SHAWN LANKTON
Experience
CoreView (Microsoft 365 Management Platform - B2B SaaS, raised $40M from Insight Partners)
Chief Executive Officer
Nov 2020 - Nov 2023
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3.5x'd ARR from $8.5M to $30M while achieving positive cashflow and turning around retention, product, and relationships with channel partners and Microsoft:
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ARR Growth: from 30% to 50%; built channel-based GTM and Microsoft Relationships
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Efficiency: from burning $1M per month to cashflow positive with +12.5% BB-EBITDA
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Retention: from 75% gross retention to 94% with 115% NDR and +65 NPS
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Product: from a complex/disliked product (with great tech) to a streamlined, beloved, channel-ready/PLG-ready product with that ships with training/documentation
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Completed acquisition of SimeonCloud to fill gaps in product and boost MSP offering
MacStadium (Cloud IaaS for iOS development - DevOps tools provider, raised $65M from Summit Partners)
Chief Revenue Officer - Sales, Marketing, Customer Success
Jun 2017 - November 2020
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9x’d ARR from in 3 years: Built 20+ person revenue team; created structured, data-driven sales and marketing process; built tooling to enable new team; grew inbound while building outbound prospecting motion; closed multiple 7-figure deals
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Reshaped product portfolio: Launched new products, updated pricing/positioning in partnership with customers and internal dev team to accelerate growth and grow margins
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Co-led software acquisition: Acquired small software company that allowed us to integrate up the stack for improved customer experience and internal efficiency details
Diligent Corporation (Modern Governance SaaS - sold for $624M to Insight Partners)
Chief Marketing Officer - Global leader for all commercial operations
Jun 2015 - Nov 2016
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Successful Exit ($624M) with Insight Venture Partners (take-private); was retained post-sale to transition to new ownership and complete diligence for 3 pending acquisitions details
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Quadrupled revenue growth from 10% to 40%, by improving sales process and execution, upgrading messaging, and boosting demand generation
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Cut customer acquisition cost (CAC) in half by building an analytics capability to track ROI and relentlessly optimizing marketing channel and sales rep performance
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Led a 30-person global team (up from 15 at joining) spanning Sales Ops, Sales Development, Analytics, Product Marketing, and Lead/Demand Generation
McKinsey & Company (New York - Preeminent Management Consulting Firm)
Associate Partner in the Technology and Software practice
Jan 2010 - Jun 2015
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Co-founded McKinsey’s Growth Tech Practice, focused on creating rapid impact in growth-stage tech companies; led 20+ engagements with tech founders/CEOs while at McKinsey
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Built Software Practice with insights from Growth Tech and developed McKinsey’s first large software clients: projects focused on sales effectiveness, pricing, M&A, market entry
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Managed, developed, and mentored 50+ consultants and recruited dozens of PhD students as the leader for MIT recruiting and nation-wide PhD attraction programs
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Selected projects in sales effectiveness, pricing, M&A, and new market entry (40+ total)
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Tripled a storage startup’s valuation by rolling out “as a service” pricing that better fit market demand; company became a “unicorn” 9 months after rollout
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Streamlined startup’s go to market leading to a $614M exit via 3 quick projects to: optimize pricing, shorten sales cycles, and boost new logo acquisition
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Built post-acquisition integration plan for ecommerce startup including new comp plans, reporting structures, and product bundles to maximize sales effectiveness
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Georgia Institute of Technology
2001 - 2009
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Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering; August 2009 (highest honors)
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Research Focus: computer vision, control theory, differential geometry
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Funding: NSF fellowship (TI:GER); resulted in US Patent: 2,010,0091,104
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Developed computer vision software capable of detecting brain tumors and arterial plaque formations; resulted in 13 publications, a PhD thesis, and US Patent 8,155,405
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MS in Electrical Engineering, 2007; BS in Computer Engineering, 2005 (highest honors)
Interests: Hydroponic gardening, Tableau dashboards, weightlifting, building fires, and parenting 2 kids