1 00:00:00,720 --> 00:00:04,280 Thanks to our amazing community members like you, we've reached 2 00:00:04,280 --> 00:00:08,880 the top 15 of Spotify's video podcast, the Top 10 audio 3 00:00:08,880 --> 00:00:12,280 podcasts on both Apple and Spotify for the tech category, 4 00:00:12,480 --> 00:00:15,800 so you all make this possible. If you want to support us more, 5 00:00:16,079 --> 00:00:20,280 check out our Patreon. That's patreon.com/stage 0 News 6 00:00:20,280 --> 00:00:24,880 so we can keep this free and open for you to enjoy. 7 00:00:26,160 --> 00:00:28,080 Something interesting happened the other day. 8 00:00:28,200 --> 00:00:31,760 I was looking through our stats on Spotify and Apple Podcasts 9 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:37,440 and I noticed that about 55% of you are not subscribed to the 10 00:00:37,440 --> 00:00:39,760 show. That means 45% of you are 11 00:00:39,760 --> 00:00:43,040 subscribed and I really do appreciate your support, but the 12 00:00:43,040 --> 00:00:47,520 other 55% of you are awesome. But I'm going to ask you for a 13 00:00:47,520 --> 00:00:49,000 favor. Could you please hit the 14 00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:51,240 subscribe button? It'll take you one second. 15 00:00:51,600 --> 00:00:54,800 I'm going to promise you 10 years of this podcast for free. 16 00:00:54,920 --> 00:00:57,080 No paywalls. I'm not going to charge you 17 00:00:57,080 --> 00:01:00,360 anything ever, but I'm going to give you 10 years of this show 18 00:01:00,360 --> 00:01:01,520 for free. I've already been doing it for 19 00:01:01,520 --> 00:01:04,000 five years and I plan on doing it for 10 more. 20 00:01:04,160 --> 00:01:07,080 And the only way that we can continue doing this is with your 21 00:01:07,080 --> 00:01:09,840 support. So one second of your time to 22 00:01:09,840 --> 00:01:12,920 hit the subscribe button right now would help the show 23 00:01:13,040 --> 00:01:15,240 tremendously. Thank you so much. 24 00:01:18,720 --> 00:01:22,160 Slack CEO Denise Dresser is leaving the company to become 25 00:01:22,240 --> 00:01:26,560 Open AI's chief revenue officer. Now, what does that move tell us 26 00:01:26,560 --> 00:01:30,080 about Open AI's push into the enterprise? 27 00:01:30,360 --> 00:01:33,280 And how will Slack manage the handoff at the top? 28 00:01:33,920 --> 00:01:37,680 After the break, I'll explain what Dresser will run inside 29 00:01:37,680 --> 00:01:42,120 Open AI, how our Salesforce and Slack track record lines up with 30 00:01:42,120 --> 00:01:44,800 that mandate, and what we know about Slack's interim 31 00:01:44,800 --> 00:01:47,800 leadership. I'll add context on Slack's path 32 00:01:47,800 --> 00:01:51,040 from start up to a Salesforce business unit, then outline the 33 00:01:51,040 --> 00:01:55,240 likely first steps for Open A is new revenue chief, so you can 34 00:01:55,320 --> 00:02:01,040 read the next press release with more of your mind and less 35 00:02:01,040 --> 00:02:07,600 signal and less guesswork. Wired reports that Denise 36 00:02:07,600 --> 00:02:10,880 Dresser will join Open AI as Chief Revenue Officer after 37 00:02:10,880 --> 00:02:15,000 serving as SLAC's CEOA staff. Memo went out from Salesforce 38 00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:18,520 Chief Executive Marc Benioff confirming her departure, and 39 00:02:18,520 --> 00:02:21,520 the story says she starts her new rule next week. 40 00:02:21,880 --> 00:02:25,080 And with that, we move from boomer to an on the record 41 00:02:25,080 --> 00:02:27,480 leadership change in a concrete start date. 42 00:02:28,040 --> 00:02:31,400 Now Open AI is placing dresser over its enterprise unit, which 43 00:02:31,400 --> 00:02:34,520 has been growing rapidly. And she'll report to Chief 44 00:02:34,520 --> 00:02:39,200 Operating Officer Brad Lightcap. That reporting line clarifies 45 00:02:39,200 --> 00:02:42,480 where revenue, operations, enterprise sales meet inside of 46 00:02:42,480 --> 00:02:48,320 Open AIACRO, tied directly to the COO, signals a focus on 47 00:02:48,440 --> 00:02:52,320 execution customer delivery in the systems that support the 48 00:02:52,320 --> 00:02:53,840 sales cycle. Now. 49 00:02:53,840 --> 00:02:55,840 The near term read is very simple, though. 