The Thread Podcast
The Thread Podcast explores the future of enterprise sales in the era of AI. Hosted by Justin Vandehey, founder of Thread, we bring together top sales leaders, enablement pros, and innovators shaping how go-to-market teams grow and win.Each episode dives deep into what’s changing in sales—from real-time AI coaching to modern revenue systems of action—and features actionable insights from CROs, RevOps leaders, startup founders, and the technologists building the next generation of tools. Whether you’re scaling founder-led sales or leading a global GTM team, you’ll walk away with new strategies to improve seller performance, accelerate...
PayFac as a Service: Why Attach Rate Beats Basis Points, with Caleb Avery (Tilled)
Caleb Avery started in payments at nineteen, knocking on doors in Greenville, South Carolina, selling terminals to small business owners. That run, followed by years of consulting and angel investing in vertical software, led him to found Tilled, the PayFac as a Service platform that gives software companies the economics and brand control of a payment facilitator without the registration, underwriting, audits, or compliance headcount.
In this episode, Caleb breaks down why the two default paths for embedded payments are broken: handing everything to Stripe and giving up the economics, or becoming a registered PayFac and taking...
"Frictionful" Payments and Why Your Money Should Slow Down Sometimes (with Michelle Beyo, Finavator)
Kicking off our Future of Finance series ahead of Money20/20, Justin sits down with Michelle Beyo, founder and CEO of Finavator, president of Open Finance Network Canada, and author of the newly launched Mastering the Future of Finance.
Michelle spent twenty years in telco, online shopping, and prepaid before running WeChat's first QR payment pilot in North America and realizing the future of finance was being built somewhere else. She walks through why she quit her corporate job, what Money20/20 Rise Up had to do with starting her company, and how she organized the entire fintech landscape...
3X, Then 3X Again: How AI Broke the Job Application (and How Willo Is Fixing It)
Hiring didn't break all at once. It broke one year at a time.
This week on the Thread Podcast, Justin sits down with Euan Cameron, CEO and co-founder of Willo, the global candidate screening platform built to make hiring faster, fairer, and more human. Euan walks through the year-by-year evolution from 2019 to today: remote work upending where companies hire, AI handing candidates a resume machine, employers responding with AI of their own, and application volume tripling, then tripling again, until both sides stopped trusting each other.
They dig into Willo's Insights product, which scores every...
Go-to-Network is Eating Go-to-Market, with The Swarm's Olivier Roth
Cold outreach is dying....so what replaces it? This week Justin sits down with Olivier Roth, co-founder & Chief Growth Officer of The Swarm, the go-to-network platform backed by HubSpot Ventures ($10M raised to date). The Swarm started as a network recruiting tool in 2021, but customers kept pulling it toward sales, and a category was born: go-to-network, using the combined relationships of your team, investors, advisors, and customers as the first motion in your funnel instead of going cold.
Olivier breaks down what go-to-network means in practice, how The Swarm became the "who knows who" data layer under...
The Voice Layer for Emerging Markets: Aethex AI's Co-founder and CTO Ayooluwa Odemuyiwa
Most voice AI startups today are thin wrappers on someone else's models. Ayooluwa Odemuyiwa went the opposite direction and built the entire stack.
In this episode, Justin sits down with the CTO and co-founder of Aethex AI, who along with co-founder Mariama is building the voice layer for emerging markets across Africa and the Middle East. This is the AI that banks, call centers, and telcos use to reach the customers a human team never could, and it's already running 17,000 calls a day.
Ayooluwa takes us through her path from Caltech physics to Meta to...
The Scarcity of Being Human: Catherine Blackmore, Oracle's Group VP of Customer Programs and Employee Success on CS in the Age of Agents
Catherine Blackmore has spent nearly two decades building the programs that wrap around technology, from the early days of customer success in 2007 to her current role as Group VP of Customer Programs and Employee Success at Oracle. In this episode she sits down with Justin to unpack what the discipline got right, what it got wrong, and what survives the shift to AI.
