People, every show

Alison Pickens

Founder and General Partner, Allison Pickens Ventures. On 1 show, 1 appearance. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.

investorexecutiveauthor@PickensAllison ↗LinkedIn ↗allisonpickens.com ↗

Allison Pickens helped define the customer success category as the former Chief Customer Officer and Chief Operating Officer at Gainsight, scaling the SaaS platform past $80M ARR. She co-authored The Customer Success Economy and now invests in early-stage B2B AI and SaaS startups.

What they said7 Shows1

Everything Alison Pickens said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.

a16z Insight

Pickens: Customer success must report directly to the CEO

“I think people are realizing that customer success needs to report directly to the CEO.”

Alison Pickens Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 0:54 a16z Podcast | The Rise of the CCO

a16z Insight

Pickens: NPS is not always correlated with revenue outcomes

“We found that NPS isn't always correlated with revenue outcomes.”

Alison Pickens Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 23:22 a16z Podcast | The Rise of the CCO

a16z Disclosure

Pickens: Gainsight does not set quotas for its customer success managers

“We don't have quotas for our CSMs at Gainsight.”

Alison Pickens Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 4:23 a16z Podcast | The Rise of the CCO

a16z Insight

Pickens: Recurring revenue requires distinct indicators for renewals, upsells, and advocacy

“We measure three different leading indicators of the three different types of revenue that you can drive in a recurring revenue business. So we've got a predictor of the renewal. We've got a predictor of upsell, which is actually the CSQLs, customer success qu…”

Alison Pickens Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 6:23 a16z Podcast | The Rise of the CCO

a16z Disclosure

Pickens: Gainsight bonuses CSMs on health scores, CSQLs, and customer advocacy

“For each of these three metrics, our CSMs have targets every quarter, so they're held accountable for moving a certain number of customers into the green level of the health score every quarter, achieving a certain number of customer success qualified leads, a…”

Alison Pickens Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 6:44 a16z Podcast | The Rise of the CCO

a16z Insight

Pickens: The SaaS sales model is an hourglass, not a funnel

“It's no longer a funnel. Actually, it's an hourglass”

Alison Pickens Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 12:14 a16z Podcast | The Rise of the CCO

a16z Insight

Pickens: CS leaders fail when they give up budget battles early

“My biggest mistakes over the past four years have been related to budget and giving up on a budget battle too early. You've got to prove that case that you're truly aligned to revenue.”

Alison Pickens Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 19:58 a16z Podcast | The Rise of the CCO

One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Alison's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.

Show	Role there	Eps	Statements	Record
a16zLEDGER	Founder and General Partner, Allison Pickens Ventures	1	7	—	full record on the a16z Podcast →