drive sales. No coding or design experience required.
Go to shopify.com/Tim to sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period. It’s a great deal for a great service, so I encourage you to check it out. Take your business to the next level today by visiting shopify.com/Tim.
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[08:17] The Back Buddy.
[12:38] A user’s guide to Dustin.
[15:49] Coaching for endurance.
[18:43] Making quicker decisions.
[20:45] Avoiding paradox of choice.
[23:20] Difficult but desirable delegation.
[25:08] The time-saving spreadsheet.
[29:12] No Meeting Wednesdays.
[33:34] Weekly architecture.
[35:33] Why Dustin prefers in-person meetings.
[36:55] The 15 Commitments to Conscious Leadership.
[40:55] Working with Diana Chapman.
[45:10] Clearing conversations.
[48:09] Nonviolent Communication.
[49:43] Feel your feelings.
[51:10] The Beginning of Infinity.
[53:50] Effective altruism.
[1:00:43] On being directionally vegetarian.
[1:02:32] Funding future pandemic preparation.
[1:07:33] AI risks and Yuddites.
[1:13:43] Most promising avenues of AI defense.
[1:17:19] Incentivizing AI safety compliance.
[1:19:12] Further AI threats.
[1:23:21] What the AI-amplified decade ahead might look like.
[1:28:59] Asana’s forthcoming AI integrations.
[1:37:04] Blocking personal time.
[1:40:41] Recommended reading.
[1:43:14] Dustin’s billboard.
[1:47:46] Parting thoughts.
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For show notes and past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast.
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How to ask the right questions, project confidence, and win over skeptics | Paige Costello (Asana, Intercom, Intuit)
Brought to you by Brave—The independent, global search index you can use to power your search or AI app | Attio—The powerful, flexible CRM for fast-growing startups | Round—The private network built by tech leaders for tech leaders
—
Paige Costello is a beloved product leader with a reputation as a remarkable coach and mentor. She is currently the Head of Core Product at Asana, where she leads the group responsible for Asana’s web, desktop, and mobile apps. Prior to that role, she served as the Director of Product at Intercom and, before that, as a Group PM at Intuit, where she kickstarted her product career through their renowned APM program. In today’s episode, we discuss:
• The unique product development process at Asana and how it’s evolved
• The double-diamond framework
• Conscious leadership training, and why every Asana employee learns it
• How to demonstrate confidence and earn trust from skeptics
• Why curiosity and openness may be the most important PM competencies
• How to give feedback using impact statements
—
Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-ask-the-right-questions-project
—
Where to find Paige Costello:
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/paigenow
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paigecostello/
—
Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
—
In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Paige’s background
(04:38) What Paige is responsible for at Asana
(06:04) The evolution of Asana’s product development process
(09:10) Planning frequency
(11:26) Examples of areas and metric tracking at Asana
(12:46) The double-diamond process and how it’s applied at Asana
(16:53) Asana’s office-centric hybrid work culture and the future of WFH
(21:45) How to garner trust and win over skeptics
(24:45) Why you should befriend researchers
(26:17) How to exude confidence
(29:03) The 3Es framework
(33:43) Advice for early-career PMs
(38:43) Paige’s latest pillars strategy
(40:05) AI at Asana
(41:50) Lessons from Paige’s time at Intuit
(45:53) Challenges new PMs face
(48:55) Challenges Paige has faced in her career
(52:39) Paige’s skill-focused career philosophy
(55:43) Lightning round
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Referenced:
• Use This Equation to Determine, Diagnose, and Repair Trust: https://review.firstround.com/use-this-equation-to-determine-diagnose-and-repair-trust
• About conscious leadership at Asana: https://wavelength.asana.com/workstyle-simple-shift/
• The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership: A New Paradigm for Sustainable Success: https://www.amazon.com/15-Commitments-Conscious-Leadership-Sustainable/dp/0990976904
• Intuit: https://www.intuit.com/
• Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love: https://www.amazon.com/INSPIRED-Create-Tech-Products-Customers/dp/1119387507
• The Blind Assassin: https://www.amazon.com/Blind-Assassin-Novel-Margaret-Atwood/dp/0385720955
• The Alchemist: https://www.amazon.com/Alchemist-Paulo-Coelho/dp/0062315005
• The Diplomat on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81288983
• Fire of Love on Disney+: https://www.disneyplus.com/movies/fire-of-love/1hC7erRfsl3B
• Poe: https://poe.com/
—
Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.