Catherine makes the case that the high touch model was right all along. It buys a company time to build its moat. But the obsession with the golden record, bridging every data silo, and...
Your Next Role Won't Be Posted, It'll Be Whispered — Andy Mowat
Andy Mowat has run RevOps at four unicorns, and between every role he's gone out and built something new. His latest is Whispered, an AI platform that helps top GTM execs build their careers through shared insights, warm introductions, and access to the roles that never get posted.
In this episode, Andy and Justin get into why the entire GTM tech stack is heading for a two-year rebuild, what the move to a data-warehouse-first model means for RevOps teams, and why smaller companies are suddenly more nimble than the enterprise. Andy shares hard-won lessons from scaling Culture...
You Can't Read the Label from Inside the Bottle
Justin sits down with Nils Vinje, business growth guide and longtime customer success leader, to talk about the single biggest thing holding most growing companies back: everything still depends on the CEO.
Nils spent the early part of his career on the leading edge of the customer success movement — convincing his first employer to ditch the "account manager" title back in 2011 — and has since coached hundreds of CS and CX leaders through the challenge of making their function legible to the rest of the organization. These days he works with CEOs and their leadership teams using the Pinn...
From Cisco to IBM: How Professional Services Became the Most Important Role in Enterprise Tech w/ Sanjay Pal, WW VP of Software Professional Services at IBM
Justin sits down with Sanjay Pal, Worldwide VP of Professional Services at IBM, to explore what it really takes to lead services at global scale and why the role is more strategically important now than ever before.
Sanjay draws on his journey from Cisco to Accenture to IBM to break down what has fundamentally changed about services delivery in the AI era, and what has stayed the same. He shares how IBM thinks about standardizing delivery across 16 global markets without sacrificing client experience, why the forward-deployed engineer model is gaining momentum, and how professional services leaders need...
From 265 Million Users to Enterprise Gold Standard: How Canva Scales GTM Without Losing Its Soul
Justin sits down with Jessica Chiew, Global Head of GTM Strategy and Operations at Canva, to unpack what it really takes to evolve from a beloved PLG product into a full-fledged enterprise sales machine without breaking what made it great.
Jessica shares how Canva navigates the complexity of multiple handoffs across a PLG-to-SLG journey, why time to value is everyone's job (not just CS), and how she's thinking about marrying product usage data, CRM structure, and conversational intelligence into something actually actionable.
Plus, both Justin and Jessica geek out on the AI and vibe coding m...
The 10 AM Revolution: How AI is Transforming the Marketer's Day w/ Allison Skidmore, Chief Customer Officer at Optimizely
Justin sits down with Allison Skidmore, Chief Customer Officer at Optimizely, the world's first operating system for marketing teams.
Allison brings a rich perspective shaped by stints at Adobe, Stackla, Gigya, and SAP across Asia Pacific before landing in the US to lead customer success at Optimizely. This episode explores how AI is fundamentally reshaping the marketer's daily workflow, what great onboarding looks like in an AI-native world, and what the CCO role must become as organizations race to stay ahead.
Episode Notes & Key Topics
1. Allison's Career...
Retention Isn’t Dead. It’s Just Getting Smarter. Brent Krempges, Chief Customer Officer at Gainsight
Brent Krempges, Chief Customer Officer at Gainsight, joins the show to unpack the next evolution of Customer Success in an AI-first world.
After 12+ years at Gainsight, from implementation to global pre-sales to CCO, Brent shares how CS is shifting from seat-based software to outcome-driven operating models. We dive into AI-driven health scores, renewal agents, sentiment analysis, and the looming “retention reckoning” facing AI-native companies.
