Rebuilding Front for the AI Era | CEO Dan O’Connell
The hardest part of transformation is knowing what to let go of.
Dan O’Connell, now leading Front as CEO and formerly on the board at Dialpad, joins Joubin Mirzadegan to explore the delicate balance between legacy and innovation as he leads a decade old company through the AI revolution.
He also reflects on why courage and control can coexist in leadership, and what it means to “make decisions that give you energy.”
Guest: Dan O’Connell, CEO of Front
Connect with Dan O’Connell
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Connect with Joubin
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Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com
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AI-Powered Business Communications with Dan O'Connell, Chief AI & Strategy Officer at Dialpad
In this episode, Nathan sits down with Dan O’Connell, Chief Strategy Officer at Dialpad. They discuss building their own language models using 5 billion minutes of business calls, custom speech recognition models for every customer, and the challenges of bringing AI into business. If you need an ecommerce platform, check out our sponsor Shopify: https://shopify.com/cognitive for a $1/month trial period.
We're sharing a few of Nathan's favorite AI scouting episodes from other shows. Today, Shane Legg, Cofounder at Deepmind and its current Chief AGI Scientist, shares his insights with Dwarkesh Patel on AGI's timeline, the new architectures needed for AGI, and why multimodality will be the next big landmark. If you need an ecommerce platform, check out our sponsor Shopify: https://shopify.com/cognitive for a $1/month trial period.
We're hiring across the board at Turpentine and for Erik's personal team on other projects he's incubating. He's hiring a Chief of Staff, EA, Head of Special Projects, Investment Associate, and more. For a list of JDs, check out: eriktorenberg.com.
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SPONSORS:
Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business. Shopify powers 10% of ALL eCommerce in the US. And Shopify's the global force behind Allbirds, Rothy's, and Brooklinen, and 1,000,000s of other entrepreneurs across 175 countries.From their all-in-one e-commerce platform, to their in-person POS system – wherever and whatever you're selling, Shopify's got you covered. With free Shopify Magic, sell more with less effort by whipping up captivating content that converts – from blog posts to product descriptions using AI. Sign up for $1/month trial period: https://shopify.com/cognitive
Omneky is an omnichannel creative generation platform that lets you launch hundreds of thousands of ad iterations that actually work customized across all platforms, with a click of a button. Omneky combines generative AI and real-time advertising data. Mention "Cog Rev" for 10% off www.omneky.com
NetSuite has 25 years of providing financial software for all your business needs. More than 36,000 businesses have already upgraded to NetSuite by Oracle, gaining visibility and control over their financials, inventory, HR, eCommerce, and more. If you're looking for an ERP platform ✅ head to NetSuite: http://netsuite.com/cognitive and download your own customized KPI checklist.
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@labenz (Nathan)
@dialdoc (Dan)
@dialpad
@CogRev_Podcast (Cognitive Revolution)
TIMESTAMPS:
(00:00) - Introduction and Welcome
(06:50) - Interview with Dan O'Connell, Chief AI and Strategy Officer at Dialpad
(07:13) - The Functionality and Utility of Dialpad
(17:20) - The Development of Dialpad's Large Language Model Trained on 5Billion Minutes of Calls
19:56 The Future of AI in Business
(22:21) - Sponsor Break: Shopify
(23:56) - The Challenges and Opportunities of AI Development
(31:17 ) - Prioritizing latency, capacity, and cost when evaluating AI
(39:41) - Most Loved AI Features in Dialpad
(42:01) - The Role of AI in Quality Assurance
(43:10) - The Future of Transcription Accuracy
(44:06) - The Importance of Speech Recognition in Business
(46:59) - Personalizing AI for Better Business Interactions
(47:01) - The Role of AI in Content Generation
(52:47) - The Challenges and Opportunities of AI in Sales and Support
This show is produced by Turpentine: a network of podcasts, newsletters, and more, covering technology, business, and culture — all from the perspective of industry insiders and experts. We’re launching new shows every week, and we’re looking for industry-leading sponsors — if you think that might be you and your company, email us at erik@turpentine.co.
