Eric Sager
person on 1 show · 12 statements across 1 episodes
On the record as a speaker too: Eric Sager across every show, appearances and statements → this page counts the times other people say the name.
12 statements about Eric Sager, every show
Sager: Seven or eight Plaid ICs now run $100M businesses
“And we have so many people at Plaid, right. That like have internally kind of shot through the ranks that have gone from like IC roles to now running a hundred million dollar businesses. And so I could literally name seven or eight people on my team that have …”
Sager: Hiring solely for domain expertise fails as domain advantages erode in 18 months
“But I think if that's the main reason you hire someone. I think that oftentimes doesn't work out because you end up overlooking like all these other things that are far more important in terms of like what that person's ceiling is. You know, I was a consultant…”
Sager: Reference calls often reveal executive candidates never met their buyers
“And even just like referencing, like in, in my world, like I oftentimes will talk to people that they sold to, right? So like you worked for X, you're trying to, you're coming to join Plaid, but I know people that you sold to. I'll go call them. I'll be like, …”
Sager: Candidates interviewing across disconnected hype sectors lack genuine product affinity
“Some simple things are just like, what other roles are you looking at? And like, why? Like what connects all of them? And I think if you get an answer to that, that's like, well, I'm looking at this company over here, like in AI, and then I'm looking at this o…”
Sager: Plaid COO allocates his calendar 50% business, 25% team, 25% ecosystem
“See, I probably spend like 20.25% of the time on like ecosystem health, probably 50% of the time on like business health, like again, working with customers and so forth, and then 25% on team.”
Sager: Plaid COO still personally sells to select enterprise customers
“So there's still like certain customers that I go sell with myself, right? Because I love doing it. I probably don't need to, right? That keeps me sharp, right? Like it's fun.”
Sager: The ultimate test of leadership is making yourself obsolete
“And in some ways, to me, that's like the ultimate asset test of, did you do a good job or not? And you know, my own lived experience is like, every time I've thought I've made myself useless and obsolete, like there's always been some new opportunity, right? T…”
Sager: Plaid intentionally avoids running at 100% capacity to preserve agility
“Hey, I really don't ever want to be at like right at a hundred percent capacity. I'm willing to pay for some inefficiency so that as the market evolves, as our product evolves, et cetera, like I have the capacity to kind of adjust to it in real time, much more…”
Sager: Unifying GTM functions under segment leaders boosted Plaid's CSAT and upselling
“So one thing that we did is we then created our segments. But then we put all the functions within the segment together so that the person leading the segment owned the entire end-to-end customer relationship, right? And so suddenly, even if it wasn't the exac…”
Sager: Fintech competitors that sacrificed precision for speed failed completely
“I think we've had competitors that sacrificed, you know, everything at the altar of speed and it didn't work out and it didn't, and not at all.”
Sager: The idea that faster execution is always better is nonsense
“I don't think it's fair to say that, Hey, no matter what the decision is or what you're talking about in the context of the business, that faster is always better. I think that's nonsense, right? And there's plenty of examples where you don't want to do that.”
Sager: Most toxic high performers reform when given direct, constructive feedback
“Once you say that to people, the vast majority of people I've ever worked with, Their reaction to this is, hey, Eric, thank you. I really appreciate you caring about me enough to give me that feedback. And then they do their best to course correct. And it migh…”