50 00:02:56,200 --> 00:02:59,120 Open EI wants disciplined enterprise growth and 51 00:02:59,120 --> 00:03:01,600 accountability for its leadership. 52 00:03:02,480 --> 00:03:05,040 You know Dresser arrives with long tenure in enterprise sales 53 00:03:05,040 --> 00:03:08,680 and go to market roles. According to sources, she spent 54 00:03:08,680 --> 00:03:11,920 about 14 years at Salesforce before becoming Slack CEO in 55 00:03:11,920 --> 00:03:16,560 2023. And that's after Lydiane Jones 56 00:03:16,560 --> 00:03:21,320 left to run Bumble. Now that sequence that is 57 00:03:21,320 --> 00:03:25,560 important because it shows a career built around selling and 58 00:03:25,560 --> 00:03:28,280 scaling software to large organizations. 59 00:03:28,280 --> 00:03:33,200 Not only running a product team, but running a large team. 60 00:03:33,600 --> 00:03:37,920 Now the background fits Acro role seat that touches field 61 00:03:37,920 --> 00:03:42,800 sales, customer success, partner deals and post sale adoption. 62 00:03:43,640 --> 00:03:48,280 A Slack will be LED an an interim basis by Rob Seaman, its 63 00:03:48,280 --> 00:03:51,160 chief product officer, while the company and Salesforce manage 64 00:03:51,160 --> 00:03:53,840 the transition. I think it's Slack, a leader who 65 00:03:53,840 --> 00:03:56,600 already owns the road map and feature delivery, which helps 66 00:03:56,600 --> 00:03:59,440 steady day-to-day decisions while the board and the parent 67 00:03:59,440 --> 00:04:03,800 company evaluate next steps. And interim arrangement also 68 00:04:03,800 --> 00:04:06,600 keeps the door open for internal and external candidates without 69 00:04:06,600 --> 00:04:08,880 forcing an immediate, permanent pick. 70 00:04:09,640 --> 00:04:13,000 Now, Slack did not comment. We tried to reach them, but they 71 00:04:13,320 --> 00:04:15,440 didn't talk to us. So to understand the weight of 72 00:04:15,440 --> 00:04:18,120 this hand off, recall the arc of Slack itself. 73 00:04:18,240 --> 00:04:25,320 Slack traces its roost back to 2009 to late 2008, 2009, and it 74 00:04:25,320 --> 00:04:28,640 took off by 2014 as a workplace chat collaboration tool. 75 00:04:29,520 --> 00:04:33,680 Now, Salesforce acquired the company in 2021 for nearly $28 76 00:04:33,680 --> 00:04:38,120 billion, and over time, more of SLAC's operations integrated 77 00:04:38,200 --> 00:04:41,280 into Salesforce. Founders and early leaders, 78 00:04:41,280 --> 00:04:44,200 including Stewart Butterfield and Kyle Henderson, departed in 79 00:04:44,200 --> 00:04:49,600 the years after the acquisition after they got a huge money bank 80 00:04:49,600 --> 00:04:54,080 account addition, which often happens when a startup becomes 81 00:04:54,080 --> 00:04:58,200 part of a larger enterprise. Now, Wired also points to 82 00:04:58,200 --> 00:05:01,480 reporting about culture friction between Slack, startup DNA and 83 00:05:01,480 --> 00:05:05,480 Salesforce's scale. And that friction gives context 84 00:05:05,480 --> 00:05:09,160 to how leadership shifts land inside a combined organization. 