SaaStr Podcast #222: Ben Braverman, Flexport CRO Discusses Why Specialization Does Not Lead To The Best Customer Experience
Update: 2019-04-03
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This post is by Harry Stebbings from SaaStr
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Ben Braverman is the CRO @ Flexport, one of the world’s fastest growing startups combining technology, infrastructure and expertise, to build the operating system for global trade. To date they have $1.35Bn in funding from some of the biggest and best in the business including Softbank’s Vision Fund, Founders Fund, DST, Susa Ventures and Y Combinator, just to name a few. As for Ben, he spearheads global sales and go to market teams. Prior to Flexport, Ben helped drive two high-growth companies to successful acquisitions: URX (acquired by Pinterest) and Heyzap (acquired by Fyber).
In Today’s Episode We Discuss:
- How Ben made his way into the world of startups and came to be CRO of one of the world’s fastest growing startups in the form of Flexport?
Why does Ben fundamentally disagree with the specialization of roles within SaaS companies? What does he believes this does to customer journey and relationship? How should one thing about role segmentation and allocation of accounts with this in mind? Where does Ben see many people going wrong here?
Why does Ben believe it is “total horseshit to say the best sellers don’t make the best managers”? What must founders try and figure out before hiring their sales leader? What are the leading indicators that suggest a sales rep has the ability to be a sales manager? How does Ben determine between a stretch VP and a stretch too far?
What does Ben mean when he says, “there are 3 distinct buckets of sales management”? What are they and what is their relationship between one another? Why does Ben believe one does not need sales management in the early days? What is the best way to train reps and determine payback period fast? Why does Ben believe sales ops is the most underappreciated role in the valley?
60 Second SaaStr:
- What does Ben know now that he wishes she had known at the beginning?
What is the optimal relationship between CRO and CEO?
What does Ben believe in SaaS that most around him disbelieve?
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Jason Lemkin
Harry Stebbings
SaaStr
Ben Braverman
Transcript
Harry Stebbings: We are back for another week in the world of SaaStr with me, Harry Stebbings, you can suggest both questions and guests for the show on Instagram at H Stebbings 1996 with two B’s and it would be so great to see you there. But to the show today and I have to say some guests, well, they’re just so brilliant that they just roll in this kind of stream of thought and consciousness. That’s just awesome for me to see and that very much is the case today as I’m thrilled to welcome Ben Braverman, CRO at Flexport, one of the world’s fastest growing startups, combining technology, infrastructure and expertise to build the operating system for global trade. To date, they have $1.35 billion in funding from some of the best and biggest in the business, including the likes of Softbank’s Vision Fund, Founder’s Fund, DST, our friends at Susa Ventures and Y Combinator. Just to name a few.
Harry Stebbings: As for Ben, he spearheads global sales and the go to market teams at Flexport and prior to Flexport, Ben helped drive two high growth companies to successful acquisitions. Both URX, acquired by Pinterest, and Heyzap, acquired by Fyber and I do also want to say a huge thank you to Ryan Peterson, founder and CEO at Flexport for the fantastic intro to Ben today. Ryan, I really do so appreciate that and mojitos on me to thank you for that.
Harry Stebbings: So now I’m very, very excited to hand over to the wonderful Ben Braverman, CRO at Flexport.
Harry Stebbings: Ben. It is absolutely fantastic to have you on the show today. I’ve heard so many great things from the main man, Mr. Peterson, so thank you so much for joining me today, Ben.
Ben Braverman: Oh yeah, of course. Thank you so much for having me. Ryan said wonderful things. I’ve obviously been listening to the show. Unbelievable what you guys are doing over here. So just thrilled to be a part of it. Thanks for having me.
Harry Stebbings: Well I bear a huge amount to Ryan, but I would love to kick off today with a little bit about you, Ben. So tell me, how did you make your way into the world of startups and come to be CRO for one of the fastest scaling, I think it’s eighth fastest scaling of all time in Flexport.
Ben Braverman: Yeah. Yeah, totally traditional story. Dropped out of Vassar College when I was 19. Went to India and volunteered and then wandered around wearing a blanket as pants for a few months. Ultimately came to the conclusion that as a lone individual could impact the world, not in quite in the way I wanted to. I decided, alright, let’s come back and start working on something bigger. So I came back to the US. Moved out to Silicon Valley. Got linked up with a guy who had taken a company public on the Frankfurt Exchange in the 80s. We ended up founding a company together called FortKnock, which was a touchscreen authentication system. Made every mistake under the sun, lost a little bit of angel money, but ultimately parlayed the whole thing into a job leading sales at Heyzap, which is one of the early YC companies.
Ben Braverman: I worked for Jude and Ahmad who, you’re a brilliant Brit. They are brilliant Brits. I worked for them for a little while. Helped them go from being a social network to an ad network. Some of the same investors ended up placing me at URX, which was sort of the deep linking standard of 2014. Raised a big round from Accel right out of the gates. Ultimately we sold to Pinterest. I met Ryan at the dog park. Like all great romcoms, our story starts the dog park, and I met Ryan Peterson and was just blown away by the almost clairvoyant nature, in retrospect, of his conviction. I don’t know if you know this about Ryan, Ryan’s previous company, ImportGenius dot com actually spits out money. He and his brother have done very well in that business and very few people in Silicon Valley build profitable companies. There’s lots of people who raise money. There’s lots of people who do things that are impressive in the press.
Ben Braverman: Very few actually profitable businesses. ImportGenuis is not only profitable, it’s never raised a dime of venture. To the these two brilliant brothers, they just effectively run it for the fun and for the cash that it spits off. So when I met Ryan though, he had totally abandoned this business. This is six, seven years ago at its height. ImportGenius was doing as well as it’s ever done. And I was just blown away that this person had walked away from such a massively profitable business that they owned all of. And I said, “Ryan, first of all, why didn’t you take any venture? Why didn’t you want to keep working on this business?” And he said, “Look, the terminal value of ImportGenius is zero.” And to have the resolve to sa
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