Unlocking the Power of Community at SaaStr: Lessons from the First-Ever CCO Summit

When you find your people, extraordinary things can happen. The most remarkable careers are built on the connections you make and the passion you put into learning.

Erica Anderson, CRO at Notion, Matt O’Conner SVP CS at Slack, Vanessa Gatihi, Head of Customer Success at OpenAI, Ishmeet Singh, CCO at Mulesoft, Abbas Haider Ali, VP of Customer Success at Github, Monica Perez, Head of Customer Success at Notion and Me, Founder and GP at Success Venture Partners.

Last week, 400 CCOs and VPs of Customer Success met at SaaStr Annual to learn and build community at the first-ever SaaStr CCO Summit. Jason M. Lemkin is one of the biggest proponents of Customer Success, and there are few platforms larger than SaaStr. Thank you to Jason, Amelia Ibarra, and the entire SaaStr team for trusting the Customer Success Meetup (Monica Perez, Junan Pang, and Success Venture Partners) with this massive responsibility!

Here are some of my takeaways:1. AI is increasing the pace of innovation. Finding product-market fit isn’t a checkbox; it’s a relentless pursuit. In the beginning, founder-led Customer Success locks in PMF, but as companies scale, Customer Success leaders need to play a massive role in keeping their company in PMF. No one in the company knows the customers better than Customer Success leaders, and we have a massive responsibility to ensure company-wide alignment around the needs of those customers. Mar Hershenson’s talk on Product-Market Fit was seminal for a lot of CS leaders!

2. The very best have incredible sales and Customer Success alignment. GitHub is growing 45% year-over-year even at $2B inside Microsoft, and Notion, 19 on the Cloud 100 and worth $10B — both have it. Abbas Haider Ali, VP of CS at GitHub, and Erica Anderson, CRO at Notion, gave a masterclass on the commercial responsibilities of Customer Success. There are lots of roles to play, but CS shouldn’t be shy when it comes to its revenue responsibility. NRR drives valuation—this is the metric of CS.

3. Customer Success will take on bigger responsibilities as AI takes hold. Relationships have always mattered, but they matter even more in a world where AI frees CSMs to build closer (and more) relationships with customers than ever before—service levels and expectations are rising. There’s a reason OpenAI is investing in Customer Success. Those who lean into and leverage this generational shift in technology will be rewarded. I could listen to Vanessa Gatihi speak all day—she’s setting the bar for what the next generation of exceptional CS leaders looks like. I am impressed!

4. The best Customer Success leaders invent and reinvent the motion of Customer Success. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all model for Customer Success. Leaders at the very top of their game, like Ishmeet Singh of MuleSoft and Matthew O'Connor of Slack, are exceptional first-principles thinkers. They put the ever-evolving needs of their customers at the center of the post-sales motion and build in a way that considers the stage of growth and strengths of their business.I can’t wait to reunite with all my Customer Success friends in New York in just a few short weeks!

Community and learning are everything! Go team CS!