[Un]Churned – The No. 1 Podcast for Customer Retention

Gainsight
  • 5.0 (92)
  • BUSINESS
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

If you're experimenting with automation, questioning the traditional post-sales model, or trying to drive more value with less headcount, you're in the right place. AI won’t fix churn, but these conversations might. Retention is the new growth & AI is rewriting the rules. Hosted by Josh Schachter, SVP of Atlas at Gainsight, [Un]Churned—the No. 1 podcast for retention and Customer Success leaders—features real talk with the sharpest minds in the Customer Success space. We dig into how teams are scaling smarter, activating AI agents, and redesigning the customer journey for lasting impact.

  1. 3 CS Trends That Will Define 2026 & Kristi's Next Chapter ft. Kristi Faltorusso

    2D AGO

    3 CS Trends That Will Define 2026 & Kristi's Next Chapter ft. Kristi Faltorusso

    - Ready to churn less and win more? 🏆 Subscribe for a simple, once-a-month rundown of the episodes at gainsight.com/unchurned The customer success landscape is about to shift dramatically. Kristi Faltorusso, fresh off her departure from ClientSuccess after five years, reveals the three trends that will define CS in 2026—and the second one might surprise you. From the explosion of CS Ops to the "ERR apocalypse" hitting tech stacks across the industry, Kristi breaks down what's coming and how to prepare. Plus, she shares the uncomfortable truth about why she left a job she loved and how an hour a day of AI learning built four products in 2025. --- Timestamps 0:00 - Preview & Introduction 1:23 - Kristi is back! 2:34 - Why Kristi Left a Perfect Job? 5:20 - What She'll Miss Most 6:50 - Building Unbreakable Trust with Leadership 9:20 - Kristi's Next Chapter 10:35 - Kristi's 2026 Predictions for CS 13:13 - The ERR Apocalypse & The Consolidation Wave 15:45 - The Rebranding of CS Ops Roles 18:15 - Kristi's Vibe Coding Journey 21:30 - Make AI Learning Fun 25:00 - Find and Champion Your AI Champions 26:10 - Device Addiction & Reading for Fun --- What You’ll Learn * Why companies have been accumulating AI tools and what triggers the consolidation * How CS Ops will become critical as AI and automation require system builders * How to identify and champion the AI early adopters in your organization * The trust formula that built an unbreakable 5-year executive partnership * What the "ERR apocalypse" means for your tech stack --- Want the playbook, not just the conversation? Subscribe for deep-dive, actionable breakdowns from every episode at unchurned.substack.com. --- Where to Find Kristi: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristifaltorusso/ Website: https://www.kristifaltorusso.com/ Newsletter: https://www.kristifaltorusso.com/the-journey-cs-newsletter --- Where to Find Josh: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jschachter/ Unchurned Substack: https://unchurned.substack.com/ --- Referenced Episodes: - https://www.gainsight.com/episode/why-100m-ai-companies-are-failing-at-renewals-ft-cassie-young-kyle-poyar/ - https://www.gainsight.com/episode/how-to-scale-customer-success-with-ai-agents-ft-leeron-yahalomi-aligned/ Resources: - ChatGPT: https://chat.openai.com/ - Claude: https://claude.ai/ - Gamma: https://gamma.app/ - Zapier: https://zapier.com/ - Replit: https://replit.com/ - Lovable: https://lovable.dev/

    30 min
  2. How To Stop Managing 38% of Your Customers in 2026 ft. Yvette Hill (F5)

    12/24/2025

    How To Stop Managing 38% of Your Customers in 2026 ft. Yvette Hill (F5)