Key Takeaways (Bullet Summary)
AI will elevate — not eliminate — the importance of services.Floor-Deployed Engineers (FDEs) signal a return to high-touch value realization.Health scores are getting smarter, but “watermelon accounts” wi...AI Didn’t Kill Premium Media. It Made It More Valuable. Elizabeth Herbst-Brady, CRO of Condé Nast
In this episode of the Thread Podcast, Justin Vandehey sits down with Elizabeth Herbst-Brady, Chief Revenue Officer of Condé Nast, to explore how one of the world’s most iconic media companies is navigating transformation in the age of AI.
Elizabeth shares lessons from her career spanning media, advertising, and technology, including leadership roles at Yahoo, Snap, and Viacom, and explains why trusted brands, human creativity, and editorial authority are becoming more valuable, not less, as AI accelerates content creation.
The conversation covers how Condé Nast is using AI resp...
Value Isn’t a Feature: Neal McCoy on Customer Success, AI, and the Post-Sale Moment That Matters
In this episode of the Thread Podcast, host Justin Vandehey sits down with Neal McCoy, VP of Customer Success and Professional Services at BigCommerce, to unpack where customer value most often breaks down after a deal is closed — and how companies can fix it.
Neal shares insights from nearly a decade building CS and PS at BigCommerce, explaining why customers don’t buy software to “solve problems,” but to make or save money. The conversation explores how unclear value realization creates friction during onboarding, why sales-to-CS handoffs fail, and how AI is reshaping customer success through better context...
Growing Up with RevOps: 13 Years Inside Integrate with Jared Myatt, RevOps at Integrate
In this episode of the Thread Podcast, Justin Vandehey sits down with Jared Myatt, Senior Director of Revenue Operations at Integrate, to explore what it really takes to scale RevOps over time. Jared shares his journey from early employee to RevOps leader, reflecting on key inflection points including acquisitions, private equity ownership, and enterprise growth.
They discuss how the definition of RevOps has evolved, why data must power decision-making (not just dashboards), how culture scales through honesty and curiosity, and why alignment across GTM teams ultimately comes down to communication—not tools. This is a mu...
Equity Is a Revenue Lever: Benjamin Roach on RevOps in the Incentives Economy
In this episode of the Thread Podcast, Justin Vandehey interviews Benjamin Roach, Director of Revenue Operations at Optio Incentives, to explore what it takes to build RevOps in the equity compensation and incentives space. Ben shares his “traditional” path from sales into RevOps, why he deliberately took a step back into a junior ops role, and how getting technical became a career unlock.
They dig into the complexities of selling and operating in equity management—where revenue can include ARR, transactional fees, and services, and where buyers span CFOs...
From PLG to Enterprise: Tyler Will on Building Modern GTM at Intercom
In this episode of the Thread Podcast, Justin talks with Tyler Will, VP of GTM Strategy & Ops at Intercom, about how modern revenue organizations are evolving in an era defined by AI, PLG-to-enterprise transitions, and go-to-market speed.
Tyler shares his journey from economic consulting and Bain, to GTM leadership at LinkedIn, to now scaling RevOps at Intercom. He breaks down the key differences between operating at a 20,000-person giant and a high-velocity SaaS company, why balancing PLG and enterprise sales motions requires intentional system and process design, and how Intercom rebuilt...
AI Is a Mirror, Not a Miracle: John Queally, Head of RevOps at Clari, on the Future of RevOps
Episode Summary
In this episode of the Thread Podcast, host Justin Vandehey sits down with John Queally, Senior Director of Revenue Operations at Clari, to explore how RevOps is evolving in the age of AI, and what it really means to build a data-driven go-to-market organization.
John’s career spans consulting, analytics at JP Morgan, leadership roles at American Express and Qualtrics, and now Clari — one of the companies that helped define modern RevOps. He shares how his early assu...
Building B2B at B2C Scale: Max Mozes on RevOps, Data Strategy, and the Walmart for Business GTM Motion
In this episode of the Thread Podcast, host Justin Vandehey sits down with Max Mozes, Director of Revenue Operations at Walmart for Business, to unpack what it takes to build a world-class B2B motion inside one of the world’s largest retail organizations.