#138 Dan O'Connell: How AI is Disrupting Business Communications
This episode is sponsored by MindStudio by YouAi. MindStudio is the best way to build an AI business. Start driving some serious revenue before everyone else. Mind Studio allows you to use conversational language to program incredibly powerful AI tools. No coding knowledge is needed to start your AI business.
Sign up now- https://youai.ai/mindstudio
On episode #138 of Eye on AI. Craig Smith sits down with Dan O'Connell, the Chief AI and Strategy Officer at Dialpad and a seasoned expert in the world of AI-driven business communications.
Check out Dialpad- https://www.dialpad.com/
Currently serving as a member of Dialpad's Board of Directors, Dan's impressive career includes leadership roles at TalkIQ, AdRoll, and an 8-year stint at Google in key sales positions.
During our conversation, Dan takes us through Dialpad's AI-driven transformation of business communication. We explore the power of natural language processing, speech recognition, and large language models, enabling real-time transcription, call summaries, sentiment analysis, and virtual agents.
We also delve into the significance of sentiment analysis and the role of context, alongside debates on third-party APIs versus proprietary models, AI's unpredictability, and domain-specific model economics.
Our exploration continues with AI's impact on CRM, generative AI's insights, chatbot evolution, and cost-effective AI management.
Tune in to explore AIs impact on modern day business communication.
Dan O'Connell's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/droconnell/
Craig Smith Twitter: https://twitter.com/craigss
Eye on A.I. Twitter: https://twitter.com/EyeOn_AI
(00:00) Preview and Introduction
(01:33) Mind Studio by YouAI
(03:46) Artificial Intelligence in Business Communications
(10:54) Building Sentiment Analysis and Custom Models
(19:35) Managing Costs and using AI in Business
(23:47) AI Disrupts CRM Market?
(30:56) Mind Studio by YouAI
SaaStr 569: Classic Episode: Succeeding As a Young Enterprise Founder with Front Co-Founder and CEO Mathilde Collin
To celebrate 10 years of SaaStr, we're revisiting some classic podcast episodes. Up today: a 2016 interview with Harry Stebbings and Front Co-Founder and CEO Mathilde Collin. Just this week, Front announced their Series D at a 1.7 billion dollar valuation that makes Front one of only 11 SaaS Unicorns founded and led by women.
Want to join the SaaStr community? We're the 🌎largest community for B2B software.
Subscribe for weekly updates: https://www.saastr.com/subscribeform
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Quora Group: https://www.quora.com/q/cloud
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Our North American Event: https://bit.ly/2OXeAYh
Our European Event: https://bit.ly/2OZTad8
CRO Front, LB Harvey: Moving Up-Market + Operational Excellence
Many successful LinkedIn alumni have been welcomed as guests on this podcast — and this week, the insightful LB Harvey will be joining those ranks.
After starting her sales career as a Sales Executive at Corporate Executive Board, LB spent six years as an account executive and sales leader at LinkedIn before moving to Intercom to work in sales leadership. Now, LB serves as Chief Revenue and Success Officer of Front, a growing company creating a customer communication platform.
On this episode of Go to Market Grit, Joubin and LB talk about authenticity in the workplace, interviewing job candidates, and tips for successfully bringing a company up-market.
In this episode, we cover:
Why LB decided to leave LinkedIn — and how she built cross-functional go-to-market knowledge. (3:13)
'A high-quality revenue machine': LB's current company, Front, and its customer communication platform. (7:12)
The 'inner competitor' within LB, the innate and learned aspects of confidence, and the importance of staying authentic. (11:24)
The importance of being clear with job candidates about the opportunities, challenges and expectations of the role. (22:36)
Why LB is 'biased against' having team members partake in the evaluation of a manager or director level job candidate. (26:55)
Asking sales job candidates how they prioritize their calendars to evaluate for intensity, productivity and speed. (29:18)
The importance of executive alignment when working to bring a company up-market. (31:59)
Why investing in sales operations is critical in the early stages of bringing a company up-market. (37:06)
The benefits of outbound sales — and why sales leaders should focus on operational excellence. (39:44)
What the word grit means to LB. (43:28)
Links:
Connect with LBEmail: lb.harvey@frontapp.com
Connect with JoubinTwitter
LinkedIn
Email: gtmg@kleinerperkins.com
Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
CRO/CSO Dialpad, Dan O’Connell: Taking Risks and Running a Company
Dan O’Connell’s career is an impressive display of how hard work can catapult a person from the bottom of the sales hierarchy to the very top of business leadership.
