In this episode of Scaling Success, Sean Cantwell hosts Chris Fahey, Senior Vice President of Talent at Volition Capital, to discuss building high-performance teams. Chris shares his experience supporting portfolio companies, focusing on HR and talent internally at Volition, and helping CEOs and founders build their organizations with a forward-looking perspective. He also highlights the appeal of working with growth-stage companies, which often have a clear product-market fit and the resources to expand.

In this episode of Scaling Success, Sean Cantwell invites Matt Whitteker to discuss the mindset of an entrepreneur. Matt discusses the process and risks of starting a business, how to approach entrepreneurial problem-solving, and the differences between wanting to be king and wanting to be rich. About Matt Whitteker Matt Whitteker is a co-founder of unicorn SaaS company Assent Compliance and the current CEO of Millions.CO. Matt is passionate about developing businesses and is the main driver behind Assent’s incredible growth. He has guest lectured at the University of Ottawa, Carleton University, and Queen’s University, sharing his unique insights and experiences and inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs. He is also the co-founder of Fight for the Cure, one of the most publicized charity boxing events in the world, which has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity.

In this episode of Scaling Success, Volition Capital managing partner Sean Cantwell is joined by guest Sam Sherman. Sam is the founder and CEO of Automatiq a price optimization technology business for the live event industry. Entrepreneurship is sometimes glamorized in our society, but it can also be incredibly hard, even in good times. Sean and Sam talk about managing through a crisis and unexpected events like COVID. Sam describes how he was able to manage and position the company for a bright future on the other side.  About Sam Sherman: Sam Sherman is the CEO and Founder of Automatiq, a well-known leader and executive in the ticket resale business. Automatiq now services over 400 customers and has powered over $3 billion in ticket sales. The company's mission is to help clients maximize profits through an all-in-one platform by optimizing revenue and lowering operating costs.  

This week on the Scaling Success podcast, Sean Cantwell is joined by Anna Griffin, Chief Marketing Officer at Intercom. Anna speaks about her marketing career journey and how it has shaped her career path in this ever-growing field. She’s spent her career honing communication strategies and delivering stories that engage and inspire customers. They discuss some of Anna’s best tips and advice for success she's had along the way from consumer marketing through some of her agency work and B2B experience. About Anna Griffin Anna is the Chief Marketing Officer at Intercom, where she leads product marketing, corporate marketing, demand generation, and growth. She has over 25 years of experience as a senior marketing executive in agency, brand, and global marketing leadership positions spanning consumer goods to enterprises. Anna focuses primarily on business transformation with a proven record in strategic positioning, go-to-market strategy, and worldwide creation and design of marketing programs. She has helped position, build, and promote campaigns for global brands such as Apple, Sony, Saturn, Lands' End, Juniper Networks, CA Technologies, and Smartsheet. Previously, Anna was the Chief Marketing Officer for Smartsheet, where she led strategic repositioning and rebranding that helped the company grow from 200 million to 500 million in annual recurring revenue. 

Join us on this episode as we welcome John Avirett, Partner at Stepstone Group. John talks about the purpose and role of venture capital in today's economy - specifically how entrepreneurs should think about raising money from investors when they're ready to expand their business or start up new ventures. About John Avirett John is a partner with StepStone, a private markets investment firm with $134 billion in assets under management. He is a member of the private equity team focusing on venture capital and growth equity. Before StepStone, John spent 16 years at Greenspring Associates, responsible for sourcing and diligence efforts on fund, direct, and secondary investments. John sits on the advisory board of numerous venture and growth equity firms, including Volition Capital. He has been involved in multiple successful direct investments, including Chewy.com, WalkMe, Grubhub, Roblox, Cloudflare, Assent Compliance, Recycle Track Systems, and many others. John is a proud native son of Baltimore, Maryland, and a graduate of Johns Hopkins University.

In Episode 8 of Scaling Success, Sean Cantwell invites Lynne Oldham to the podcast to discuss hiring in a post-pandemic world. Zoom was one of a handful of companies that experienced hyper-growth due to pandemic demand. Almost overnight, Zoom went from 10 million daily meeting participants to 300 million daily meeting participants. This, coupled with the shift to working from home, presented many challenges -- and opportunities to the Chief People Officer at Zoom. Now that the world is in the process of transitioning back to a "new normal," Lynne has some lessons for hiring that everyone can benefit from. Check out the full episode here and on Spotify. About Lynn Oldham: Lynne is a successful global Chief People Officer and business leader with 20 years of progressive experience in strategic HR leadership and key talent acquisition in various industries, driving profitable growth strategies for startups, private and public companies, and international organizations. She is currently Zoom’s Chief People Officer, joining just prior to IPO, and navigating continued business scaling, employee engagement, and safeguarding culture through COVID and the racial/social unrest of 2020. Lynne serves as a key advisor to C-suite executives, identifying transformational necessities and clarifying the leadership profile required for an organization to pivot business strategy and develop change initiatives to achieve sustainable growth. She is an inspirational and successful developer of talent with a passion for instilling leadership that improves organizational culture, company bench strength, business operations, employee morale, internal communication, recruitment strategy, and diversity and inclusion initiatives. Lynne holds a Juris Doctor from Seton Hall University School of Law and a Bachelor’s Degree in Finance and Business Administration from State University of New York, College at New Paltz.

