Beyond Revenue – Narratives of Revenue Leaders [with Michael Jäger]

Cremanski and Company
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20 minutes. One GTM leader. Real wins, real fails, zero filler. Beyond Revenue is the weekly show for B2B leaders who want practical insight from the people actually in the arena, across sales, marketing, RevOps, and the C-suite. Host Michael Jäger keeps it honest and specific so you leave every episode with at least one thing worth trying. Like what you hear? Follow the show, share it with your team, and leave us a rating ✨ Want to submit a guest speaker request or be invited on the show yourself? Get in touch at: beyondrevenue@cremanski.com

  1. 6d ago

    From CFO to CEO: How Financial Thinking Shapes Better SaaS Leadership - with Rut Steinsen

    How does a CFO think differently when they become CEO? Rut Steinsen, CEO of SimplyBook.me, joins Michael Jäger to discuss how financial discipline, operational efficiency, and long-term strategic thinking influence leadership in a growing SaaS company. Having started her journey as CFO before stepping into the CEO role, Rut shares practical lessons on scaling teams, aligning departments, measuring what matters, and making better decisions with a financial lens. In this episode: ✌️ Win #1 — Data-driven marketing allocation: how SimplyBook.me used performance measurement to identify that Google Search dramatically outperformed Display campaigns and reallocated budget accordingly. ✌️ Win #2 — AI-powered customer support: how an in-product AI assistant reduced support demand while helping customers discover and use more of the platform's 70+ features. 🌱 Fail — Voice booking before its time: why SimplyBook.me launched voice-based appointment booking years before AI made the experience intuitive, and what they learned about timing innovation to market readiness. Whether you're a SaaS founder, CEO, CFO, operator, or revenue leader, this episode offers a practical framework for combining financial thinking with strategic leadership to build a more resilient business. Connect with Rut: 🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rutsteinsen/ 🔗 SimplyBook.me: https://simplybook.me 🎙️ Beyond Revenue is hosted by Michael Jäger, Managing Partner at Cremanski & Company. New episodes every Friday. ⏱️ Episode Timestamps 00:00 — Intro & Rut's background01:13 — Transitioning from CFO to CEO03:05 — Finance and strategy in SaaS leadership04:51 — Banking lessons applied to company building05:54 — Workshop-driven strategy and team ownership09:23 — Win #1: Google Search vs Display advertising12:04 — Win #2: AI assistant for customer support14:02 — The fail: launching voice booking too early15:46 — Key lessons for SaaS operators18:38 — Where to connect with Rut

    From CFO to CEO: How Financial Thinking Shapes Better SaaS Leadership - with Rut Steinsen

  2. Aug 7

    The Modern Sales Leader: Scaling Revenue Through Culture, EQ and Internal Alignment — with Crevan O'Malley

    You can have the best pipeline methodology in the market. If your culture is broken, it won't matter. Crevan O'Malley, VP Upmarket Sales and MD EMEA at HubSpot — leading 2,700+ people across mid-market, corporate, and channel — joins Michael Jäger to unpack what it takes to build a high-performing sales organisation when the market is harder, procurement cycles are longer, and the noise has never been louder. In this episode: ✌️ Win #1 — Pipeline hygiene as a leadership discipline: why a clean pipeline beats an optimistic one every time, and how to build a team culture where deals get called honestly, not carried on hope. ✌️ Win #2 — Signal over noise: how staying genuinely close to customer conversations (even as a senior leader) gives you better insight than any dashboard. 🌱 Fail — When leadership gets in the way: the hard reflection on how good intentions — more reviews, more sessions — can sometimes become a tax on the people doing the actual selling. If you lead a sales team or run a GTM motion, this episode gives you a sharp, honest look at the leadership behaviours that drive real performance, from someone doing it at scale. Connect with Crevan: 🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/crevanomalley/ 🔗 HubSpot: https://www.hubspot.com 🎙️ Beyond Revenue is hosted by Michael Jäger, Managing Partner at Cremanski & Company. New episodes every Friday. ⏱️ Episode timestamps 0:00 — Intro & Crevan's background 3:00 — What modern B2B sales demands right now 7:30 — The human side of change management in technology adoption 12:00 — Trust as infrastructure in the agentic era 17:00 — HubSpot's open-by-design platform strategy 20:30 — Win #1: Pipeline hygiene as a leadership discipline 25:00 — Win #2: Signal over noise 29:00 — Fail: when leadership gets in the way 32:00 — Key takeaways & cross-functional alignment 36:30 — Where to find Crevan