Having started as an account coordinator at Google AdWords in 2003, Dan has climbed the corporate ladder — eventually becoming the CEO and President of TalkIQ in 2017. Now, Dan serves as the Chief Strategy Officer, Chief Revenue Officer and as a board member at Dialpad, a company creating an AI-powered cloud communication suite.
On this episode of Go to Market Grit, Joubin and Dan discuss Dan’s experience selling online advertisements for Google in the early to mid 2000s, Dan’s experience of becoming a CEO, and the importance for senior leaders to make an effort to connect with employees.
In this episode, we cover:
'Shooting fish in a barrel': Dan's experience working for Google and selling online advertisements in the early 2000s. (5:00)
'I wanted to do more': Taking risks and avoiding career complacency. (7:36)
Identifying skilled salespeople when demand is insanely high — and the moment when Dan realized Google was a big deal. (12:45)
The key character traits of people hired on Google's go-to-market team — and how to identify ‘coachability’ in a job candidate. (22:31)
Why Dan decided to become CEO and president of TalkIQ in 2017 after working in sales — and how his father’s example motivated him.
Humility, ambition and optimism: The qualities Dan would want his children to have — and the role of parents in encouraging new opportunities and growth. (34:10)
'An awesome experience': The complexities and fun of being a tech CEO. (37:02)
Dan's current company, Dialpad, and its AI-powered cloud communication suite — and how he deals with the transition from CEO to a lower senior position. (43:47)
The skills and qualities of a successful business manager. (47:48)
What the word grit means to Dan. (51:35)
Links:
Connect with DanLinkedIn
Connect with JoubinTwitter
LinkedIn
Email: gtmg@kleinerperkins.com
Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
SaaStr 321: Front CMO Anthony Kennada on Adapting Marketing Playbooks To Changing ACV's and Sales Cycles, The Right Way To Think About Brand Marketing and How To Fundamentally Build a Challenger Brand
Anthony Kennada is the CMO @ Front, the startup that provides your team with better email so they can treat every customer like your only customer. To date, Front have raised over $138M from some leading names including Sequoia, Eric Yuan @ Zoom, Ryan and Jared Smith @ Qualtrics, Michael Cannon-Brookes and Jay Simmons @ Atlassian and Frederic Kerrest @ Okta to name a few. As for Anthony, prior to Front Anthony was the founding CMO at Gainsight where he and his team are credited with creating the Customer Success category. At Gainsight Anthony and the team developed a new playbook for B2B marketing that fueled the company's growth from $0 to over $100M of ARR. If that was not enough, Anthony is also the author of Category Creation: How to Build a Brand that Customers, Employees, and Investors Will Love. The book debuted as a number one new release on Amazon.
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How Anthony made his way into the world of SaaS starting in the sales team at Box and how that led to his entering the world of marketing and creating the customer success category?
How does Anthony marketing playbook change when making the move from Gainsight with higher ACV's and longer sales cycles to Front with lowers ACV's and much higher volume? How does Anthony think about ABM today with Front given the lower ACVs? At what ticket size does ABM make sense?
How does Anthony feel about brand marketing? Why did Anthony and Front decide now was the right time to engage with billboards? How does Anthony think about data and tracking for brand marketing? Does Anthony believe that all marketing has to be tied to a number directly related to revenue?
How does Anthony seeing a changing relationship between customer success and marketing? How is marketing being pushed further into the realms of CS? What is the optimal relationship between CS and marketing? How does this compare to the relationship of sales and marketing more traditionally?
Anthony's 60 Second SaaStr:
What does Anthony know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning of his time in marketing?