—
Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe
20 Sales: The Ultimate Guide to Sales Onboarding for New Sales Reps and Sales Leaders, The Biggest Red Flags in the First 30 Days & What Can Be Done to Set Them Up for Success with Leaders from Figma, Dropbox, Miro and more.
Oliver Jay (OJ) is one of the most successful sales leaders of the last decade. Most recently, OJ spent 6 years as CRO @ Asana and grew the team from 20 to over 450, becoming a master in sales onboarding in the process. Before Asana, OJ spent 4 years at Dropbox, where OJ was Head of APAC & LATAM.
Jordan Van Horn is a Revenue Leader @ Monte Carlo. Prior to this role, Jordan spent 4 years at Segment as VP of Sales, leading a sales team of 50+ Account Executives. Before Segment, Jordan was at Dropbox for 4 years leading enterprise sales for Dropbox Business.
Dannie Herzberg is a Partner @ Sequoia Capital and before Sequoia, Dannie spent 4 years at Slack as their Head of Enterprise Sales, growing the business from $100M – $1B in revenue. Before Slack, Dannie spent over 5 years at Hubspot building sales teams.
Zhenya Loginov is the CRO @ Miro. At Miro, Zhenya runs the go-to-market team of 700+ people across. Prior to Miro, Zhenya was the COO @ Segment where he built and ran the global go-to-market team of 200+ people. Pre-Segment, Zhenya led a 100-person team at Dropbox across different functional areas.
Lauren Schwartz is VP of Enterprise Sales at Fivetran, where she has scaled the team to nearly 100, while more than tripling enterprise revenues. Previously, Lauren spent close to 4 years at Segment where she started as the first female AE and ultimately built and led sales teams in enterprise and growth.
Kyle Parrish is VP Sales @ Figma, where he built the sales engine from scratch to today, with over 100 in sales. Before Figma, Kyle spent over 5 years at Dropbox in numerous different roles including Head of Sales, and Global Partnerships lead, responsible for growing Dropbox's partner ecosystem.
In Todays Episode on Sales Onboarding We Discuss:
1.) How should the onboarding process for all new sales reps be structured?
2.) How should the onboarding process for a new sales leader be structured?
3.) What specific things can leaders do to set both reps and leaders best up for success?
4.) What are the single biggest red flags in the first 30 days that a rep is not going to work out?
5.) What tools and software can be used to improve this process of ramping new reps?
20VC: The Memo: What is a Sales Playbook? Does the Founder Need to Create It? Should the First Sales Hire Be a Leader or a Rep?
Today we deconstruct the canonical question in early-stage sales. Does the founder need to create the sales playbook? Then secondly, if not, should the first sales hires be reps or a sales leader? Today we are joined by 7 of the best sales leaders to share their thoughts.
Jordan Van Horn is a Revenue Leader @ Montecarlo. Previously Jordan spent 4 years with Segment and before that spent another 4 years at Dropbox.
Oliver Jay (OJ) most recently spent 6 years at Asana where he was hired as the company's first revenue leader. Before Asana, OJ spent 4 years at Dropbox where he scaled the sales team from 0 to 50 while tripling ARR.
Dannie Herzberg is a Partner @ Sequoia Capital and previously spent 4 years at Slack as their Head of Enterprise Sales. Before Slack, Dannie spent 5 years at Hubspot building sales, opening an SF office, and then joining product to launch CRM & platform.