    The Modern Sales Leader: Scaling Revenue Through Culture, EQ and Internal Alignment — with Crevan O'Malley

  3. Jul 31

    Marketing Brain, Revenue Seat - with Nick Geurds | Beyond Revenue S.3 Ep. 14

    Most CROs came up through sales. Nick Geurds came up through marketing and built revenue engines most sales leaders can't replicate. Nick Geurds, CRO at Datamaran and former CCO at Lepaya (7→40M ARR), joins Michael Jäger to unpack what happens when a marketer carries the number. The edge it creates. The blind spots it hides. And the costly ICP mistake that took over a year to recover from. In this episode: ✌️ Win #1 — The signal-driven ABM engine: how Nick built one of the first scalable, personalised ABM programmes across 3,000+ named accounts — before AI made it easy — and watched close rates climb from 15% to 30%+. ✌️ Win #2 — Unbundling a $250K suite: how Nick cut sales cycles from 9 months to sub-3 months by going land and expand — and had the tense board conversation to prove it was worth it. 🌱 Fail — The ICP expansion that looked like growth: why moving from enterprise to mid-market at Lepaya generated four months of record bookings — then triggered a retention crisis that redirected the entire team away from new business. If you're scaling a revenue motion and wondering whether your ICP is built to last or just built to close fast, this episode is for you. Connect with Nick: 🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickgeurds/ 🔗 Datamaran: https://www.datamaran.com 🎙️ Beyond Revenue is hosted by Michael Jäger, Managing Partner at Cremanski & Company. New episodes every Friday. ⏱️ Episode Timestamps 00:00 — Intro & Nick's background 01:07 — What's keeping Nick up at night at Datamaran 02:32 — What pulled a CMO into the CRO seat 03:45 — Selling ESG software in one sentence 05:18 — What nobody warned Nick about 08:27 — Win #1: The signal-driven ABM engine (15% → 30%+ close rates) 11:10 — The real lesson: make a plan, stick to the plan 12:45 — Win #2: Unbundling a $250K suite (9 months → sub-3 month cycles) 14:11 — Why land and expand builds lifetime value, not just revenue 15:18 — The Fail: ICP expansion that looked like growth 19:09 — Understanding business behaviour before you scale 21:30 — Key takeaways

    Marketing Brain, Revenue Seat - with Nick Geurds | Beyond Revenue S.3 Ep. 14

  4. Jul 29

    Leading Through Complexity: Scaling Growth Across EMEA in the AI & Security Era - with Petra Jenner