    Ready to churn less and win more? 🏆 Subscribe for a simple, once-a-month rundown of the episodes at gainsight.com/unchurned Every major transformation Yvette Hill has led started the same way: with a moment of panic. Across a 35-year career at IBM, Xerox, Microsoft, and now F5, Yvette Hill, SVP of Customer Success and Global Renewal Sales at F5, has repeatedly observed the same pattern: big deals on paper, but little customer value realized. Each time, the fix was clear: transform the teams closest to customers into engines for value. Recorded live at Pulse Europe in Dublin, Yvette joins host Jenny Calvert to share why today’s AI shift is the most exciting transformation she’s seen—and how she’s acting on it. From recruiting data scientists into CSM roles to allocating 100% of her budget to AI, tracking 175 customer signals, and forcing automation conversations, Yvette is focused on what works now. This episode is a candid look at leading real change—and why teams that get curious today will pull ahead fast. --- Timestamps 0:00 - Preview & Introduction [00:00] Introduction: Live from Pulse Europe in Dublin [01:15] Yvette's unconventional path into customer success [02:45] The Xerox transformation: From selling devices to driving outcomes [05:30] Microsoft Azure: Solving the "big commits, no revenue" problem [07:20] Joining F5: Hardware to SaaS, single product to multi-product [09:00] The agentic era: Why AI is the biggest transformation yet [11:45] 100% budget allocation to AI—zero new headcount [13:30] Hiring data scientists as CSMs: The breakfast table story [16:00] Building curiosity in legacy teams: "Be more curious every day" [18:15] Structuring teams for AI: Leaders, data analysts, and business-side AI builders [20:30] Use case #1: Harvesting unstructured feedback across silos [23:00] Holding product teams accountable with ROI-driven insights [25:45] Use case private channel: Aggregating 175 customer engagement signals [28:00] Why you can't wait for IT—and why speed matters more than perfection [30:30] Investing in people: Skills for operating alongside AI agents [33:15] Getting team buy-in: From fear to excitement about AI [36:00] The democratization of AI: Small wins and Titanic shifts [38:45] Final advice: Just get started—the tough stuff isn't harder than the easy stuff [41:00] Closing thoughts: This is CS's time --- What You’ll Learn * How to shift from retention-only to expansion-driven CS in a multi-product business * Why Yvette is hiring data scientists as CSMs (and what they bring to the team) * The 175 customer engagement signals F5 is aggregating to predict retention and expansion * How to hold product teams accountable for customer feedback using ROI-driven insights * Why investing in people—not just tools—is the key to AI adoption * The breakfast conversation that changed F5's entire hiring strategy for AI * The ROI framework that holds product teams accountable for customer feedback * Why waiting for the perfect use case means you'll never start --- Want the playbook, not just the conversation? Subscribe for deep-dive, actionable breakdowns from every episode at unchurned.substack.com. --- Where to Find Yvette Hill LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yvette-hill-smith-0374265/ --- Where to Find Jenny: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennycalvert/

    26 min
  3. Why $100M AI Companies Are Failing at Renewals? ft. Cassie Young & Kyle Poyar

    12/17/2025

    Why $100M AI Companies Are Failing at Renewals? ft. Cassie Young & Kyle Poyar

    Ready to churn less and win more? 🏆 Subscribe for a monthly roundup of every episode at ⁠⁠gainsight.com/unchurned⁠⁠ Two of SaaS's most influential voices just sounded the same alarm: Cassie Young, General Partner at Primary Ventures, and Kyle Poyar, founder of Growth Unhinged, both published viral articles warning of a "gross retention apocalypse" in AI-powered SaaS. Cassie's investigation revealed a shocking truth: when she called customer logos cited in AI fundraising decks, nine out of ten had already stopped using the product. Kyle's data showed founders bragging about hitting $10M ARR in a month with zero cohorts up for renewal. In this conversation, they unpack why explosive growth often masks catastrophic churn, distinguishing between Annual Recurring Revenue and what Cassie calls "Experimental Recurring Revenue" - revenue that evaporates when customers realize the product doesn't deliver. The discussion moves beyond diagnosis into what actually works. Kyle introduces forward-deployed engineering as a sales motion—getting customers live in production before they pay prevents churn better than any post-sales fix. Cassie argues we're entering a Customer Success Renaissance where the discipline evolves from reactive firefighting to strategic value delivery. --- Timestamps 0:00 - Preview & Introduction 1:36 - Meet Cassie Young & Kyle Poyar 3:00 - The Gross Retention Apocalypse & AI Churn Wave 7:25 - ERR vs ARR: The Red Herring - 9 out of 10 Customers Stopped Using 10:00 - Series A's Done on "Vibes" 11:05 - What Investors Are Looking For 14:40 - The Cluely Controversy: Distribution vs Product Quality 16:15 - Why Fast Growth Means Nothing Without Retention Data 21:15 - Customer Success as a Core Operating Philosophy 29:30 Forward Deployed Engineers as Part of Sales Motion 31:40 - Most Overrated Metric 32:08 - Most Underrated Metric 33:10 - SaaS Principles That Will Last 10 Years 35:30 - The Way Forward --- What You’ll Learn * Why 9 out of 10 AI customers cited in fundraising decks have already churned * The critical difference between ARR and ERR (Experimental Recurring Revenue) * The "automatic pass test" top VCs use to evaluate startups in 60 seconds * How to identify your north star usage metric for predicting churn * Why distribution alone isn't enough (lessons from the Cluely phenomenon) * How the Customer Success TAM could 10X if companies focus on the right things --- Want the playbook, not just the conversation? Subscribe for deep-dive, actionable breakdowns from every episode at ⁠⁠unchurned.substack.com.⁠ --- Where to Find Kyle Poyar: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-poyar/ Substack: https://www.growthunhinged.com/ Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mostly-growth/id1842238102 Where to Find Cassie Young LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cassyoung --- Where to Find Josh: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jschachter/ --- Resources: Cassie's article: https://topline.beehiiv.com/p/tech-is-on-the-brink-of-a-gross-retention-apocalypse-a-customer-success-renaissance Kyle's article: https://www.growthunhinged.com/p/the-ai-churn-wave