Before joining Walmart, Max carried a quota as a seller, scaled local business teams at LevelUp (acquired by Grubhub for $400M), and held key operational roles at Amazon Business — giving him a unique perspective on how to connect frontline sales experience with...
Navigating RevOps in Healthcare with Chantel Hirschel, Head of RevOps at Sana
In this episode, Chantel Hirschel, Director of Revenue Operations at Sana, discusses the unique challenges and opportunities in the healthcare industry, particularly in revenue operations.
She shares insights on transitioning from traditional B2B SaaS to healthcare, the importance of HIPAA compliance, and the role of AI in rev ops. Chantel also offers advice for aspiring leaders in the field, emphasizing the importance of communication and strategic thinking.
Chapters
Introduction to Chantel Hirschel(0:00)Transitioning to Healthcare Rev Ops(3:00)AI and Automation in Rev Ops(9:00)Leadership a...Building sales strategies in sports and entertainment with Larry Peters, CRO of World of Dance
In this episode of the Thread Podcast, host Justin Vandehey speaks with Larry Peters, the Chief Revenue Officer of World of Dance.
They discuss Larry's extensive background in sales and marketing within the sports and entertainment industries, emphasizing the importance of understanding customer needs and the role of practice in sales.
Justin and Larry explores the integration of AI in sales strategies, particularly in enhancing team efficiency and customer engagement. Larry shares insights on building effective sales teams and the unique challenges of marketing to Gen Z consumers.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to La...
Breaking Barriers in Supply Chain: Kara Brown on GTM, AI, and The Revenue Engine
Summary
In this episode of the Thread Podcast, host Justin Vandehey speaks with Kara Brown, founder and CRO of Lead Coverage, about her journey in the supply chain industry, the importance of go-to-market strategies, and the impact of AI on sales technology. Kara shares insights from her book, 'The Revenue Engine,' and discusses the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in achieving significant revenue milestones. The conversation also delves into the intricacies of the supply chain ecosystem and the necessity for companies to adapt to technological advancements.
Takeaways
Kara Brown...The Future of Sales: AI and Human Connection with Karan Singh, SVP of GTM Operations & Strategy @ LaunchDarkly
In this episode of the Thread Podcast, host Justin Vandehey speaks with Karan Singh, SVP of Go-to-Market Strategy and Operations at LaunchDarkly. They discuss Karan's extensive background in various tech companies, the evolving role of AI in sales, and the importance of human connection in go-to-market strategies.
Karan emphasizes the need for productivity over leanness in sales organizations and highlights the challenges of training and developing sellers in a fast-paced environment. He also shares insights for new revenue operations professionals, stressing the importance of seller readiness and effective onboarding processes.
Takeaways
Rebranding the Bridge: The Thread Podcast Launch
In this episode of the Thread Podcast, host Justin Vandehey introduces his co-founders Jeremy Vandehey and Samuel Kenney as they discuss their journey in building Thread, a company focused on enhancing the go-to-market strategy for sales teams. The conversation explores the challenges of acquiring the first customer, aligning sales operations, and the importance of technology in sales. They delve into the future of sales technology, the role of AI in augmenting seller efficiency, and the competitive landscape of the sales industry. The episode concludes with insights on lessons learned from their experiences and the official launch of Thread.
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Building AI That Actually Works — Jessica Collier on Spot, Evernote, and the Future of Workplace Incident Management
In this episode of The Bridge, Justin sits down with Jessica Collier, CEO of Spot, and founding partner of All Turtles, to explore her journey from academia to building one of the most thoughtful AI-driven tools in the HR tech space.
Jessica was the first UX writer at Evernote, where she helped shape user experiences through words before it was a recognized craft. She later went on to co-found All Turtles, alongside Phil Libin (former Evernote CEO) and Jon Cifuentes, with a mission to build practical AI applications — long before th...
Selling phones out of a van to IPO with Brett Beveridge, Founder and CEO of T-ROC
Brett Beveridge, Founder & CEO of T-ROC, joins the show to share his journey from bouncer and bartender to building one of the largest retail operators in the U.S.