Zhenya Loginov is the CRO @ Miro, where he runs the go-to-market team of 700+ people across 11 global offices. Prior to Miro, Zhenya was the COO @ Segment. Finally, before Segment, Zhenya led a 100-person team at Dropbox across numerous different functional areas.
Kyle Parrish is VP Sales @ Figma, where he has scaled the sales team from 0 to over 100 people in sales. Before Figma, Kyle spent over 5 years at Dropbox in numerous different roles including Head of Sales, where he scaled the Austin, Texas office from 3 to over 80 people.
Sam Taylor is the VP of Sales and Customer Success @ Loom, at Loom Sam leads Revenue Org including: Direct Sales, Customer Success, Self-Serve Revenue Growth/Assist. Prior to Loom, Sam spent over 4 years at Salesforce, following their acquisition of Quip, where he was the first sales leader. Before Salesforce and Quip, Sam spent over 3 years at Dropbox as a mid-market sales leader.
Jeanne DeWitt Grosser is Head of Americas Revenue & Growth @ Stripe. Pre-Stripe, Jeanne was CRO @ Dialpad and also spent many years at Google in numerous different roles including most recently as Director of GSuite SMB & Mid-Market Sales, North America and LATAM.
Mitch Tarica is Head of North America Sales at Zoom Video Communications. Before Zoom, Mitch spent over 5 years at RingCentral and before RingCentral, Mitch was at Oracle for over 7 years in numerous different sales roles.
In Today's Discussion on Sales Playbooks We Learn:
1.) What is the right definition for a "sales playbook"?
2.) When is the right time to change your "sales playbook"?
3.) What are the biggest mistakes or misnomers made around the "sales playbook"?
4.) Should the founder be the one to create the first sales playbook or can it be a sales leader?
5.) When is the right time for founders to hire their first sales leaders?
6.) For the first sales hire, should founders hire sales reps or a sales leader?
7.) When should you hire a rep vs a sales leader? What are the nuances?
Jackie Bavaro on getting better at product strategy, what exactly is strategy, PM pitfalls to avoid, advancing your career, getting into management, and much more
Jackie Bavaro is the author of the best-selling books Cracking the PM Interview and Cracking the PM Career. She was most recently at Asana, where she joined as its first product manager and later became the head of product. Earlier in her career, Jackie was a PM at Google and Microsoft, where she worked on high-impact products such as Google Search and Microsoft SharePoint.
In this episode, we cover:
1. How did Jackie become head of product at Asana? Start writing the best-selling PM books on interviews and the career ladder?
2. How and why to find a product coach.
3. What are the downsides of being a manager? How do you know if you want to go into management?
4. Can you stay an IC vs. becoming a manager?
5. What is “strategy”? What are the 3 components of a strategy?
6. What makes a good/bad strategy?
7. What are some ways to get better at strategy?
8. When should you start to invest in building your strategy muscle?
9. What are signs that your strategy is off?
10. What’s Jackie’s best piece of career advice?
11. Why is it smart to join a big company?
12. What are some of the most common mistakes PMs make early in their career?
13. What is the one thing Jackie thinks every PM should do regardless of their level?
Where to find Jackie:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/jackiebo
- Books: Cracking the PM Interview and Cracking the PM Career: https://amzn.to/3If6X9U
- Medium: https://jackiebo.medium.com
References:
- Jackie’s book rec: Getting Things Done, by David Allen
- Current favorite app, Paprika: https://www.paprikaapp.com
- Favorite Twitter: https://twitter.com/hels
- PEARL framework: https://jackiebo.medium.com/interview-tips-for-senior-pms-2424f7b7c967
- Eigenquestions: https://coda.io/@shishir/eigenquestions-the-art-of-framing-problems
Thank you to our amazing sponsors:
* Flatfile: www.flatfile.com/lenny
* Amplitude: www.amplitude.com
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This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe
20 Sales: How To Create and Execute a World-Class Sales Playbook, Why You Should Do Both PLG and Enterprise Sales at the Same Time, Three Non-Obvious Qualities the Best Sales Reps Have & The Four Steps To Sales Team Onboarding with Oliver Jay, Former CRO
Oliver Jay (OJ) is one of the most successful sales leaders of the last decade. Most recently, OJ spent 6 years at Asana where he was hired as the company's first revenue leader. As CRO, OJ was responsible for product-led and sales-led revenue and grew the team from less than 20 to over 450. Before Asana, OJ spent 4 years at Dropbox in a period of hyper-scaling for the business where OJ was Head of APAC and LATAM. At Dropbox, OJ scaled the sales team from 0 to 50 while tripling ARR. If that was not enough, OJ is also an independent board member at Grab, the leading Super app in Southeast Asia.