    38 min
  4. The #1 Thing Great CCOs Do in Year One ft. Alexis Hennessy (Heidrick & Struggles)

    12/10/2025

    The #1 Thing Great CCOs Do in Year One ft. Alexis Hennessy (Heidrick & Struggles)

    When the Chief Customer Officer role first emerged in SaaS, Alexis Hennessy was already there—helping define it. Twelve years ago, she co-founded the post-sales executive search practice inside Heidrick & Struggles, one of the world’s premier search firms. She witnessed the rise of the CCO, the collapse of the role during the downturn, and now the fastest resurgence the market has seen in years. In this episode, Alexis breaks down why retention has become existential, why CCO hiring has spiked again, and what the best CCO candidates consistently do to stand out. She details the patterns behind successful hires, the emergence of consumption and AI-driven operating models, and why the path from CCO to CEO may finally be opening wider than ever. A practical and unfiltered look into the future of post-sales leadership—from the person helping shape who gets the top jobs. --- Timestamps 0:00 – Preview & Introduction 1:22 – Meet Alexis Hennessy: Partner at Heidrick & Struggles 2:02 – Many CEOs Still Don’t Know What They Want 4:10 – What CEOs Want in a CCO 5:16 – What Great CCO Candidates Do in Interviews 6:15 – Why CCO Hiring Is Surging Again 7:25 – What Sets VP Candidates Apart When They Want to Move Up 9:00 – Are Boards Demanding AI Experience? 10:45 – What the Best CCO Hires Do in Their First Year 12:45 – Personality Traits That Define High-Performing CCOs 13:43 – Agentic AI, Consumption Models & the New Stakes for CCOs 15:23 – Can CCOs Become CEOs? 18:28 – Predictions: The Future of the CCO Role 19:23 – Closing Thoughts --- What You’ll Learn * Why the CCO role is surging again after a multi-year slump * The three types of CEOs who hire CCOs—and which ones to avoid * The interview behaviors that separate top candidates from the rest * Why “listening first” is the #1 predictor of CCO success * What VPs need to show to break into the CCO ranks * The business conditions making the CCO-to-CEO path more realistic than ever * The critical KPIs great CCOs build to influence their executive peers * How consumption and agentic AI models increase the strategic importance of retention --- Check out the Key Takeaways & Transcripts: https://www.gainsight.com/presents/series/unchurned/ --- Where to Find Alexis: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexishennessy/ --- Where to Find Josh: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jschachter/

    20 min

  5. 11/19/2025

    How Community Increases Retention 4X ft. Erica Kuhl (Gainsight)

    When Erica Kuhl joined Salesforce as employee #176, nothing about her role or title suggested she would go on to build one of the most influential customer communities in SaaS history. Given a broken website, no roadmap, no team, she hacked together the first Salesforce Community with duct-taped technologies, raw conviction, and a fierce belief that customers needed a place to help each other. That grassroots experiment eventually grew into a 17 million-member global community, became a blueprint for digital customer success, and reshaped the way enterprise SaaS companies think about adoption, retention, and product feedback loops. Today, Erica is EVP & GM at Gainsight, leading community, education, and in-app product experience—and shaping the emerging category of Digital Customer Success. This episode is a masterclass in community-powered retention, scrappy innovation, and how one person can build an entirely new motion inside an organization long before the market knows it needs it. --- Timestamps 0:00 – Preview 0:58 – Meet Erica Kuhl: EVP at Gainsight & Former Employee #176 at Salesforce 3:39 – What Early Salesforce Adoption Actually Looked Like 6:25 – Teaching Admins Before Admins Existed 9:40 – Why Erica Pitched a Community Before “Community” Was a Thing 11:25 – Building the First Salesforce Community 13:43 – Scaling Without Support 19:30 – How Community Became a Strategic Retention Lever 24:44 – Defining Digital Customer Success 26:35 – Where to Start: Crawl–Walk–Run for Digital CS 30:25 – Why Community Multiplies GRR 31:28 – Closing Thoughts --- What You’ll Learn - How the first modern SaaS community was built—from scratch, without buy-in - Why peer-to-peer engagement scales support, adoption, and product feedback - How to tie community engagement directly to retention (and why it’s essential) - Why COVID reshaped the priority of customer marketing and always-on programs - How community, education, and in-app experiences converge into Digital CS - Where digital CS programs should start and how to avoid fragmented experiences - The cultural mindset needed to build community programs that actually survive - Practical tactics for early-stage community building: seeding, puppeteering, protecting, and aligning --- Check out the Key Takeaways & Transcripts: https://www.gainsight.com/presents/series/unchurned/ --- Where to Find Erica: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericakuhl/ Podcast: In Before the Lock Where to Find Josh: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jschachter/ --- Resources Mentioned: * Gainsight Community * Brian Oblinger’s Community Strategy Academy * Skilljar * Salesforce Community

