The Scale Up Show Ryan Staley

Ryan speaks to Brendan Kamm, the CEO of Thnks for the second time in this episode. Ryan and Brendan talk about his AI use cases as a CEO and discuss how Brendan leverages it to enhance his daily operations within the business and improve communication within his team. Brendan also talks about how to adapt and engage with AI to improve it and make it work for you and your business.
 
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KEY TAKEAWAYS
Brendan uses AI to improve his writing, ensuring it aligns with his brand values, and engages in conversational interactions with AI models to generate ideas and gather feedback. AI can significantly reduce time spent on non-customer-related activities, allowing salespeople to focus more on building relationships. Creating custom AI models for your brand can help ensure consistency in communication and improve team members' ability to provide clear, detailed instructions. Leveraging AI for sales research, such as analyzing 10K reports and industry trends, can help representatives be more prepared and in tune with their prospects' concerns and goals. Experimenting with different AI tools and prompts can lead to more effective outputs and a deeper understanding of how to utilize these technologies for various tasks. Uploading multiple sources to AI models like Notebook LLM allows for a comprehensive analysis of an industry, providing valuable insights for sales and strategy. Brendan has found one of the biggest challenges in growing a business, is instilling the same level of passion and care in team members as the CEO has. BEST MOMENTS
"I've created sort of custom bots that reflect our sort of brand values, and that's been really helpful, and I can just run it through and say, Hey, am I, you know, am I on target?" 
"If I can take all my non human interactions and make that less time consuming and less focused on the operational and the sort of behind the scenes things, I have more time to spend building relationships." 
"I'll also tell you I use a lot of explain to me like I'm five, explain to me like I'm 12. Like I'll go through the whole progression just to make sure I understand something." 
"I think you need to instill that level of care and confidence. And like, Hey, man, we're all on the same team headed in the same direction."
Ryan Staley
Founder and CEO
Whale Boss
ryan@whalesellingsystem.com
www.ryanstaley.io 
Saas, Saas growth, Scale, Business Growth, B2b Saas, Saas Sales, Enterprise Saas, Business growth strategy, founder, ceo: https://www.whalesellingsystem.com/closingsecrets

Join Ryan for part 1 of 2 as he speaks with Brendan Kamm, founder and CEO of Thnks. Kamm shares insights on leveraging gratitude in business, discussing his company's innovative platform for expressing appreciation in professional contexts. The conversation explores the human element in sales, revealing top use cases for connecting with people authentically. Kamm's approach to scaling a business without losing sight of personal relationships offers valuable tips for closing revenue and building successful companies.
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KEY TAKEAWAYS
Thnks is a gratitude expression platform targeting large distributed sales teams, allowing for easy sending of small appreciation gestures. The company has grown to $30-40 million in ARR since 2016, with a team of about 50 people and under $15 million in total funding. Thnks relies heavily on network effects and product-led growth, with recent expansion into paid advertising and enterprise-level deals. Brendan emphasizes the importance of authenticity and relationship-building in sales, moving beyond mere tactics to focus on long-term connections. The company has observed measurable business outcomes from gratitude gestures, such as faster rescheduling of cancelled meetings. Brendan suggests focusing on thoughtful, personalized gestures rather than relying solely on traditional gifting occasions like birthdays or holidays. Ryan and Brendan highlight the balance between leveraging technology and maintaining human connection in modern business relationships. BEST MOMENTS
"We call it a gratitude expression platform. Basically, it's a way to send a small gesture of appreciation in a business context.”
"Our philosophy is people like to do business with people they like. I think that's always been the case and everyone likes someone who appreciates them."
"It's easy to fall a little bit into the trap of tactics, right? And it's not that you write, you need tactics and you need to get your numbers, but it's, it's too easy to kind of let go of the end result, what you're really looking for."
"We want to focus on that sort of authenticity and that idea that these things take time. It's not just, I sent a thing. Did I get what I want back? It's gotta be less transactional than that over time."
"You can have hard business outcomes and track how these things affect even not in something as simple as that."
Ryan Staley
Founder and CEO
Whale Boss
ryan@whalesellingsystem.com
www.ryanstaley.io 
Saas, Saas growth, Scale, Business Growth, B2b Saas, Saas Sales, Enterprise Saas, Business growth strategy, founder, ceo: https://www.whalesellingsystem.com/closingsecrets