In Today's Episode with Oliver Jay You Will Learn:
1.) Entry into Sales:
How did OJ make his way into sales with Dropbox?
If OJ were to choose 1-2 lessons from his time at Dropbox and Asana that have stayed with him, what would they be? How did they impact his mindset?
What were some of the non-obvious but crucial things Asana and Dropbox did in sales that led to success?
2.) The Playbook:
Why does OG disagree with so many definitions of "the sales playbook"? What is the sales playbook to OJ? What are the different chapters?
Should the founder be the one to create the sales playbook?
What are the signs that the founder has a repeatable and scalable playbook?
When is the right time to hire the first sales rep? Should it be a Head of Sales or Sales Rep?
How does the first hire depend on whether you are PLG or enterprise sales led?
3.) The Hiring Process:
How does OJ structure the hiring process?
How does OJ know the qualities that he wants to uncover in each candidate?
What questions does OJ ask to unpack whether the candidate has those qualities?
How does this differ when hiring sales reps vs sales leaders?
How does OJ use the sales demo to test the quality of a candidate? What does he want to see?
Who does OJ bring into the interview process? When do they get involved?
What are two questions that will immediately tell whether someone is a good manager?
4.) Sales Onboarding:
How does OJ segment sales onboarding into 3 crucial steps?
Chapter 1: Support: Why does OJ believe it is so important for reps to spend their first week with support? What should they look to learn? What questions should they be asking?
Chapter 2: Market Knowledge: How can sales leaders teach and educate new reps on market landscape, dynamics and competition? Why does this have to come before sales training?
Chapter 3: Sales Training: In the final step, what does the sales training process? What does OJ look for in the final sales demo? When does OJ let reps speak to customers? How does this differ when comparing enterprise to PLG?
SaaStr 481: Cloud-first Clarity: Evolving Infrastructure for Enterprise with Asana's Head of Engineering, Prashant Pandey
As companies grow while sharing a single, common SaaS infrastructure, their security, reliability, and integration needs evolve. In this podcast, Asana's Head of Engineering, Prashant Pandey, will outline how to advance your infrastructure to support and grow with your largest customers, including tips on how to: - Earn enterprise trust with robust infrastructure - Give admins control over product usage - Build data isolation into your architecture and - Support customers by interconnecting their data
Head of Revenue and BD at Asana, Oliver Jay: The Cutting Edge of Product-Led Growth
When Oliver Jay worked for venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates in the late 2000s, he found that the most rewarding aspect for him was working with portfolio companies and watching the beginnings of sales operations.
“But as an associate, let’s be honest, I was there to crunch numbers, and write memos, and source deals,” Oliver said. “That’s why I decided to leave. Even though I loved the job intellectually, I just wanted a piece of the action.”
Soon after, Oliver earned an MBA from Harvard Business School, and flexed his sales knowledge at companies like Dropbox. Now, Oliver works as Head of Global Revenue and Business Development at Asana, a company developing a work management platform.
On this episode of Go to Market Grit, Joubin and Oliver talk about Oliver’s upbringing, the benefits of implementing “checks and balances” into the hiring process, and how to blend product-led growth and value enterprise sales.
