Justin Strackany is an early stage software vet, investor, GTM executive, and worked as the first employee at SecureLink for a total of 18 years. Throughout his career at SecureLink, Justin played a multitude of different roles including Director of CSM, VP of Sales, and most recently as their Chief Customer Officer. Justin shares an impactful story at SecureLink that led his CEO to bring him in as an acquisition partner. Discussing the journey of an acquisition through a private equity firm and the pivotal decision of rolling his shares post acquisition.
What you’ll learn:
- Knowing your values when joining a company
- The benefits of startup learnings and acquisitions
- How to manage and level up in the private equity and venture capital space
- The importance of relinquishing control as a leader
- How to work within an executive team
- How to manage up to a board & private equity firm.
Highlights:
(3:05) Hot take on Bitcoin’s trajectory
(8:33) Building and starting out SecureLink as an Acquisition Partner
(16:12) Knowing what your equity equates to when joining a company
(19:05) What Justin implemented on the Go-to-Market front after being brought on
(21:20) Blind spots encountered post acquisition
(29:47) What Justin did to triple sales post acquisition
(32:10) Things to do to set yourself up for a CRO role
(35:57) Actionable ways to improve revenue retention
Quotes:
“If you don’t like to sit in meetings or you struggle iterating in the same concept, it’s not that you suck and somebody’s better than you, none of us are going to be great at everything.”
“One of the things i learned as a manager is that it’s really about your team, it’s not about you.”
“In sales, you gotta go slow to go fast.”
“I think it’s bullsh*t that we hire CS people for empathy and then we are shocked that they struggle with negotiations and renewals.”
The GTM Podcast
Don’t miss The .GTM Podcast dropping every Tuesday, discussing true stories and experiences including trials and tribulations in the Go-To-Market world.
And…monthly bonus podcast episodes dropping the first Thursday of every month.
