Welcome to show 357 of the Data Driven podcast! This week, we welcome Luke Diaz to the show.

Luke has an impressive track record of scaling startups to staggering annual recurring revenues, and today, he's here to shed light on the pivotal role of customer success in growing a business. We'll dive deep into the intricacies of customer success management, its impact on subscription models, and the measurements that underpin it. Luke also shares personal insights into his daily habit tracking and the data-driven approach to setting quarterly goals.

But that's not all – Luke opens up about his journey from being a hedge fund manager to making a name in the software industry, cultivating unyielding ambition, and the significance of customer feedback in lieu of venture capital insights.

Show Moments

05:27 Marketing function has evolved, delivering value.

09:15 Companies need high retention to be successful.

13:34 Emphasizing the challenge of defining success in startups.

17:07 Analyze customer success, product strength, usage frequency.

20:01 Companies hesitant to invest in customer success.

24:38 VC interviews, cautionary tales, and relationship importance.

26:12 Caution to look at numbers in term sheets.

32:32 Entrepreneur achieves $100 million sale in 7 years.

34:13 Machine learning hype outweighs business value currently.

36:40 CSMs can upload public filings to chat GPT 4 for efficient reading.

39:47 Screenshots are simple, stable, and pervasively used.

43:34 Star Trek technology influencing modern innovations.

48:10 Recent recommended books on leadership and strategy.

50:22 Thank you to guest Luke Diaz, feedback appreciated.