85 00:05:09,440 --> 00:05:12,080 But a parent company absorbs operations from a smaller 86 00:05:12,080 --> 00:05:14,520 company. Product and policy choices can 87 00:05:14,520 --> 00:05:19,120 move into different directions, different cadences, and interim 88 00:05:19,120 --> 00:05:22,160 leadership can be a practical tool to collaborate those 89 00:05:22,160 --> 00:05:24,240 cadences. Usually what happens is the 90 00:05:24,240 --> 00:05:29,200 smaller company gets acquired and then either they a get 91 00:05:30,920 --> 00:05:34,400 melded into the larger company or they just get shut down. 92 00:05:34,400 --> 00:05:38,280 Luckily if I mean, if you're a Slack user, but it might not be 93 00:05:38,280 --> 00:05:42,280 luckily for you and maybe you don't like it and most people 94 00:05:42,280 --> 00:05:45,120 don't that I've talked to, they're just like, I don't want 95 00:05:45,120 --> 00:05:48,080 to hear another Slack notification ever again in my 96 00:05:48,080 --> 00:05:51,440 life if it's possible. Same with Jira, Nobody likes 97 00:05:51,440 --> 00:05:56,240 that. But with this new set up, you 98 00:05:56,240 --> 00:05:59,200 know a public road map help customers make sense of it. 99 00:05:59,800 --> 00:06:04,480 So let's shift over to Open AI again and what ACRO can drive in 100 00:06:04,480 --> 00:06:06,560 a year when enterprise demand grows up. 101 00:06:07,120 --> 00:06:11,320 Now Dresser's remit is making AI useful and reliable for 102 00:06:11,320 --> 00:06:14,080 businesses across industries. Paraphrasing a statement from 103 00:06:14,080 --> 00:06:16,720 Open AI leadership that translates into clear 104 00:06:16,720 --> 00:06:21,040 priorities, stable pricing and packaging, predictable support, 105 00:06:21,200 --> 00:06:24,640 measurable rollout timelines, any path for large customers to 106 00:06:24,640 --> 00:06:30,080 pilot, expand, standardize. SARR ties those motions to 107 00:06:30,080 --> 00:06:35,120 revenue targets and retention. So Open AI has to be worried 108 00:06:35,120 --> 00:06:39,040 about Google right now. Google owns your enterprise. 109 00:06:39,200 --> 00:06:42,920 They own basically every part of your system. 110 00:06:43,800 --> 00:06:52,400 E-mail, chat, they have conferencing, all the Google Doc 111 00:06:52,400 --> 00:06:55,720 stuff, It's all there. And you know what? 112 00:06:56,480 --> 00:06:58,400 Open AI just wants a small chunk of that. 113 00:06:58,720 --> 00:07:01,320 Google is very competitive. They already have all your 114 00:07:01,320 --> 00:07:03,640 information. They have all the systems in 115 00:07:03,640 --> 00:07:07,120 place to just add AI, just add Gemini to everything, right? 116 00:07:07,720 --> 00:07:15,320 And then they have the the backbone to a either wipe out 117 00:07:15,400 --> 00:07:18,040 open AI immediately. I don't think they're going to 118 00:07:18,040 --> 00:07:20,640 do that. I think people will continue to 119 00:07:20,720 --> 00:07:23,240 subsidize open AI with more money. 120 00:07:23,360 --> 00:07:26,600 Over time, Open AI will eventually start making money, 121 00:07:26,600 --> 00:07:30,840 more money because the CRO coming in, they're working on 122 00:07:30,840 --> 00:07:32,920 the business part of it. Can they do things better than 123 00:07:32,920 --> 00:07:36,800 Google? It's tough to tough to feel that 124 00:07:36,800 --> 00:07:39,040 out right now. It's still the very early 80s. 125 00:07:39,040 --> 00:07:42,600 It's like the beginning of the Internet with Netscape Navigator 126 00:07:42,840 --> 00:07:46,400 and Internet Explorer and also Opera. 127 00:07:46,400 --> 00:07:48,360 Do you remember Opera, I think still around. 128 00:07:48,960 --> 00:07:52,040 And what was the one Mosaic? Mosaic was great. 129 00:07:52,040 --> 00:07:56,040 I remember those times and even in the terminal, we used to 130 00:07:57,720 --> 00:08:00,480 search in the terminal and like type in things. 131 00:08:00,720 --> 00:08:04,400 There was servers you can connect to and you could find 132 00:08:04,400 --> 00:08:06,920 documents in like just the terminal window. 133 00:08:07,360 --> 00:08:12,280 It's crazy. And now of course, you can watch 134 00:08:12,280 --> 00:08:14,480 full movies anytime you want to on your phone. 135 00:08:15,280 --> 00:08:21,720 So it's like that when Google is the big player now. 136 00:08:21,720 --> 00:08:24,160 It used to be IBM back in the day. 137 00:08:25,360 --> 00:08:27,840 Microsoft came out of nowhere, took him out. 138 00:08:28,680 --> 00:08:35,080 Open AI could be the next player to take out Google, possibly. 