    32 min
  6. How a 5-Person Team Built 150 AI Workflows That Changed an Entire Company ft. Colin Slade (Cloudbeds)

    11/12/2025

    How a 5-Person Team Built 150 AI Workflows That Changed an Entire Company ft. Colin Slade (Cloudbeds)

    When Cloudbeds faced a post-sales organization at 120% capacity, no budget, and declining efficiency, Colin Slade chose to rebuild the operation through AI. Within nine months, his four-person AIOps team deployed more than 150 workflows and agents, automating 75% of repetitive work and reclaiming 7,000 hours every month. This episode details how Colin turned a resource-starved customer success organization into an AI-driven engine. It explores the early missteps, the shift from overengineering to small, quick wins, and how incremental adoption evolved into company-wide transformation. A practical study in applied AI, organizational change, and measurable outcomes—showing how constraint, not abundance, can drive real innovation. Timestamps 0:00 – Preview & Introduction 0:57 – Meet Colin Slade and the Situation at Cloudbeds 9:25 – Mitigating Team Fears Around AI Replacing Jobs 13:13 – The Stepwise Approach to Implementing AI 19:50 – Scaling Securely: Working with IT, Risk-Taking, and Adoption 24:00 – Roles and Team Structure for Effective AI Operations 33:10 – Documentation as a Hidden Bottleneck 39:45 – Build vs. Buy: Why Cloudbeds Built In-House 42:20 – The Impact and a Culture of Fearless Experimentation What You’ll Learn * How to rebuild a post-sales org around AI without additional headcount * The step-by-step approach to deploying 150+ workflows in under a year * How to identify and structure AI roles: visionary, operators, knowledge masters, and project leads * The cultural and psychological levers for AI adoption * How to optimize documentation for AI readability (and boost SEO at the same time) * The measurable impact of AI on cost savings, efficiency, and morale --- Check out the Key Takeaways & Transcripts: ⁠https://www.gainsight.com/presents/series/unchurned/⁠ --- Where to Find Colin: LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinslade/ Where to Find Josh: LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jschachter/⁠ --- Resources: n8n – https://n8n.io/ Forethought – https://forethought.ai/ Google AI Studio – https://aistudio.google.com/ Anthropic Claude – https://claude.ai/ Gemini – https://gemini.google.com/app Lovable – https://lovable.dev/ Pinecone – https://www.pinecone.io/ Snowflake – https://www.snowflake.com/en/ Zendesk – https://www.zendesk.nl/ Salesforce – https://www.salesforce.com/ Slack – https://slack.com/

    49 min
  7. A Simple Habit That 3x’ed AI Adoption Rates: The 15-Minute Rule ft. Cat Valverde (Enterprise AI Group)

    11/06/2025

    A Simple Habit That 3x’ed AI Adoption Rates: The 15-Minute Rule ft. Cat Valverde (Enterprise AI Group)