We dive into:
Oversharing, Privacy, and the Future of Messaging w/ Tessa Brown, CEO of Germ Network
Tessa Brown, Co-Founder and CEO of Germ Network, joins the show to talk about,
- Tessa's journey from Stanford writing professor to startup founder, the dangers of social platforms designed to maximize exposure, and why privacy should be the default, not the exception.
- How Germ lets users create multiple, compartmentalized identities
- The flaws of phone number–based messaging and the case for link-based connection, and her philosophy on building with integrity in a surveillance-based tech world
- Tessa’s experience fundraising from K5 Global and Mozilla Ventures
Building an audience, creating a movement w/ Jared Robin, Co-Founder of RevGenius
Jared Robin, Co founder of RevGenius and Audience Haus, joins the show to talk about
Jared's first sales job, cold calling office managers at FedEx to building a fashion blog with 10K monthly subscribers.The art of audience building, and how a LinkedIn group chat turned into an engaged 50,000 community What does it take for a B2B company to successfully build an audienceReflecting back on the presidential election and lessons learned in audience building.The trends of B2B SaaS companies purchasing media businesses and the future of enterprise content.Pitching Gary Vee a cooking show + the future of AI search with Chris Andrew, Co Founder and CEO of Scrunch AI
Chris Andrew, Co founder and CEO of Scrunch AI, joins the show to talk about
The evolution of search and consumer shift toward finding answers with AI.Building a marketing platform for an AI first customer journey.The opportunity for AI and Scrunch to audit search and help brands manage their identities in the era of AI.Reflecting on Chris leaving Intuit to work for Clara Shih at Hearsay, and what Chris learned from Clara as employee #3 at Hearsay that made him a better entrepreneur. A wild car ride with Gary Vee when Gary first launched Wine Library T...Patient Zero. Tatiana Fofanova, CEO of Koda Health on dogfooding her own product when her life depended on it.
Tatiana Fofanova, CEO and Co Founder of Koda Health, joins the show to talk about
From pediatrics to entrepreneurship, and Tatiana's experience as a founder in residence at Texas Medical Center (TMC)The intersection of the law and health, and building an advanced care planning tool that is patient centric.Becoming "patient zero" for Koda Health after being hit by a car and getting diagnosed with kidney cancer, all in the same afternoon. Designing Koda's go-to-market strategy in health care, and how Tatiana has thought about building out her team in a healthcare startup.No BS venture pitches & the art of the pivot with Conor McCarter, Founder of Prequel
Conor McCarter, Co founder of Prequel, joins the show to talk about:
The founding story behind Prequel, the YC experience, and pivoting during the program.Market overview on the state of data management and positioning of Prequel.The fundraising process for Prequel and importance of not beating yourself up as a founder and staying creative amidst the grind.Creating a voice & venture for those unable to speak with Dr. Maheen Mausoof Adamson, CEO of Soof Solutions
Dr. Maheen Mausoof Adamson, CEO and Co founder of Soof Solutions, joins the show to talk about
The intersection of neuroscience at Stanford and entrepreneurship, and path to founding Soof.Building Soof to help her father speak again after experiencing a stroke in 2007.The importance of timing and how Apple's advancements in hardware openned up the market for Soof.How Dr. Adamson worked with Stanford and the biodesign program to apply research and real patient interacton insights to build their venture.How to leverage your investors and advisors to complement your team's strengths.Protecting our kids online with Megs Shah, CEO and Founder of Parasol Cooperative
Megs Shah, CEO and Co founder of Parasol Cooperative, joins the show to talk about:
Surviving abuse and founding Parasol Cooperative to battle a growing, global, shadow pandemicKeeping our kids safe online, and the insights that led Megs to building her two products, SafeConnect and Ruth solutions overviewDiddy's downfall, the shift toward disconnecting and digital minimalism, and the responsibility of developers to consider safety of your end users up front.Creating Life at Home & a Founder's Journey in Infertility with Dr. Jennifer Hintzsche, Ph.D, CEO of PherDal
Dr. Jennifer Hintzsche, CEO and Founder of PherDal, joins the show to talk about:
- Dr. Hintzsche's personal story of being defined as "in-fertile", a $10,000 invoice for a solution to a problem that doctor's couldn't define, and how she used her PhD to prove those physician's wrong.