    EMEA isn't one region. It's many, each at a different stage of technology adoption, investment maturity, and cultural business logic. Leading growth across all of them at once is one of the hardest leadership challenges in enterprise sales. Petra Jenner, GM and SVP EMEA at Splunk, joins Michael Jäger to share what it actually takes to scale a complex enterprise organisation across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, in a market where AI is accelerating faster than most companies can protect themselves from it. Previously CEO of Microsoft Austria and Switzerland, and a senior leader at Salesforce, Petra brings decades of hard-won operational experience to a conversation that goes well beyond theory. In this episode: ✌️ Win #1 — One common vision of success: how Petra aligns organisations spanning dozens of markets and cultures around a single mission statement and why this one structural decision consistently outperforms every tactical initiative she's seen. ✌️ Win #2 — The courage to stop and rebuild: how Petra identified a go-to-market motion that was producing results — just not enough of them — paused it entirely, redesigned the partner engagement model from scratch, and is now leading globally with an initiative other regions are following. 🌱 Fail — Going broad with partners instead of deep: why an ambitious system integrator strategy that looked right on paper spread the team too thin, produced cherry-picking instead of traction, and taught Petra that depth with fewer partners consistently beats breadth with many. If you lead a regional or multi-market organisation — or you're trying to scale an enterprise GTM motion across cultures, continents, and complexity — this episode gives you the leadership framework and operational honesty you won't find in a management textbook. Connect with Petra: 🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petrajenner/ 🔗 Splunk: https://www.splunk.com/ 🎙️ Beyond Revenue is hosted by Michael Jäger, Managing Partner at Cremanski & Company. New episodes every Friday. ⏱️ Episode timestamps 00:00 — Intro & Petra's background 00:47 — What makes EMEA uniquely complex to scale 03:30 — Leading at the intersection of AI, data and security 06:03 — How AI is exposing companies faster than they can protect themselves 06:49 — Balancing standardisation vs local autonomy across EMEA 10:11 — Why control through KPIs beats control through micromanagement 11:43 — Win #1: Creating one common vision of success 13:46 — Why mission statements work — and why teams are sceptical at first 14:35 — Win #2: The courage to stop, rebuild, and lead globally with a new model 16:25 — Redesigning the partner go-to-market from scratch 17:21 — The fail: going broad with system integrators instead of deep 19:01 — What Petra would do differently — fewer partners, much more depth 20:00 — Key takeaways 22:00 — Closing

    Leading Through Complexity: Scaling Growth Across EMEA in the AI & Security Era - with Petra Jenner

  5. Jul 17

    How Marketing Teams Change Their Ways of Working with AI - with Johanna Fagerstedt

    Most marketing teams bolt AI onto existing workflows and call it transformation. The teams actually moving fast have changed how they operate entirely. Johanna Fagerstedt, fractional CMO, board member, former CMO at Mentimeter, joins Michael Jäger to break down what AI-native marketing actually looks like in practice. With 16+ years scaling B2B SaaS internationally and a podcast dedicated to going under the hood of AI-native companies, Johanna brings honest, specific perspective on where AI genuinely changes the game and where it quietly destroys trust. In this episode: ✌️ Win #1 — Ship fast, learn faster: how Johanna launched a full podcast in hours by treating "good enough and live" as the real standard — and why that mindset beats perfection every time ✌️ Win #2 — The AI-built website: how she rebuilt her entire online presence in Claude, starting from first-principles positioning, with no CMS and no agency — and an AI agent optimising it daily. 🌱 Fail — Trusting AI with something that needed a human: she sent a colleague an AI-generated meeting summary without reviewing it. It was full of hallucinations. The colleague was upset and trust took a hit. Whether you lead marketing, run a GTM function, or are figuring out how to actually operate in an AI-native world, this episode gives you a concrete, honest look at what works — and what happens when you hand off too much too fast. Connect with Johanna: 🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johanna-fagerstedt/ 🎙️ AI Native Marketer Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/13AYYwOR5xql9h23jNXLtD?si=d50dae5f17634c63 🎙️ Beyond Revenue is hosted by Michael Jäger, Managing Partner at Cremanski & Company. New episodes every Friday. ⏱️ Episode timestamps 00:00 — Intro & Johanna's background 01:48 — How AI is changing the way marketing operates 03:45 — When Johanna first saw AI's real potential (2020) 06:00 — Win #1: Launching a podcast the AI-native way 08:04 — The tools and process behind it 10:00 — Win #2: Building a website entirely in Claude 13:00 — Why first-principles positioning matters more than ever 15:00 — The fail: AI hallucinations in a sensitive 1-to-1 summary 17:53 — Why trust is the new capital in B2B 20:26 — The human work AI can't replace 23:25 — Key takeaways

