Executive Function Articles

What startups get wrong about enterprise | Lindsey Scrase (COO, Checkr)

In the latest episode of Executive Function, Brett sits down with Lindsey Scrase, COO of Checkr. Before joining Checkr as CRO and later stepping into the COO seat, Lindsey spent nearly a decade at Google Cloud as global managing director for SMB, mid-market, and startups. Listen here

Why Plaid’s COO cold-calls new hires | Eric Sager (COO of Plaid)

In the latest episode of Executive Function, Brett sits down with Eric Sager, COO of Plaid, following stints as CRO of Bluevine and Head of Sales at Square. Listen here

How to build a beloved tech brand | Sheila Joglekar Vashee (CMO, Figma)

In today's conversation, Brett sits down with CMO of Figma, Sheila Joglekar Vashee. Previously the second marketing hire at Dropbox, where she helped scale the company past $1 billion in revenue, she now leads marketing at Figma fresh off its IPO. Listen here

Why old-school sales work still wins in the AI era | Graham Moreno (Head of GTM, Parallel)

In the latest episode of Executive Function, Brett sits down with Graham Moreno, Head of GTM at Parallel Web Systems. Listen here

Why founders should bet on first-time executives | Praveer Melwani (CFO, Figma)

In this latest episode of Executive Function, Brett sits down with Praveer Melwani, CFO at Figma. Praveer joined Figma in 2017 as the company's first business operations and finance hire —when the team was around 30 people and not yet charging for the product. Listen here

Why great product leaders should stop obsessing over the roadmap | Diya Jolly (CPO & CTO of Xero)

Diya Jolly, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Xero unpacks her three-bucket framework for delegating decisions, why the most important part of a CPO’s role is to drive team-wide ambition, and why the best executives need to spend half their time thinking, not doing. Listen here

Scaling DoorDash to market dominance | Christopher Payne (Former COO, DoorDash)

In this latest episode of Executive Function, Brett sits down with Christopher Payne, who spent a decade as President and COO at DoorDash, helping scale the company from roughly 70 employees to the dominant food delivery platform in the US. Before DoorDash, Christopher held senior operating roles at Amazon. Listen here

The most politically dangerous role in the C-suite | Katie Burke (COO, Harvey)

In the latest episode of Executive Function, Brett sits down with Katie Burke, who recently became COO of Harvey after joining as Chief People Officer. Before Harvey, Katie spent 11 years in HR leadership at HubSpot, where she built one of tech's most distinctive cultures. Listen here

The product wisdom every CPO should ignore | Jeremy Epling (CPO, Vanta)

In the latest episode of Executive Function, Brett is joined by Jeremy Epling, CPO of security and compliance platform Vanta. Jeremy details his career journey, unpacking what it took to make the jump from tenured Microsoft executive to startup CPO. Listen here

Snowflake’s first sales hire on scaling from $0 to $3.5B | Chris Degnan (Former CRO, Snowflake)

Chris Degnan was the first sales hire at Snowflake and spent 11 years scaling the company from zero to $3.5 billion in revenue as its CRO, working alongside four different CEOs and learning from each one. Listen here

Why 90% of CROs will fall behind in the next 2 years | Stevie Case (CRO, Vanta)

Stevie Case is the CRO of Vanta, the trust management platform serving everyone from founders to Fortune 100 CISOs. A former pro-video gamer who stumbled into sales through a mentor's bet, Stevie has built one of the most unconventional paths to the C-suite in tech. Listen here

Figma is not the source of truth | Ryan Lucas (VP of Design, Rippling)

In the second Executive Function episode, Brett sits down with Ryan Lucas, VP of Design at Rippling. Before Rippling, Ryan led design at Retool and co-founded multiple startups, bringing a rare founder's perspective to design leadership. A trained industrial designer, Ryan traces the roots of modern software. Listen here