What is the hardest element of Anthony's role with Front today?
Who does Anthony think is killing it in the world of marketing 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
Anthony Kennada
20VC: Front's Mathilde Collin on Why Discipline Is More Important Than Vision, The Right Way To Approach Investor Updates and Director Reports & How To Effectively Structure 1-1s
Mathilde Collin is the Co-Founder & CEO @ Front, reinventing the email inbox with new workflows and efficient collaboration so people can accomplish more together. To date, Mathilde has raised over $79m in VC funding with Front from some of the best in the business including Bryan Schreier @ Sequoia, Initialized, Uncork Capital, Boldstart and individuals including Andrew Chen, Elad Gil, Ray Tonsing the list goes on. With 4,500+ customers, and 100+ employees, in Paris, San Francisco and Amsterdam, Front is one of the fastest growing companies in SaaS and Mathilde has become a thought leader for the next generation of SaaS CEOs, read more on her blog here.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Mathilde made her way from product manager in Paris to founding one of the hottest and fastest growing companies in the world of SaaS in the form of Front?
2.) What does Mathilde mean when she says, "I would choose discipline over vision any day of the week"? What does discipline really mean to Mathilde? Why is it a priority in the early days? How can a VC stress test and determine the level of discipline a founder has in first meetings? What are the signs or leading indicators?
3.) Communications:
Investor Updates: What is Mathilde's biggest advice to founders when it comes to investor updates? What should they contain? How often should they go out? How should founders ask for help in updates? Where do founders often make mistakes?
Revenue Updates: Why does Mathilde do revenue updates with the team? Is there a danger of being too transparent? What are the benefits of this transparency? What is the structure of the update? Who is privy to it?
Direct Reports: How does Mathilde communicate with her direct reports? Why does Mathilde believe that CEOs should have their calendar public? What is the right cadence for these direct reports?
4.) How does Mathilde approach and think about fundraises with Front today? How can founders know when is the right time to raise? How does Mathilde think about building relationships with investors when she is not raising? How transparent should founders be when they are not raising? What are Mathilde tips for always overshooting her numbers? How does Mathilde conduct DD on potential investors in the company?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Mathilde's Fave Book: The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Mathilde on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
Front’s experiment in radical transparency
In today's episode, Ryan interviews Mathilde Collin, CEO of Front. Front is a shared inbox for your team and the company is used by startups big and small. They raised a whopping $66 million from Sequoia last year.
Mathilde and Ryan met at Y Combinator, when they were in the same batch in Summer 2014. It was at that time that Ryan recognized something special about Mathilde and her team: they build fast and embrace a very transparent culture, which has no doubt led to their success.
In this episode we talk about:
Why it's important as a founder to remain humble.
Why, contrary to reports of its demise, email is *not *dying.
How Mathilde manages company culture at a fast-growing startup with offices in both San Francisco and Paris.
The products she uses to stay sane and productive.
We’ll be back next week so be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Breaker, Overcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Big thanks to FreshBooks, Bubble, Spoka, and Dipsea for their support. 😸
Quotes from This Episode
“There are two types of people: there are people that join the company because it’s most likely going to be successful and there are people that join because they want to make it successful. You should try to understand if the person is joining because they want to be part of the adventure or because they want to build this adventure.” — Mathilde
“People seem to be pretty happy at Front, so I try to understand why. I asked them, 'why are you happy?' The most frequent answer was the fact that they understand how their work relates to the bigger vision that we have.” — Mathilde
“It’s super important to hire people who are confident enough that they won’t care if something doesn’t work because the biggest mistake you can make is not acknowledging something isn’t working and keeping doing it. Self-confidence is something that I’ve been looking for in most hires.” — Mathilde
Companies and Products Mentioned in This Episode
Five Minute Journal — The simplest, most effective way to be happier every day.
Front — Efficient email for teams.
Headspace — Learn to meditate and live mindfully.
#068 – Finding Success as a First-Time Founder with Mathilde Collin of Front
When Mathilde Collin (@collinmathilde) started her first company, she knew she wanted to create a great place to work and to improve the lives of her customers. The product was just an implementation detail. Learn how she picked up the skills she needed to succeed, and built a 100-person company with over 3600 happy, paying customers.