    How Marketing Teams Change Their Ways of Working with AI - with Johanna Fagerstedt

  6. Jul 10

    Value Before Demand: Building Brand Preference in B2B - with Audrey Digonnat

    Most B2B marketing is built to capture demand. But what if your buyers won't be ready for seven years? Audrey Digonnat, CMO at Asys and former Google product marketing leader, joins Michael Jäger to break down why brand preference isn't a vanity metric: it's tomorrow's pipeline. With experience scaling product marketing at fintech unicorn Agicap and launching Google Pixel in France, Audrey brings a rare combination of product depth, enterprise GTM instinct, and an honest relationship with what doesn't work. In this episode: ✌️ Win #1 — Brand preference as a pipeline strategy: how Audrey builds relevance and trust with buyers years before they're ready to buy — using niche expert partnerships, a €500 WhatsApp community post that generated two leads, and a talk show format that turns Asys into a trusted media brand. ✌️ Win #2 — Customer success under marketing: why Audrey moved her CS team inside the marketing organisation — unlocking nearly €100K in ARR, turning passive customers into active promoters, and making word of mouth a channel you can actually influence. 🌱 Fail — Paid ads that captured but didn't create: why a significant investment in paid advertising delivered brand search results but failed to generate new demand — and the deliberate decision to pause, re-skill, and come back later. If you lead marketing or GTM in B2B — especially in enterprise or long-cycle environments — this episode reframes where your pipeline actually comes from and how far in advance you need to start building it. Connect with Audrey: 🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/audrey-digonnat/ 🔗 Asys: https://www.asys.fr/ 🎙️ Beyond Revenue is hosted by Michael Jäger, Managing Partner at Cremanski & Company. New episodes every Friday. ⏱️ Episode timestamps 00:00 — Intro & Audrey's background 01:03 — From Google Pixel to B2B SaaS: Audrey's career path 03:52 — Biggest challenge right now: pipeline predictability and agentic AI 05:43 — The B2B marketing trend Audrey doesn't follow 06:17 — The Google principle that still guides her today: know the user, know the magic 07:59 — Win #1: Brand preference as a pipeline strategy 09:44 — Niche expert partnerships and the €500 WhatsApp post 11:41 — Leveraging company DNA to win a seven-figure deal 15:25 — How brand preference lowers your cost of acquisition over time 16:47 — Win #2: Customer success inside the marketing organisation 18:57 — Nearly €100K ARR unlocked — without pushing for it 20:45 — Why closing the deal is not the finish line 21:45 — The fail: paid ads that captured but didn't create demand 22:07 — Knowing when to pause and reshape the budget 23:06 — Key takeaways 24:03 — Where to find Audrey

    Value Before Demand: Building Brand Preference in B2B - with Audrey Digonnat

  7. Jul 3

    From Finance to Growth Engine: How CFOs Drive Revenue Transformation - with Robert Checchia