In this episode, we cover:
How Oliver educated himself about go-to-market operations by embarking on a 'campaign' to meet and learn from successful sales leaders. (3:03)
'I learned a ton': Oliver's thoughts on the value of business school. (9:04)
Oliver's experience as an immigrant in the United States — and how he wants to teach authenticity and grit to his children. (12:18)
How Oliver learned that he had an eye for identifying talent — and how he motivates and inspires teams with long term goals. (17:31)
Building 'checks and balances' into the hiring process. (21:56)
Uber vs. Grab: Oliver's firsthand experience on the board of Grab as it competed with Uber for the Asian rideshare market. (24:19)
'Seed, land, and expand': What Oliver's experience working at Dropbox taught him about structuring sales organizations at product-led companies. (28:06)
Oliver's current business, Asana, its work management platform — and building a ‘balanced’ company culture. (38:28)
Uncovering whether a job candidate understands excellence during an interview — and the value of helping people grow and develop. (41:28)
What the word grit means to Oliver. (44:41)
Links:
Connect with Oliverhttps://asana.com
Connect with JoubinTwitter
LinkedIn
Email: gtmg@kleinerperkins.com
Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
SaaStr 447: Asana Head of Experience, Beth Toland, on How to Make Customer Insights An Integral Part of Product Development
As Head of Experience Research at Asana, Beth Toland will share different ways to make customer insights a deep part of product development and strategy from ideation to delivery.
Video + blog post: https://www.saastr.com/asana-product-development-strategy/
Dustin Moskovitz – Eliminating Work About Work – [Founder’s Field Guide, EP. 19]
My guest today is Dustin Moskovitz, co-founder and CEO of Asana, a team-centric product management tool used by over 1.3 million users around the world. Dustin started Asana in 2008, 4 years after co-founding Facebook. In this conversation, we dive into Dustin's belief about the diminishing returns of hard work, the shocking amount of productivity lost in doing "work about work", and Dustin's philanthropic investment strategy around leverage and maximizing ROI. I hope you enjoy my wide-ranging conversation with Dustin Moskovitz.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out https://www.joincolossus.com/episodes/88012555/moskovitz-eliminating-work-about-work
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Founder's Field Guide is a property of Colossus Inc. For more episodes of Founder's Field Guide, go to https://www.joincolossus.com/episodes.
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Show Notes
[00:03:19] – [First question] – Balancing hard purposeful work and too much work that leads to burn out
[00:05:41] – What led to this way of thinking
[00:06:54] – Regulating hard work through culture
[00:08:25] – False tradeoffs and how Asana represents this
[00:09:43] – Origins of Asana
[00:13:22] – Organizing the chaos of a project
[00:18:09] – Change vs discipline of the mission
[00:19:55] – Transferring good ideas from one company to another
[00:23:19] – Instilling leverage as a concept in an early company
[00:25:21] – New learning curves in building Asana
[00:26:52] – Hardest boss battle during his time at Asana
[00:28:43] – The role of the work graph
[00:31:46] – The proliferation of the work management space and the overall landscape
[00:32:56] – The idea of radical inclusiveness
[00:36:31] – Best reasons to start a new company
[00:37:47] – What will lead to Asana’s continued success
[00:38:59] – Lessons building the product
[00:41:13] – Work with the Open Philanthropy Project
[00:43:44] – Work on pandemics and biosecurity
[00:46:11] – Where he sees the future of artificial intelligence
[00:50:47] – Kindest thing anyone has done for him
Labs for Diagnostics: Then, Now, and Next
A lot's going on in the world of healthcare right now, and one topic that's especially relevant is how diagnostic labs work. In this episode with Dave King, Executive Chairman of Lab Corp (one of the largest clinical lab networks in the world) and a16z's General Partner Jorge Conde and Hanne Tidnam, we cover the evolution of the modern lab over the past 50 years, especially as new technologies and new tests are added; how tests go from specialized to mainstream and widely available; and who pays for most tests and how reimbursement affects all this. We also discuss where lab information flows—in electronic health records and in the health system at large—and touch on what the lab of the future might be like.
