SaaStr Podcast #220: Leyla Seka, EVP @ Salesforce Mobile Discusses What Needs To Be In Place For Hyper-Scale
Update: 2019-03-27
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This post is by Harry Stebbings from SaaStr
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Leyla Seka is the executive vice president of the Salesforce Mobile platform experience. Over Leyla’s incredible 11 year journey with Salesforce she has seen the team scale from 1,800 to over 40,000 and revenue scale from $500m to over $16Bn. In Leyla’s role today, she leads the charge on extending the power of Salesforce with a full portfolio of mobile apps, and is responsible for driving product, go-to-market and other key programs around Salesforce’s mobile offerings. Prior to her current role, Leyla was executive vice president of the Salesforce AppExchange, where she launched a refreshed AppExchange storefront, a new partner program, and built an entire AppExchange-focused team, resulting in more than 4,000 solutions, installed nearly 6 million times. Beyond her day-to-day role, Leyla is also the executive sponsor of BOLDforce, Salesforce’s organization for expanding and empowering the black community at Salesforce.
In Today’s Episode We Discuss:
- How Leyla made way into the world of SaaS with Salesforce when it had 1,800 people and $500m in revenue.
What were Leyla’s biggest learnings on people and business model through seeing the first hand hyper-scaling of Salesforce from $500m to $16Bn? How did Leyla evolve and scale as a leader herself in those 11 years? What advice does Leyla give to young people considering whether to found a startup, join a startup or join a hyper-growth company?
Where do things start to break in the scaling of SaaS companies? What needs to be put in place to prepare for hyper-scale? What are the commonalities of where many founders go wrong in the scaling process?
What does Leyla mean when she says, “Growing up in product, you have to lead through influence?” How does Leyla think this influence can be created and maintained? How does Leyla think about the balance between effective influence and excessive influence?
Why does Leyla believe that, “You can teach skills but you cannot teach empathy?” What have been her learnings from scaling teams when it comes to hiring and detecting candidates with true empathy? What can one do to nurture that empathy in the culture of the company?
60 Second SaaStr:
- What does Leyla know now that she wishes she had known at the beginning?
What is the hardest element of Leyla’s role at Salesforce today?
What does Leyla believe in SaaS that most around her disbelieve?
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Jason Lemkin
Harry Stebbings
SaaStr
Leyla Seka
Transcript
Harry Stebbings: Welcome back to the official SaaStr podcast with me, Harry Stebbings. I always love to see you on Instagram where you can suggest both guests and questions for future episodes, and that’s on @HStebbings1996 with two Bs.
Harry Stebbings: But to our episode today, and my word, what an incredible individual and journey we have in store for you, because I’m so thrilled to welcome Leyla Seka. Leyla is the Executive Vice President of Salesforce Mobile Platform Experience. Over Leyla’s incredible 11 year journey with Salesforce, she’s seen the team scale from 1800 to over 40,000 and revenues scale from 500 million to 16 billion dollars. In Leyla’s role today though, she leads the charge on extending the power of Salesforce with a full portfolio of mobile apps, and is responsible for driving product, go to market, and other key programs around Salesforce’s mobile offerings. And prior to her current role, Leyla was the Executive Vice President of the Salesforce AppExchange, where she launched a refreshed AppExchange storefront, a new partner program, and built an entire AppExchange focused team, resulting in more than 4,000 solutions and installed nearly six million times.
Harry Stebbings: Beyond her day to day though, Leyla’s also the executive sponsor of BOLDforce, Salesforce’s organization for expanding and empowering the black community at Salesforce. And I do also want to say a huge thank you to Erica at New Relic for the fantastic intro today. I really do so appreciate that, Erica.
Harry Stebbings: But without further ado, I’m now thrilled to hand the mic over to Leyla Seka at Salesforce.
Harry Stebbings: Leyla, it is absolutely fantastic to have you on the show today. Having heard so many great things from Erica at New Relic, so thank you so much for joining me today, Leyla.
Leyla Seka: Thank you, Harry, I’m really excited to be here. I’ve been looking forward to this all week.
Harry Stebbings: Well you are far too kind, and flattery will get you everywhere, but let’s kick off today with a little bit about you. So tell me how did you make your way into the world of SaaS and come to be one of the leading execs as EVP of Mobile at Salesforce as you are today?
Leyla Seka: Well, it’s a funny story, actually. So after college I went into the Peace Corps and volunteered, and I lived in a teeny village in Mali, West Africa. And while I was living there, the internet happened. So when I came back, all my friends from college were driving BMWs, and I couldn’t rent a studio apartment without my parents cosigning. And so the internet had sort of boomed while I was living in a hut in the middle of West Africa.
Leyla Seka: So when I got back, I started looking for a job, and I sort of had two offers. I had one offer to go with this great Italian guy who was spinning off a technology from an Italian software company in an incubator in San Francisco. And the other job was to be an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. And I was talking to my dad, and he said, “I don’t think you’re an investment banker, Leyla,” which was good advice. So I went with the Italian guy, and then I learned how to do product management, and I went from company to company really focusing in on product management as a core skill, and then extending that into product marketing, and operations, and then eventually a full blown … the whole kit and caboodle.
Leyla Seka: So I ultimately ended up in Salesforce 11 years ago, and a lot of that was luck. I mean, definitely a lot of skill, but I was lucky I went to that great company early. And so when I started at Salesforce we were just around 1800 people or so, and around 500 million in revenue, and now we’re nearing 40,000 people and we’re … we just stepped about 16 billion. So it’s been quite a ride.
Harry Stebbings: My word, Leyla, listening to those stats, that is one incredible journey. But I do have to ask, and I couldn’t not start with this, in terms of some learnings from that, especially really applied to two verticals, people and business model. So what have been the biggest learnings for you? Let’s start on the people element. From seeing that firsthand scaling from 1800 to 40,000.
Leyla Seka: I mean, I t
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