In Episode 07 of Scaling Success, Volition Capital managing partner Sean Cantwell invites Karen Flathers to the show to discuss the nuances of building a successful, scalable Customer Success function. Find out why she thinks a lot of companies do a great job of making their customers love them, but still fail at customer stickiness. "There's some relationship that comes into it, but again, they're going to look at their business and say, 'What is the thing that it's too painful for me to get rid of that's going to have too big an impact on how I run my business, or how my people work?' It's hard to put a full- other than an ERP, which goes in that bucket, a lot of the other niche ones, it comes down to the specific use cases that they're using it for." About Karen Flathers: Karen was formerly the Chief Customer Officer for Blackline, where she led all post-sales customer functions through a successful IPO, multiple acquisitions, and significant domestic and international growth. Prior to joining BlackLine, Karen worked in Services and Operations leadership positions at Zuora, a provider of SaaS-based billing software and as General Manager at Aclara Technologies, a provider of SaaS and on-premise solutions to the utility industry. Before focusing on SaaS growth companies, Karen spent 15 years in Professional Services at SAP, culminating in her role as SVP of Services for North America where she managed 1500 consultants and a $1 billion P&L. Karen holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brown University.

In episode 6 of Scaling Success, Sean Cantwell invites Andrew Waitman, CEO of Assent Compliance, to discuss his experience "operating at the edge of chaos" as he helped the business scale beyond startup mode into the elite, high-performing company it is today. Check out the full episode to hear Andrew discuss humility, hard decision, and the grit it takes to win. About Andrew Waitman Andrew’s history of helping businesses succeed continues at Assent Compliance. Since becoming CEO, he has been integral to the company’s growth and helped it earn a spot on the Narwhal List for high-potential companies. Previously, Andrew was CEO of Pythian, overseeing its rise from a small business to one of Canada’s largest and fastest-growing global professional services companies. He also served as Managing Partner at Celtic House Venture Partners during its highest-performing years to date, when one fund produced one of the world’s top ten best venture fund returns ever. Andrew has served on the boards of more than 30 technology companies. He is currently a board member at Assent and Fidus Systems, and sits on Genesys Capital’s advisory board.

Selling to SMBs can be exciting. It's also extremely challenging. With fast-paced sales cycles, lower price points, and higher churn, it means you have to be making sales every single day to grow a company. In the most recent episode of Scaling Success, Sean Cantwell invites Pete Lamson, CEO JazzHR, Jobvite & NXTThing RPO, to join the show and talk about what it takes to scale successfully with SMBs. With a focus on B2B, high-velocity, new customer acquisition, Pete brings a meticulous, measurement-focused approach to help answer the questions entrepreneurs frequently ask as they are looking to really step on the gas and accelerate. About Pete Lamson is a results-oriented executive with a 30+ year history of a strategic, metrics-driven approach to accelerated revenue. Currently, as CEO of JazzHR/Jobvite/NXTThing RPO, Lamson is responsible for the company’s strategic direction, aggregate performance, and day-to-day business operations. Pete joined the combined company through the acquisition of JazzHR where he served as President & CEO. Prior to JazzHR, Pete served as Carbonite Senior Vice President of Global Sales where he was a member of the IPO Team, responsible for Carbonite’s global sales organization and achievement of all revenue objectives, inclusive of new and renewal revenue in the US and EMEA. During Pete's tenure, Carbonite enjoyed 20 consecutive quarters of record revenue. Previously, Pete served as SVP & GM for NameMedia’s SMB-focused Domain Marketplace, the largest of its kind in the world, and Chief Operating Officer of Monster Worldwide’s consumer relocation division, helping businesses convert new movers into lifetime customers. Pete is a graduate of Holderness School & Harvard Business School

Sean Cantwell welcomes JD Sherman, CEO of Dashlane, formerly President and COO of HubSpot, to talk about setting a strong foundation to scale. Pulling from his experience at IBM, Akamai, HubSpot, and Dashlane, JD discusses what he's learned about scaling, growing fast, and the key foundational elements to consider along the way. About JD JD Sherman is the Chief Executive Officer of Dashlane, where he leads a 300+ global team across New York, Paris, and Lisbon, supporting Dashlane’s continued commitment to building the best password management service for both businesses and consumers. Prior to joining Dashlane in early 2021, JD served as President and Chief Operating Officer of HubSpot, where he worked from 2012 until July of 2020. JD helped to lead the company through its IPO in October of 2014 as well as its post-IPO growth, reaching almost 4,000 employees worldwide and $900 million of revenue. Prior to HubSpot, JD spent six years as Akamai’s Chief Financial Officer, where he was responsible for finance, strategic planning, and corporate development. During his tenure, Akamai grew from over $200 million to $1.2 billion in revenue, with over 2,000 employees globally, and was added to the S&P500 index. JD also served as the Chief Financial Executive of IBM’s $21 billion Systems and Technology Group. During his 15-year career at IBM, JD held a number of senior executive positions in finance. JD currently serves on the Board of Directors of Citrix. He served on the Board of Fiserv from 2015 to 2019, as well as the Boards of Cypress Semiconductor from 2010 to 2015; 3Com from 2008 to 2009; and AMI Semiconductor from 2007 to 2008. He holds a BA in Economics from Emory University and an MBA from the University of Chicago.