//podcastplus.net/feed/how-we-got-there~f4b100bf Are you trying to get ahead in the Salesforce ecosystem and just wish someone would tell you what to do (and what not to do)?Join Mike Davis as he picks the brains of leaders at successful ISVs and people in the ecosystem to bring you insights you can use. Sun, 26 Jul 2026 17:59:55 +0000 https://anchor.fm/s/43739914/podcast/play/105400339/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-6-12%2F403782996-44100-2-275f9e2d4e7e5.mp3 I am joined by Blakely Graham , who is a board advisor to Left Main REI , host of the Not All Business Podcast , Founder and former CEO of TaskRay⁠ . This one was a long time coming. On a personal note, my time at TaskRay was some of my most formative. I found a balance while there between my previous experience of excellence with true work life balance and a focus on values that stays with me. I am so grateful that Blakely and team took a chance in hiring me for a role that I was almost kind of qualified for and her friendship since then. I'll do my best to summarize this episode, but it's more than worth a listen because I don't have enough characters to summarize it all. Blakely's Salesforce journey starts in 2001 and spans a ton of roles and experiences. We dig deep into her experience founding TaskRay 15 years ago in 2010 as Bracket Labs as one of the early ISVs on the AppExchange where VCs told her that her business was not investable and it was "a l... Mon, 14 Jul 2025 02:12:23 +0000 https://anchor.fm/s/43739914/podcast/play/105400339/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-6-12%2F403782996-44100-2-275f9e2d4e7e5.mp3 https://anchor.fm/s/43739914/podcast/play/104409732/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-5-25%2F402788629-44100-2-fcc6cd1430af3.mp3 I am joined by Heather Cooper , the COO at Baker Law Group and the former CEO at Cloud Coach . Heather and I didn't know each other when we competed against each other (TaskRay and Cloud Coach) but have gotten to know each other since, which has been really fun. She is starting a podcast with one of my favorite work people, Blakely Graham , that will launch later this year. While Heather was at Cloud Coach, they found a great talent pipeline by running an internship program recruiting heavily from the local university near their HQ, Colorado State in Fort Collins, CO. She shares lessons learned regarding sizing of that program. We talk about her experience working with Tequity advisors , who are a sell-side advisory firm, helped her navigate leading the process where Cloud Coach exited to private equity and how engaging early, way before they were ready to sell, was important along the way. Even though Heather is A lawyer, she isn't YOUR lawyer. With that in mind, he... Fri, 20 Jun 2025 14:45:05 +0000 https://anchor.fm/s/43739914/podcast/play/104409732/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-5-25%2F402788629-44100-2-fcc6cd1430af3.mp3 https://anchor.fm/s/43739914/podcast/play/103295749/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-4-27%2F401115389-44100-2-7a69282362ca2.mp3 I am joined by Sam Yarborough , the Chief Growth Officer at Invisory and a co-founder at Arcadia. Sam and I met at a New York World Tour years ago where she shared her experience at PFL and taking a much more focused approach to partnerships than is typical in the ecosystem. Treat partners (AEs, SEs, RVPs, SIs, etc.) like customers by leveraging the CRM to track activities for them and give them a great partner experience.  We talk about being like Tommy Boy and getting overly excited about things like Financial Services Cloud and Work.com when it was good for Salesforce but not necessarily good for us as ISVs. Salesforce can take more risks than small ISVs can with excitement with actionable advice around trusting but verifying stoke you hear from a single RVP. We touch on how ISVs should be thinking about their Agentforce strategy and how to test your approach to the new technology, but make sure it makes sense for your market and your resources. If you don’t have anything right now, that... Tue, 27 May 2025 21:33:55 +0000 https://anchor.fm/s/43739914/podcast/play/103295749/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-4-27%2F401115389-44100-2-7a69282362ca2.mp3 https://anchor.fm/s/43739914/podcast/play/82893465/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2024-1-19%2Fcd6ff16f-4a9e-9763-ca12-fa91170e4a3e.mp3 In today’s episode of How We Got There, I talk with George Kenessey who is the CEO of Appiphony . Appiphony is a Product Development Outsourcer (PDO) and more recently an ISV themselves with Drive Connect on the AppExchange. George is one of the best humans and business leaders in the ecosystem. This conversation took place wayyyy back pre-Dreamforce but I finally got around to releasing it and it’s one of the most insightful ones. George shares his experience of helping companies launch on the AppExchange over the last 15 years as well as their own apps, taking their learnings from the PDO world to their own AppExchange journey. He shares tips relevant to new ISVs going through the security process with Salesforce and then moves into GTM lessons from launching Drive Connect. They designed a PLG motion on the AppExchange, including building a way for customers to sign up for a trial and ability to purchase via Stripe on the backend. The best gtm motion they have found is writing specific cont... Mon, 19 Feb 2024 18:14:15 +0000 https://anchor.fm/s/43739914/podcast/play/82893465/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2024-1-19%2Fcd6ff16f-4a9e-9763-ca12-fa91170e4a3e.mp3 https://anchor.fm/s/43739914/podcast/play/75558835/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2023-8-6%2F10f640d1-61e5-18cb-70e8-e8fd567d7f80.mp3 In today’s episode of How We Got There, I talk with Stephanie Betters who is the Founder and CEO of Left Main REI . Left Main REI is an OEM and (now) ISVforce partner of Salesforce focused on building for companies in the real estate vertical. As a fellow SUNY alum, it was great to hear Stephanie’s story of how she stumbled her way into the Salesforce ecosystem. As many founder stories go, she created Left Main REI after experiencing challenges (and an expensive SOW) in building out Salesforce to fit her business needs. After realizing what she built had a market need in the Salesforce ecosystem, she started working with the Salesforce partnerships team and successfully launched after security review was completed. She shares why she decided to enter both an ISVforce and OEM agreement with Salesforce and where she’s found success in co-selling with Salesforce AEs with a clear way to help them. Now they have over a hundred customers, when they started Stephanie relied heavily on her network an... Fri, 08 Sep 2023 00:41:00 +0000 https://anchor.fm/s/43739914/podcast/play/75558835/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2023-8-6%2F10f640d1-61e5-18cb-70e8-e8fd567d7f80.mp3 https://anchor.fm/s/43739914/podcast/play/75557624/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2023-8-6%2F1b7b8db6-bdd0-24eb-06ed-6eaa9ceccb3a.mp3 In today’s episode of How We Got There, I talk with Andrew Walker , who is the Founder at Sanitas Accounting . I consider Andrew a friend after our time together at TaskRay where he was our full-time CFO after starting as a fractional CFO. His business is now focused on helping smaller software companies with accounting and finance so they can focus on running their business. We reminisce about our learnings alongside each other at TaskRay (where I headed up sales along with other revenue activities) from when he joined the business, including what he worked on in the first 90 days. Andrew shares how he optimized TaskRay’s cash position as we entered the start of the pandemic by incrementally improving our accounts receivable process, including moving our payment terms from Net 30 to Net 7. This created a give-get scenario for our sales team and helped us in our negotiation….in the rare cases when someone actually pushed back! Other topics include legal agreement best practices around wh... Wed, 06 Sep 2023 17:41:41 +0000 https://anchor.fm/s/43739914/podcast/play/75557624/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2023-8-6%2F1b7b8db6-bdd0-24eb-06ed-6eaa9ceccb3a.mp3 https://anchor.fm/s/43739914/podcast/play/73028095/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2023-6-5%2Fe73332d4-d709-7cb9-7422-432e2d5c874b.mp3 In today’s episode of How We Got There, I talk with Jason Hoult , who is the President at Anvil App Works . We talk about the origin story of the business solving problems for his own business before launching as an OEM of Salesforce for a very specific niche. I am consistently inspired by the quality of businesses like Anvil App Works that can be built with an intentional focus like Jason and his team have done. As he puts it, “an overnight success, five years in the making”. Jason shares how building the business bootstrapped helped them at the start then moved to raise a round to facilitate growth by investing in employees slightly before they needed that person. Anvil