Founder’s Field Guide
Episode 34 Learning How to Sell
Founder’s Field Guide

Episode 34: Learning How to Sell

Learning How to Sell

Peter Reinhardt is the co-founder and CEO of Segment, a market-leading customer data platform. We cover the lessons Peter has learned throughout his journey running Segment, why revenue operations is an underrated aspect of any business, and the current data use trends.

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[00:02:47] - [First question] - What Segment currently does for its customers

[00:03:37] - How this industry looked before Segment came along

[00:04:30] - Overview of a simple data flow and the utility of capturing user data

[00:05:55] - Insights that led to developing the structure for a central data pipeline

[00:07:52] - Why other companies don’t just build their own data collection API

[00:10:04] - Early days of building the company and finding success outside their initial idea

[00:12:29] - Pivoting from classroom software to providing software the world needed

[00:17:06] - Sign that validated becoming a B2B software company

[00:19:49] - Challenging moments trying to scale Segment after bootstrapping the startup

[00:24:58] - Getting customers to articulate your value proposition helps grow your sales

[00:26:42] - Deciding what would be sold and what would remain open source

[00:28:05] - Structuring and developing an enterprise sales team and sales model

[00:30:23] - Overview of a $2 million per salesperson contract and how it’s allocated

[00:31:38] - How it feels to be a participant in the SaaS industry

[00:34:02] - Lessons learned about revenue operations and how underappreciated it is

[00:36:39] - Backwards efficiency and companies who use products to bootstrap scale economics

[00:38:51] - Focusing on customer acquisition cost to maximize scale efficiency

[00:40:52] - Potential disruptors to economies of scale

[00:42:21] - Lessons learned from achieving massive scale and being acquired by Twilio

[00:45:40] - Behind the curtain view of current data use trends

[00:48:49] - His perspectives on the data privacy landscape and their implications writ large

[00:51:48] - Legitimate businesses that will be hurt by changes in data privacy standards

[00:53:11] - How data privacy standards may affect everyday merchants

[00:54:03] - The worst advice he’s heard given to new entrepreneurs

[00:56:20] - Impactful advice received along the way when growing Segment

[00:56:47] - What has him most excited about the future

[00:57:13] - Lessons learned about leadership from Jeff Lawson and his own experience

[00:58:51] - The hardest changes he’s had to make as a leader

[01:00:20] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him

Learning How to Sell

Introduction

Patrick
My guest today is Peter Reinhardt, co-founder, and CEO of Segment, the market-leading customer data platform that was acquired by Twilio last year. In our conversation, we cover the fascinating journey of Segment from an education feedback tool to the business it is today. Peter's sales philosophy on meeting the customer where they are and not where you think they should be and why revenue operations or rev ops is underrated for any business. This was an incredibly honest conversation on company building that any builder can learn from. Please enjoy my conversation with Peter Reinhardt.

The Universal Customer Data Pipe

Patrick
So, Peter, I think we need to start at the end. I'm a data person by background, so I don't want to get too far off the deep end here before we orient the audience in what Segment does today, and then we'll probably rewind all the way to the beginning because the journey has been so unique and interesting in your case. Can you begin by describing what Segment does for its customers today in 2021?

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