139 00:08:35,080 --> 00:08:36,600 And that's why Google's kind of afraid. 140 00:08:36,600 --> 00:08:38,799 But they jumped on it with Gemini. 141 00:08:39,760 --> 00:08:44,560 Now, Slack isn't really an AI program, you know, It's not an 142 00:08:44,560 --> 00:08:49,600 app that's touted as an AI first application. 143 00:08:50,440 --> 00:08:53,680 But Dresser's recent work at Slack included rolling out large 144 00:08:53,680 --> 00:08:57,280 scale AI features such as AI generated meeting summaries and 145 00:08:57,280 --> 00:09:00,000 integrations with Salesforce's AI agents. 146 00:09:00,520 --> 00:09:03,520 That experience lines up with enterprise buyers who now expect 147 00:09:03,520 --> 00:09:08,040 concrete productivity gains and not just a chatbot. 148 00:09:08,680 --> 00:09:11,400 It also means she has navigated the governance, security, and 149 00:09:11,400 --> 00:09:15,160 procurement steps that big customers require. 150 00:09:16,040 --> 00:09:22,000 Dresser is all about the money, that's why they got her on and 151 00:09:22,760 --> 00:09:27,880 for a hefty price. So if she can turn this around 152 00:09:27,880 --> 00:09:32,040 and if she can make open AIA Enterprise player, even though 153 00:09:32,120 --> 00:09:35,240 you know some people already use open AI for enterprise, don't 154 00:09:35,240 --> 00:09:38,440 blame them for it. I could see why some companies 155 00:09:38,440 --> 00:09:40,640 would jump over to Google because if they already use the 156 00:09:40,640 --> 00:09:43,200 Google suite, they may as well use the Gemini suite with the 157 00:09:43,200 --> 00:09:46,840 Google Suite and it's just can go hand in hand now. 158 00:09:46,840 --> 00:09:50,320 And I love it. I love the invention of chat 159 00:09:50,320 --> 00:09:56,160 bots and I love that things that used to take copy and pasting 160 00:09:56,840 --> 00:10:02,240 into ChatGPT to get a summary. So say if somebody emailed me, 161 00:10:02,280 --> 00:10:04,080 right? So like right when the ChatGPT 162 00:10:04,080 --> 00:10:09,760 came out, somebody would e-mail me, a client would e-mail me and 163 00:10:09,760 --> 00:10:13,480 I would send it over to ChatGPT. I would paste it in there and 164 00:10:13,480 --> 00:10:15,320 say can you summarize this e-mail for me? 165 00:10:15,680 --> 00:10:18,960 OK, super simple. And it would summarize the 166 00:10:18,960 --> 00:10:22,200 e-mail and I'm like OK cool. Like give give me like 4 bullet 167 00:10:22,200 --> 00:10:25,160 points and it would do that. And I'm like oh, is this worth 168 00:10:25,160 --> 00:10:28,560 it for me to check this out? Sometimes it would be, sometimes 169 00:10:28,560 --> 00:10:32,200 it wouldn't be. But I without that step now 170 00:10:32,200 --> 00:10:35,880 because Gemini's there, it's all integrated. 171 00:10:35,880 --> 00:10:37,760 I don't have to do that anymore. What's the summary of this 172 00:10:37,760 --> 00:10:41,200 e-mail? Let me know if the email's, you 173 00:10:41,200 --> 00:10:43,720 know, 4 paragraphs long. I don't want to read the whole 174 00:10:43,720 --> 00:10:45,680 thing. I need a summary so I can 175 00:10:45,760 --> 00:10:50,800 quickly make a decision if I want to read the whole thing. 176 00:10:51,320 --> 00:10:54,240 Now, if I do, that's great. Gemini can tell me is it worth 177 00:10:54,240 --> 00:10:54,920 it? Yes. 178 00:10:55,440 --> 00:10:59,080 Now Dresser's going to be starting soon. 179 00:10:59,440 --> 00:11:04,960 Our start date is compressing the onboarding curve few weeks. 180 00:11:04,960 --> 00:11:07,760 She's starting next week and suggests that Open AI plans to 181 00:11:07,760 --> 00:11:11,560 plug her right into an existing enterprise machine and have her 182 00:11:11,560 --> 00:11:13,800 lead without a long runway. She already knows how to do 183 00:11:13,800 --> 00:11:15,440 this. She's going to step in here and 184 00:11:15,440 --> 00:11:16,440 she's going to be able to kill it. 185 00:11:16,440 --> 00:11:21,040 Now that puts early emphasis on pipeline health, top accounts 186 00:11:21,080 --> 00:11:24,080 and any quarter end commitments already in flight. 