    Most CFOs are hired to control costs. The best ones quietly become the most important growth driver in the room. Robert Checchia, CFO at Benzinga — one of the most-read financial media and data businesses in the US — joins Michael Jäger to break down what modern CFO leadership actually looks like when it's pointed at growth. With a background spanning investment banking, private equity, and hands-on operations, Robert brings a rare combination of financial rigour and operator instinct to the conversation. In this episode: ✌️ Win #1 — Rebuilding the P&L by revenue stream: how Robert restructured financial reporting away from department silos into a business-line view — unlocking real CAC, true contribution margin, and smarter resource allocation across every revenue line. ✌️ Win #2 — Pricing as a growth lever and a calculated bet on Asia: why pricing is the most underrated lever in SaaS and media, and how a data-backed decision to launch in Asia became Benzinga's fastest-growing business two years later. 🌱 Fail — Over-engineering the model: why Robert's instinct to build rigorous, sophisticated financial models repeatedly created more noise than clarity — and what the 80/20 rule taught him about the real purpose of analysis. If you're a CFO, founder, or revenue leader trying to connect financial strategy to actual growth — this episode gives you the operating principles that make the difference between a controller and a true growth partner. Connect with Robert: 🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-g-checchia-cfa/ 🔗 Benzinga: https://www.benzinga.com/ 🎙️ Beyond Revenue is hosted by Michael Jäger, Managing Partner at Cremanski & Company. New episodes every Friday. ⏱️ Episode timestamps 00:00 — Intro & Robert's background 01:42 — What Benzinga does and who it serves 04:00 — The metric most founders and MDs get wrong: blended CAC 05:25 — Investment banking vs CFO — which prepared him better for real growth? 07:07 — Win #1: Rebuilding the P&L by revenue stream 09:24 — How business leaders started coming to finance with ideas 10:18 — Win #2: Pricing as an underrated growth lever 12:30 — The calculated bet on Asia — and why it paid off 13:29 — The fail: over-engineering models and forecasting 15:20 — The 80/20 rule applied to financial analysis 16:10 — Key takeaways: behaviours follow incentives 19:27 — Where to find Robert

    From Finance to Growth Engine: How CFOs Drive Revenue Transformation - with Robert Checchia

  8. Jun 26

    Building and Scaling a New Market: Lessons from Launching DACH for a Global AdTech - with David von Hilchen

    Entering a new market looks exciting from the outside. Inside, it's credibility gaps, unknown brands, and hiring battles where no one's heard of you yet. David von Hilchen, Director of Sales and Country Lead DACH at StackAdapt, joins Michael Jäger to share what it actually takes to build a regional organisation from scratch — for the sixth time. StackAdapt is one of the most advanced AI-driven programmatic advertising platforms globally, and David is the person tasked with making it matter in Germany. In this episode: ✌️ Win #1 — Vertical sales from day one: why David ignored the global playbook and built a verticalized sales team across five priority industries before StackAdapt had any brand recognition in market. ✌️ Win #2 — Leadership-led hiring: how David personally pitched and recruited senior talent in a market where no one knew the company and why 3 out of 4 key hires came directly from his own outreach. 🌱 Fail — The vertical that didn't perform: healthcare was a priority on paper. In practice, finance and insurance pulled ahead. How David spotted it, adapted fast, and avoided letting one underperforming vertical drag the whole team down. If you're in sales leadership, market expansion, or scaling a regional team from zero , this episode is the honest, operational breakdown you won't find in a market entry playbook. Connect with David: 🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dvhilchen/ 🔗 StackAdapt: https://www.stackadapt.com/ 🎙️ Beyond Revenue is hosted by Michael Jäger, Managing Partner at Cremanski & Company. New episodes every Friday. ⏱️ Episode timestamps 00:00 — Intro & David's background 01:14 — What day-to-day looks like when you're building from scratch 02:33 — First hire in DACH and why 04:03 — What's harder: convincing German clients or convincing HQ to invest? 05:23 — One word to describe launching a new market 05:47 — Win #1: Vertical sales from day one 09:07 — How the team covered verticals operationally with a small headcount 10:19 — Win #2: Founder-led hiring when no one knows your brand 12:30 — The fail: the vertical that didn't take off 14:31 — Key takeaways: agility as the core market entry skill 16:50 — Where to find David

    Building and Scaling a New Market: Lessons from Launching DACH for a Global AdTech - with David von Hilchen
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About

20 minutes. One GTM leader. Real wins, real fails, zero filler. Beyond Revenue is the weekly show for B2B leaders who want practical insight from the people actually in the arena, across sales, marketing, RevOps, and the C-suite. Host Michael Jäger keeps it honest and specific so you leave every episode with at least one thing worth trying. Like what you hear? Follow the show, share it with your team, and leave us a rating ✨ Want to submit a guest speaker request or be invited on the show yourself? Get in touch at: beyondrevenue@cremanski.com

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