SHAWN LANKTON

Experience

Chief Executive Officer

July 2024 - Present

Chief Executive Officer

Nov 2020 - Nov 2023

3.5x'd ARR while achieving positive cashflow and turning around retention, product, and relationships with channel partners and Microsoft:
- >40% ARR Growth: Built channel-based GTM and Microsoft Relationships
- Efficiency: from burning $1M per month to cashflow positive with >10% EBITDA
- Retention: from 75% gross retention to 94% with 115% NDR and +65 NPS
- Product: from a complex/disliked product (with great tech) to a streamlined, beloved, channel-ready/PLG-ready product with that ships with training/documentation
Doubled team from 60 to 125 talented individuals in a remote-first performance and metrics-driven culture
Completed acquisition of SimeonCloud to fill gaps in product and boost MSP offering details

Chief Revenue Officer - Sales, Marketing, Customer Success

Jun 2017 - November 2020

9x’d ARR: 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
Reshaped product portfolio: Launched new products, updated pricing/positioning in partnership with customers and internal dev team to accelerate growth and grow margins
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

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
Quadrupled revenue growth from 10% to 40%, by improving sales process and execution, upgrading messaging, and boosting demand generation
Cut customer acquisition cost (CAC) in half by building an analytics capability to track ROI and relentlessly optimizing marketing channel and sales rep performance
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

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
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
Managed, developed, and mentored 50+ consultants and recruited dozens of PhD students as the leader for MIT recruiting and nation-wide PhD attraction programs
Selected projects in sales effectiveness, pricing, M&A, and new market entry (40+ total)
- 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
- 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
- Built post-acquisition integration plan for ecommerce startup including new comp plans, reporting structures, and product bundles to maximize sales effectiveness

Georgia Institute of Technology

2001 - 2009

Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering; August 2009 (highest honors)
- Research Focus: computer vision, control theory, differential geometry
- Funding: NSF fellowship (TI:GER); resulted in US Patent: 2,010,0091,104
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
MS in Electrical Engineering, 2007; BS in Computer Engineering, 2005 (highest honors)

Interests: Hydroponic gardening, Tableau dashboards, weightlifting, building fires, and parenting 2 kids

Resume: Text