187 00:11:24,520 --> 00:11:29,120 So anything that's on the table, the dresser's going to step 188 00:11:29,120 --> 00:11:32,800 right in, take care of it. And a swift internal tour with 189 00:11:32,800 --> 00:11:35,640 product, trust, security and support leaders would come 190 00:11:35,640 --> 00:11:36,960 first. Of course, she's probably 191 00:11:36,960 --> 00:11:39,360 already meeting those people behind the scenes, followed by 192 00:11:39,360 --> 00:11:41,600 meetings with anchor customers and partners. 193 00:11:41,600 --> 00:11:44,640 Just to get to know everybody the first first week or two, get 194 00:11:44,640 --> 00:11:48,280 to know everybody. Start doing some business now. 195 00:11:50,800 --> 00:11:54,640 Brad Lightcap is worth underlining here. 196 00:11:54,800 --> 00:11:58,120 Acro under the CEO aligns revenue with operations and 197 00:11:58,120 --> 00:12:00,960 delivery, not only with marketing or finance. 198 00:12:01,040 --> 00:12:03,960 Now that set up gives the CROA direct handle on how promises 199 00:12:03,960 --> 00:12:07,720 turn into deployments, which is the core friction in enterprise 200 00:12:07,720 --> 00:12:10,160 AI. If a customer outcome lags, the 201 00:12:10,240 --> 00:12:14,480 escalation path is already inside operation, which shortens 202 00:12:14,480 --> 00:12:22,000 the loop from problem to fix. Now I want to ask you for one 203 00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:25,400 second of your time, OK, And I know I already did this at the 204 00:12:25,440 --> 00:12:27,960 beginning of the show. Give me one second of your time. 205 00:12:27,960 --> 00:12:31,360 I've been doing this show for the last five years, over 1000 206 00:12:31,360 --> 00:12:36,000 episodes, and I promise to give you the next 10 years of my life 207 00:12:36,200 --> 00:12:38,520 doing this show every single day, sometimes two times a day, 208 00:12:39,000 --> 00:12:42,240 morning and afternoon, so you can get all the information you 209 00:12:42,240 --> 00:12:47,440 want about AI and tech and Elon Musk, all that stuff. 210 00:12:47,880 --> 00:12:50,400 So all I need is one second of your time, hit the follow 211 00:12:50,400 --> 00:12:52,040 button. That's it. 212 00:12:52,200 --> 00:12:55,120 Hit the follow button and I give you the next 10 years of this. 213 00:12:55,640 --> 00:12:59,240 No doubt about it. So here's the short wrap of this 214 00:12:59,240 --> 00:13:02,320 episode. Slack's EO Denise Dresser will 215 00:13:02,320 --> 00:13:05,440 become open AI's chief revenue officer starting next week. 216 00:13:05,880 --> 00:13:09,480 She'll run the enterprise unit report to CEO Brad Lightcap, and 217 00:13:09,480 --> 00:13:12,840 bring long expertise from Salesforce and Slack, including 218 00:13:12,840 --> 00:13:16,280 recent AI feature rollouts. Slack name's chief product 219 00:13:16,280 --> 00:13:20,560 officer Rob Seaman as interim CEO while the company manages 220 00:13:20,640 --> 00:13:26,080 this transition support. If you could take a second and 221 00:13:26,080 --> 00:13:29,000 hit this subscribe or the follow button on whatever podcast 222 00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:32,000 platform that you're listening on right now, I greatly 223 00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:33,640 appreciate it. It helps out the show 224 00:13:33,640 --> 00:13:36,320 tremendously and you'll never miss an episode. 225 00:13:36,520 --> 00:13:39,880 And each episode is about 10 minutes or less to get you 226 00:13:39,880 --> 00:13:42,600 caught up quickly. And please, if you want to 227 00:13:42,600 --> 00:13:48,120 support the show even more, go to patreon.com com stage zero 228 00:13:48,560 --> 00:13:50,800 and please take care of yourselves and each other and 229 00:13:50,800 --> 00:13:51,720 I'll see you tomorrow.