Evan Reiser, CEO and co-founder of Abnormal Security, walks students through the methodologies needed to lead a company from day one, from picking a co-founder to building the initial sales team. Prior to Abnormal Security, Evan recently led product and machine learning teams at Twitter after co-founding successful companies including Bloomspot, acquired by JPMorgan Chase, and AdStack, acquired by TellApart.
So in the early days, the CEO usually is like the first salesperson, and probably most founders play that role in different ways.
if you're a founder in enterprise software company, and you're not regularly talking to customers about what their problems are, what they value in a solution, how they would implement opera solution, You're just, you're going to be under equipped to, to build or do anything else.
early on in the company, You have to be doing, going through the entire sales process. Even if you have, other kind of sales staff on the team, it's really important that you are at the table listening and learning. So you can do your best job better as a founder.
Evan: I think at some point,if the company's successful, you'll get to a point where you have a head of sales, you'll have account [00:54:00] executives that know way more about sales process and methodology and customer discovery right. Than you do as a CEO. And so you want to, you want to let them do their job, right?
one, because a, probably better at it than you, but also because you need to enable that team to, go do, go do that work at scale. And if you're getting in the way, You're going into bottleneck that whole part of the organization. That doesn't mean there's no role, I think for a CEO or founder to play in the sales process, you just, the role changes.
Evan: So I think that, once you get in that maybe 10 to a hundred stage, right after you've done. The work yourself, you've built up the team and now thinking about how to go deliver this product and build the product at a much higher scale. I think that the role of a CEO is much different, rather than, pitching the product, doing the customer discovery during the negotiation.
I think that the role of the CEO is to almost be a representative of the company. And, in some ways there's, you want to communicate to customers, what is your kind of long-term vision for the company, right? Are you a fly by night star, be trying to really build this for the long haul, right?
You need to show off your commitment. You need to be the [00:55:00] representative of your company's commitment to customer relationships and partnerships. I think literally telling customers. But you want to invest in the long-term you're not just trying to close a deal today. You're trying to like make them successful overall over many years.
And, and I think that by doing that, you're also a cultural role model and you're envelope like how you show up with customers is also emblematic about what that customer can expect from the rest of the organization. If you're really listening about the problems you're taking their feedback, you are investing your personal time, energy, right?
That makes a statement about what type of company that the customer is working with. And customers, what they really care about is a company that, is in this for the long haul that wants to commit to making them successful. That was a partner with them along the way is going to be there for them when things go wrong.
Not just before they signed the check. So I think that, as a CEO, you have an opportunity to show up right. For customers and communicate all those things. Sometimes implicitly through your actions sometimes, explicitly through here, your words and your writing.
Evan: I think there's a few very kind of easy [00:56:00] things that, founders and CEOs can do, that are disproportionally high impact, right? Every time a customer gives you an opportunity to prove yourself right through an evaluation. the CEO should send a note and say, thank you for the opportunity, Because it is truly, an opportunity. Anytime somebody comes a new customer, I think re reinforcing your commitment to, to, supporting them and servicing them. And I think, being, being a part of the ongoing relationship, whether it's through, your quarterly business reviews or kind of some other kind of touch points, but, making sure that along the way, You personally, as a founder are listening and learning, And, acknowledging the problems, talking about your plans for how to solve them, That customers will take what they see in leaders of a company. And they'll assume that's true for everyone else. Which is actually a fair assumption.
So I think that, ultimately like you, as a CEO, you have to be a brand ambassador, For what type of company are you trying to be? and obviously that needs to be done in an authentic way. but if customers feel that authenticity, And they really feel they're getting a true partner right.
In the [00:57:00] company, Both through you and through that experience, then they're much more willing to,help you out. They're more likely to buy that product. They're more likely to help you develop, right? Your organization, your sales, your marketing, your product, to help make them more successful and help make the company more successful.
So I think that the role changes and, I think it would be a mistake for, CEOs or founders to exit. They do have to be more choosy about how they spend their time. Cause there's more stuff to do. But,I wouldn't underestimate the impact. great leadership at all levels can have on, influencing.