Join Ryan for part 2 with Thomas Hansen, COO of Amplitude Analytics. Thomas talks with Ryan about the steps he took to uniquely climb the corporate ladder and how anyone can do the same. Ryan and Thomas also talk about how to leverage AI in your career and how AI is creating a new opportunity that has never before been possible!
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KEY TAKEAWAYS
Even as COO, Thomas still has an SDR role. Thomas built out his knowledge and skillset, allowing himself to create a diverse portfolio, enabling him to climb the corporate ladder. You have to know your strength and your superpower, then apply that. Thomas encourages everyone to get diversity in their career early on to discover this but also to teach you how to spot new ways of creatively doing things. Saying yes and working towards things that may not be seen as the obvious or linear option, has created the most value for Thomas in his career. Look for AI roles that might not be in your comfort zone, to gain experience and exposure. Or become the internal champion in your existing role and company. Industry after industry will be revolutionized by AI, including VC, particularly in entry level positions. BEST MOMENTS
“You’ve got to know yourself, you’ve got to figure out what is your one superpower”
“I just think that early in your career, doing stuff that’s not the linear boring path, that’s not so obvious, it teaches you to be scrappy, tenacity, to open up your eyes to different ways of doing things”
“One of the things that has created the most value in my career has been taking on the non-linear and the non-obvious choices”
“Think about what you can embrace in the current role you’re in, in terms of being the internal champion for use case and how you’re leveraging internally for your own business in AI”
Ryan Staley
Founder and CEO
Whale Boss
ryan@whalesellingsystem.com
www.ryanstaley.io 
Saas, Saas growth, Scale, Business Growth, B2b Saas, Saas Sales, Enterprise Saas, Business growth strategy, founder, ceo: https://www.whalesellingsystem.com/closingsecrets

Ryan is joined by Thomas Hansen, the COO of Amplitude Analytics. Thomas has an impressive track record, having worked at companies like Microsoft and taken UiPath public as the chief revenue officer. He shares some really interesting insights about leadership, how to grow, inspire, and leverage AI to elevate your team. He also discusses an unexpected topic from the company's CEO in part one of two of Ryan and Thomas' conversation.
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KEY TAKEAWAYS
Amplitude Analytics provides insights on customer product usage, helping companies build better products and monetize their user base more effectively. Different growth stages require different leadership skills; it's crucial to understand where your strengths lie and hire stage-appropriate executives. Situational leadership involves adapting your approach based on individual team member's needs and circumstances to maximize their potential. AI is a transformative force in business, with Amplitude leveraging it both for customer-facing features and internal operations. Consolidating tech stacks can increase efficiency and productivity, allowing sales teams to spend more time selling and less time managing tools. Embracing AI technologies like conversational intelligence can lead to significant improvements in metrics such as Average Selling Price (ASP). Leaders should lead by example. Thomas personally conducts cold outreach to 10 potential clients weekly, demonstrating the importance of staying hands-on. Continuous learning and experimentation with new AI tools and technologies are essential for staying competitive in today's business environment. BEST MOMENTS
"Every stage of a company and its formation is unique. And frankly, different stages also tend to by and large require different folks." 
"My point of view on situational leadership is, it's not about others adapting to work with me. It's a bit about me recognizing where a person is at any given point in time in their journey, including having a sense for what's going on in their personal life."
"In my 32 years being an operator in the tech space, I've seen some tectonic changes. You had the arrival of the internet, you had the mobile explosion, you had the cloud. And then for me, the fourth big change, the biggest change of everything is the arrival of AI." 
"As much as I may be the president of Amplitude, my role every day is I'm selling. I also work as an SDR. Every day. It is on me personally, as it's on all of us to take personal ownership for growing our businesses." 
"I do a lot of cold calling outreach through LinkedIn and through email.  I do, if you believe it or not, I do 10 a week."
Ryan Staley
Founder and CEO
Whale Boss
ryan@whalesellingsystem.com
www.ryanstaley.io 
Saas, Saas growth, Scale, Business Growth, B2b Saas, Saas Sales, Enterprise Saas, Business growth strategy, founder, ceo: https://www.whalesellingsystem.com/closingsecrets