Transcript, speaker information, and more: https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/068-mathilde-collin-of-front
SaaStr 034: How To Master The Freemium Model, Learnings From Being The 1st Sales Hire @ Box & Dropbox & The Integration of Sales and Engineering with Front's New Head of Sales, Cailen D'sa
I am delighted to welcome the new Head of Sales @ Front App, Cailen D'sa, to The Official SaaStr Podcast today. Cailen might just be the Head of Sales every SaaS startup founder is dreaming of having previously been the first sales hire @ Dropbox where he launched Dropbox's first B2B product, prior to that he was a director at Box where he helped pioneer and operationalize the freemium land-and-expand sales model, which is now a core SaaS sales methodology. Now if you enjoy the episode with Cailen today and want to hear more from him then you must headover to Front's blog where you can find Mathilde's written interview with Cailen.
In This Episode With Cailen You Will Learn:
How did Cailen come to be the first Sales hire @ Dropbox? What was it about Front that enticed him?
What were Cailen's biggest takeaways from his time at Dropbox and Box?
How does the Sales process differ when selling a freemium product like Dropbox, compared to an enterprise product like Front?
What does Cailen look for when hiring sales reps? What are Cailen's sourcing strategies for new sales reps? How does Cailen incentivise the best talent to choose Front over other options?
With the rise of data and it's role in sales, to what extent does Cailen still believe sales to be an art and not a science?
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
Cailen D'sa
SaaStr 025: How Every Startup Can Build Their Brand Through Events with Anthony Kennada, VP of Marketing @ Gainsight
I am delighted to present Part 2 of our feature of Gainsight. Joining me today I have Anthony Kennada, the founding VP Marketing at Gainsight where he is responsible for managing the company's global marketing strategy, from demand generation to brand marketing, and is credited with creating the "Pulse" community of Customer Success leaders. Anthony began his career as an early employee at Box. He later joined LiveOffice and managed their OEM partnership with Symantec from contract signature to acquisition for $115M. Prior to joining Gainsight, Anthony led the Emerging Cloud Products division at Symantec, and was responsible for the first organic product development effort that spanned both consumer and enterprise market segments.
In today's show with Anthony we discuss:
How Anthony came to be VP of Marketing at one of the hottest startups in the valley?
Being the founding VP of Marketing, how did Anthony look to grow the team? What were the actual steps Anthony used to scale the marketing at Gainsight?
How has B2B marketing changed, from Box to today? With this evolution, what are Anthony's marketing learnings in creating new categories vs. new players in existing categories?
How should we be thinking about marketing, both Demand Gen and Corporate, differently in crowded spaces? ?
How can marketing help support going up market and driving ACVs up? Both Box and Gainsight did this.
How should CEOs and VPMs think about, and budget events? What if they don't have all the capital Gainsight does?
In a round we call the 60 Second Saastr, we also hear:
Billboards: Stupid or effective?
Fave SaaS resource and why?
3 Biggest Tips For Running a Successful Event?
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
Anthony Kennada
Saastr 010: Mathilde Collin on The Evolution of Content Marketing and Life As A Young Enterprise Founder
Welcome to Episode 10 of The Official Saastr Podcast. To celebrate this milestone, we have a very special guest: Mathilde Collin. Mathilde is the CEO and Co-Founder of Front, one of the world's most innovative young SaaS startups working in the space of email collaboration and in today's show with Mathilde we discuss:
Mathilde's experience as a young founder and CEO in the enterprise space?
How did Mathilde manage to attract some of the world's top talent and hire effectively?
What were her biggest takeaways from her time at YC?
Why did Mathilde decide to raise US funds rather than European?
How has the evolution of content marketing altered Front's sales strategy?
In a round we call the 60 Second Saastr, we also hear:
Hiring Your First VP of Sales: When and What Questions To Ask?
Mathilde's favourite SaaS resource?
Compare UK to US investor mindsets?
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
Mathilde Collin