App Works runs the EOS model to help the company stay focused and execute at a higher level, even helping define their initial target market of John Deere distributors to grow intentionally and learn the market. Since then they have widened to other distributor type organizations to expand their TAM. Jason also shares how the... Wed, 05 Jul 2023 16:27:58 +0000 https://anchor.fm/s/43739914/podcast/play/73028095/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2023-6-5%2Fe73332d4-d709-7cb9-7422-432e2d5c874b.mp3 https://anchor.fm/s/43739914/podcast/play/68016999/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2023-3-5%2F4a088f4f-58e2-7b5c-07e9-c2941c8bb0b0.mp3 In today’s episode of How We Got There, I talk with Sam Yarborough ,  (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-yarborough-a96b3326/) who is the SVP of Partnerships at PFL (https://www.linkedin.com/company/pflcom/). We talk about rebooting a partnership program but starting with working on their Trailblazer partner score to build momentum and aligning closely with their Partner Account Manager (PAM) to build deep rapport. From there, they started diving deeply into an industry-specific approach vs. just having a horizontal message. Sam and team has built an impressive solution in their instance of Salesforce to track partnerships with Salesforce and SIs in a scalable manner. All Salesforce AEs are now tracked and treated as customers, with marketing focus included. Resources: Website: ⁠ https://www.pfl.com/ Sam’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-yarborough-a96b3326/ This episode is brought to you by Tequity Advisors, a global sell-side M&A advisory firm with core expertise i... Wed, 05 Apr 2023 14:26:23 +0000 https://anchor.fm/s/43739914/podcast/play/68016999/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2023-3-5%2F4a088f4f-58e2-7b5c-07e9-c2941c8bb0b0.mp3 https://anchor.fm/s/43739914/podcast/play/67503187/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2023-2-29%2Fcfd2ccf0-0513-5fdf-a845-832a18ad0347.mp3 In today’s episode of How We Got There, I talk with Cynthia LeCornu  ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/cynthialecornu/ ) who is the Global Leader Salesforce Alliance at Avalara ( https://www.linkedin.com/company/avalara/ ). We talk about aligning to Salesforce’s Customer360 vision, SI partnerships in the ecosystem, how to drive your ISV partner score, and more. Cynthia brings a great energy and depth of experience to her partnerships.  Here’s a closer look at the episode: 1:30 What Avalara does and Cynthia's role  2:20 How did your experience inform your approach at Avalara or working with SI as an ISV? 3:30 Can you give an example to folks who are listening to what    a mutual SI goal might be? 4:39 What's the best go to market program you've ever created or the team's created? 6:16 What are you most proud of that you've accomplished? 7:08 What's a mistake that you've made along the way? 9:15 How you think about prioritization when everything could be a good opportunity? 1... Wed, 29 Mar 2023 01:33:40 +0000 https://anchor.fm/s/43739914/podcast/play/67503187/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2023-2-29%2Fcfd2ccf0-0513-5fdf-a845-832a18ad0347.mp3 https://anchor.fm/s/43739914/podcast/play/64796004/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2023-1-9%2F7f806d45-7fd9-2aa9-c5b6-840098717ca2.mp3 Before we hop in, thank you for your support on our journey. GTM Guides is now part of InVisory ! (https://home.invisory.co/press-release) In today’s episode of How We Got There, I talk with Tal Frankfurt , who is the founder and CEO of Cloud For Good . He shares his journey to the Salesforce ecosystem and to the the US from the early days of Salesforce consulting, starting 13 years ago. Cloud For Good is a Salesforce SI focused on Non-profits, higher ed, and more that now has over 200 employees on their team, Tal is passionate about helping unlock talent by upskilling people to add to the ecosystem with a focus on diverse candidates via apprenticeships with Talent For Good . If you are looking for diverse, well-trained talent please check out Talent For Good. He shares his thoughts on partnering with ISVs from an SI’s point of view. Cloud For Good has over 20 ISV partners listed on their website. First and foremost, does it solve a problem for his clients. Next he evaluates their technology... Thu, 09 Feb 2023 22:54:38 +0000 https://anchor.fm/s/43739914/podcast/play/64796004/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2023-1-9%2F7f806d45-7fd9-2aa9-c5b6-840098717ca2.mp3