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SaaStr 272: Asana's Head of Marketing Dave King on How We Are Entering The Third Wave of SaaS Marketing, What That Means For SaaS Marketers and Companies Today & What B2B Marketing Can Learn From B2C
Dave King is the Head of Marketing at Asana, the work management platform that teams use to stay focused on the goals that grow their business. To date, Asana has raised over $210m from some of the biggest names in tech including Mark Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel, Marc Andreesen, Ben Horowitz, Sean Parker, Ron Conway, Benchmark, Founders Fund and more incredible names. As for Dave, prior to joining Asana, he led the marketing teams at Percolate, Highfive, and Salesforce Community Cloud.
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How did Dave make his way into the world of SaaS and startups? When did he realise his love of marketing SaaS companies?
What does Dave mean when he says, "we are entering the 3rd wave of marketing"? What were the 1st and 2nd chapters? What does the "3rd wave" of marketing mean for marketers today? How does it change what marketing should be focusing on? How does it change how marketing works with sales and customer success?
What does Dave mean when he says, "offsites serve as a crutch for 2 core elements of the marketer's role"? How does Dave advise marketers on crafting their playbook? What are the core questions to ask? Where does Dave see many going wrong here? How does one turn a playbook into a repeatable, measurable process? With channel volatility being so high, is it possible to have a repeatable and predictable process?
What are Dave's biggest observations on what B2B marketers can learn from B2C? How does that change how Dave thinks about new campaigns and community building with Asana today? Who does Dave think has done this particularly well in the world of enterprise? Are there any challenges to trying to carry over B2C into the world of B2B?
Dave's 60 Second SaaStr:
What does Dave know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning of his career in marketing?
Biggest breakdown in the working of an efficient funnel?
A moment in Dave's life that has served as an inflection point and changed the way he thinks?
Read the transcript on our blog.
If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here:
Jason Lemkin
Harry Stebbings
SaaStr
Dave King
SaaStr 208: SendGrid Board Member, Anne Raimondi on Why We Have To See Innovation In SaaS Pricing, Why Everyone in SaaS Orgs Has To Be Product People & Why Humans Can't Scale More Than 100% YoY & What That Means For Scaling Orgs
Anne Raimondi has more than 20 years experience driving growth at startups and building them into nationally recognized brands. She has served as a leader and executive for technology innovators including Zendesk, Survey Monkey, Blue Nile, and eBay. Anne is also a Lecturer in Management at Stanford Graduate School of Business, teaching two popular courses, "Startup Garage" and "POWer: Building the Entrepreneurial Mindset." She currently serves on the board of directors for SendGrid (NYSE: SEND) and MyHealthTeams. If that was not enough, Anne is also an active angel investor with an incredible portfolio including the likes of Canva, ipsy, and Minted just to name a few.
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How Anne made her way into the world of startups with Zendesk? How did seeing the hyperscaling of Zendesk impact Anne's operational approach and mindset?
Does Anne agree that certain individuals are destined for certain stages of company development? What are the leading indicators that one can or cannot scale? What are the inflection points in company growth where process tend to break? What can managers do to provide security in these times of change?
Why does Anne believe that everyone should be a product person in SaaS? What are the inherent benefits of this product centricity? How does the element of product centricity change when catering to 2 customers, CIO and consumer? How does Anne advise on this issue of agency?
How does Anne approach optimising internal decision-making processes? Where do many leadership teams make mistakes here? What is the right way for leadership teams to communicate their decisions to the wider team? How does Anne approach ensuring cross-functional communication at scale?
How has Anne seen her style of board membership change over the last 8 years? What has been an inflection point that has changed the way she thinks about what it takes to be a great board member? Who has been the best board member Anne has worked with? What made them so special?
Anne's 60 Second SaaStr:
What does Anne know now that she wishes she had known at the beginning?
The right way for founders to view competition?
What would Anne most like to change in the world of SaaS today?
Read the full transcript on our blog.
If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here:
Jason Lemkin
Harry Stebbings
SaaStr
Anne Raimondi