- The process of crowdfunding for PherDal and lessons learned by launching on their platform.
- Market sizing the fertility market, dealing with the FDA, and going from 0 to 1 in biotech.
Establishing "go-to-market" credibility + AI in sales w/ Daniel Saks, Co founder and CEO of Landbase
Daniel Saks, Co founder and CEO of Landbase, joins the show to talk about
- Growing up in an entrepreneurial family in the business of furniture and the insight that led to founding Daniel's first business, AppDirect.
- The importance of establishing "go-to-market credibility" before engaging in sales outreach.
- Daniel's experience fundraising for AppDirect, and most recently Landbase's $12.5M seed round.
- The importance of "founder-market" and "founder-product" fit.
Building a Pet Care empire with 10x Ironman and 3x founder, Alex Douzet, CEO of Pumpkin
Alex Douzet, CEO and co founder of Pumpkin, joins the show to talk about
- Building his first company Ollie, in the pet food and delivery space, and how doubling down on his experience in pet care and the "humanization of pets" led to founding Pumpkin
- Picking the brand name "Pumpkin" and the importance of building flexibility into what you ultimately call your business.
- The decision to focus on quality of care and alignment with the veterinary community to grow and scale Pumpkin.
- Unpacking the psyche behind a 7 ti...
A better way to pay employees + the Art of Focus w/ Nico Simko, CEO and Co-founder of Clair
In this episode Justin sits down with Nico Simko, the dynamic CEO and co-founder of Clair, a trailblazing company set on revolutionizing on-demand payroll. Nico shares an inspiring narrative from his beginnings as an economics tutor to spearheading a fintech powerhouse. We uncover how Clair smartly embeds on-demand pay within HR platforms, bypassing the conventional approach of targeting employers or employees directly. Nico also articulates the challenging yet rewarding journey of building Clair into a secure and compliant fintech solution, highlighting the crucial art of maintaining focus and discerning when to say no.
As we explore the...
Going from 0 to 1 internationally, w/ Tim Fung, CEO and Co founder of Airtasker
Tim Fung, Co founder and CEO of Airtasker, joins the show to talk about
How an apartment move led to the founding of Airtasker.How tasking and labor markets differ globally, and what this market looks like in Australia.How Airtasker is focusing on localization and community to differentiate from platforms like Fiverr and Upwork.Finding product, channel fit, and how Airtasker used regional media outlets to drive awareness in local markets to create local jobs.From Sesame Street to Startup with Dr. Lewis Bernstein, former Executive Producer of Sesame Street and Founder of 3G
Dr. Lewis Bernstein, Co founder of 3G and former executive producer for Sesame Street, joins the show to talk about:
Dr. Bernstein's early work at Sesame Street, working alongside Jim Henson, and how the mission and message of Sesame Street has evolved over time.The founding story of 3G and using multiple generations to help combat loneliness in our youth.Current state of children's programming and content. How it has evolved for better and worse. The future of early stage childhood educationElections need an upgrade. How we get there w/ Tad Milbourn, Founder of RankedVote
Tad Milbourn, Founder and CEO of RankedVote, joins the show to talk about
The momentum that's building around ranked choice voting. What it is, how it works, and why it's a better method of getting consensus.Lessons learned from Tad's first company, Payable, the YC experience, and navigating a successful exit and selling to Stripe."Upgrading state and federal elections". An election software market overview and current state of election reform at state and federal levels.Eliminating friction in the user experience to build stronger advocates for ranked choice voting. Tad's decision to start RankedVote as a solo fo...