Ryan continues his conversation with AI expert Jeff Mills from iMerit. They explore the future of work, the impact of AI on various industries, and how individuals can adapt to thrive in an AI-driven world. Mills shares invaluable insights on job automation, the importance of adaptability, and the exciting opportunities that AI presents.
Join 2,500+ readers getting weekly practical guidance to scale themselves and their companies using Artificial Intelligence and Revenue Cheat Codes.  
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KEY TAKEAWAYS
AI will automate back office tasks, but it's a tool that enhances human productivity rather than completely replacing workers. Adaptability is crucial in the AI era, as people will need to switch industries and professions more frequently. AI skills, both technical and non-technical, are becoming essential for nearly all jobs across industries. The job market will evolve, with new industries and opportunities emerging as AI technology advances. AI is not just a vertical or niche; it will be embedded in everything we do, from social media to household appliances. Model stacking and multimodal AI are creating exciting new applications and opportunities in various fields. AI tools are empowering individuals to perform tasks that were previously limited to specialized professionals or agencies. Understanding and embracing AI is crucial for future success, as it will be integrated into all aspects of work and daily life. BEST MOMENTS
"Darwin taught us that it's really not the strongest that's going to win. And it's not the smartest that's going to win. It's the most adaptable that's going to win."
"AI is going to be a lot like Excel. You're going to have people who actually are the coders, they're, they're, they're actually in there building the software, building the program, right?"
"There's gonna be issues. Yeah. I mean, there's gonna be problems, but at the same time, like. Don't be super scared of it (AI) either."
"I've effectively hired, I don't know, 10 employees for 30 a month now because they all have skills that I didn't have."
"There's no job that's going to exist that doesn't, have AI in it soon."
Ryan Staley
Founder and CEO
Whale Boss
ryan@whalesellingsystem.com
www.ryanstaley.io 
Saas, Saas growth, Scale, Business Growth, B2b Saas, Saas Sales, Enterprise Saas, Business growth strategy, founder, ceo: https://www.whalesellingsystem.com/closingsecrets

In this episode, Ryan is joined by Jeff Mills, a veteran in the AI and machine learning space. With over 25 years of experience, Jeff shares invaluable insights on scaling businesses, particularly in the AI industry. From his early days at Yahoo to his current role as President at iMerit, Jeff offers a unique perspective on growing companies while maintaining a social impact focus.
Join 2,500+ readers getting weekly practical guidance to scale themselves and their companies using Artificial Intelligence and Revenue Cheat Codes.  
Explore becoming Superhuman here: https://superhumanrevenue.beehiiv.com/
KEY TAKEAWAYS
iMerit works with leading AI companies in mobility, tech, and medical verticals, providing data solutions and annotation services for AI model development. Jeff talks about the importance of high-quality data in AI development, comparing it to a chef selecting the best ingredients for a Michelin-star restaurant. iMerit has evolved to include automation and a platform for data labelling, while still maintaining human-in-the-loop processes for validation and verification. The company employs a workforce pyramid, ranging from general workers to highly specialized experts in various fields, to meet diverse AI development needs. Retrieval Augmentation Generation (RAG) models are expected to be a significant trend in AI development over the next year and a half. iMerit adapts to customer needs, focusing on problem-solving and developing expertise in specific domains as required by clients. Jeff stresses the importance of domain expertise in prompt engineering and evaluating AI model outputs. BEST MOMENTS
"You are literally a prompt engineer. You have created the box."
"We like to write, but we also are good readers. We want to lead by example, but we also are good at reading, hearing what someone's challenges are, what their problems are. And ultimately we're in the problem solving business.”
"We’ve built a workforce pyramid, so there's certain work that can be done if you have kind of expertise at a wide level."
"I've been in AI for about, you know, 25 years in different ways."
Ryan Staley
Founder and CEO
Whale Boss
ryan@whalesellingsystem.com
www.ryanstaley.io 
Saas, Saas growth, Scale, Business Growth, B2b Saas, Saas Sales, Enterprise Saas, Business growth strategy, founder, ceo: https://www.whalesellingsystem.com/closingsecrets