    Why most enterprise AI fails — and how Cat Valverde’s 4-week adoption framework shows that the fix is just 15 minutes a week. Most enterprises are stuck in AI pilot purgatory — running endless experiments that never scale. In this episode of Unchurned, Josh Schachter sits down with Cat Valverde, founder of Enterprise AI Group, to break down what’s really blocking enterprise adoption. Cat shares her research-backed 15-Minute Rule, a simple 4-week framework that’s doubled or tripled adoption rates — all by making AI implementation human-centered instead of tool-centered. If you’re a leader trying to take AI from pilot to production, this is your playbook. What You’ll Learn - Why most enterprise AI initiatives fail to scale past pilot stage - How to reduce adoption friction and create lasting behavior change - The psychological levers that improve user buy-in and learning retention - How to structure a simple 4-week rollout for any AI tool or workflow - What metrics actually matter when evaluating AI adoption success Timestamps: 0:00 – Preview & Intro 1:02 – Meet Kat Valverde 1:42 – What buyers and sellers say in enterprise AI roundtables 3:11 – The challenge of internal adoption 6:20 – The 15-Minute Rule; a 4-week micro-adoption framework 11:45 – The psychology behind AI adoption 12:18 – 2–3× adoption rates and major cost savings 14:45 – Closing thoughts Key Takeaways - Pilot fatigue is real — the biggest blocker to enterprise AI adoption isn’t money, it’s time and cognitive load. - The true KPI: internal adoption, not just model accuracy or ROI. - Fear ≠ just job loss. It’s the fear of asking “dumb” questions or not keeping up with peers. - The 15-Minute Rule: a 4-week program built on psychology that uses micro-commitments to build momentum. - Outcomes: 2–3× higher adoption and ~50% training-cost reduction per user. --- Check out the Key Takeaways & Transcripts: ⁠https://www.gainsight.com/presents/series/unchurned/⁠ --- Where to Find Cat: LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/catvalverde/ Enterprise AI Group: https://www.eais.io/ Where to Find Josh: LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jschachter/⁠ --- Resources: The Power of Habit: https://www.charlesduhigg.com/the-power-of-habit

    16 min
  8. Why Your Ideal Customer Profile Is Broken and How AI Can Fix It ft. Mark Roberge (Co-Founder of Stage 2 Capital)

    11/05/2025

    Why Your Ideal Customer Profile Is Broken and How AI Can Fix It ft. Mark Roberge (Co-Founder of Stage 2 Capital)

    The Biggest GTM Mistake (Spoiler Alert: Stop Chasing CAC!!!) Mark Roberge shares how AI is transforming sales, customer success, and go-to-market strategy. The former HubSpot CRO, now co-founder of Stage 2 Capital and senior lecturer at Harvard Business School, Mark Roberge breaks down the 4 phases of AI evolution that will redefine how companies sell, serve, and scale. From agentic AI to LTV-driven growth, this is a masterclass on what the next era of go-to-market looks like. Mark Roberge helped take HubSpot from $0 to $100M and literally wrote The Sales Acceleration Formula. Now, he’s turning his attention to the AI transformation sweeping every GTM function. In this episode, Mark explains why it’s time to stop obsessing over CAC and start optimizing for LTV—the customers who actually succeed—and how AI can make that possible at scale. He also shares bold predictions about the future of work, the death of departments, and why capitalism itself may need to evolve for the AI era. Timestamps 0:00 – Preview & Introduction 1:19 – Meet Mark Roberge: Co-Founder, Stage 2 Capital 2:45 – The Early Days of AI in GTM 6:33 – What’s Slowing Down AI Adoption 8:00 – Why Most AI Startups Are Still Too Iterative 12:00 – The "Agentic" Shift: From Co-Pilots to Autonomous Agents 14:15 – The 4 Phases of AI Go-to-Market Evolution 20:35 – Managing Your Agents: The New CRO Skillset 26:00 – Deciding the ICP: It’s Not CAC 29:35 – How AI Breaks Down Department Silos 35:40 – Can Capitalism Survive the AI Era? 46:00 – The Science of Scaling: Mark’s Next Big Book --- What You’ll Learn * Why CAC is the wrong north star metric for GTM leaders * How to use AI to identify and retain high-LTV customers * The 4 phases of AI transformation in go-to-market * How agentic AI will redefine the roles of CROs, CSMs, and RevOps * Why AI will blur departmental boundaries and change the structure of business * How capitalism and work culture must evolve in the AI era --- Check out the Key Takeaways & Transcripts: ⁠https://www.gainsight.com/presents/series/unchurned/⁠ --- Where to Find Mark: LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/markroberge/ Where to Find Josh: LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jschachter/⁠ --- Resources mentioned: * Stage 2 Capital Blog – Go-to-Market AI Case Studies: https://www.stage2.capital * The Sales Acceleration Formula by Mark Roberge

    48 min
See All (175)

5
out of 5
92 Ratings

About

If you're experimenting with automation, questioning the traditional post-sales model, or trying to drive more value with less headcount, you're in the right place. AI won’t fix churn, but these conversations might. Retention is the new growth & AI is rewriting the rules. Hosted by Josh Schachter, SVP of Atlas at Gainsight, [Un]Churned—the No. 1 podcast for retention and Customer Success leaders—features real talk with the sharpest minds in the Customer Success space. We dig into how teams are scaling smarter, activating AI agents, and redesigning the customer journey for lasting impact.

Information

You Might Also Like