Acknowledgments
From Ashvin
When I first heard about the opportunity to write this book, I knew it would be a challenging yet rewarding job. Ruben and I realized we had the responsibility and incredible opportunity to channel the years of our work, as well as the influence of our entire Customer Success community, into writing. I owe a tremendous amount of gratitude to our Customer Success colleagues who pour out endless hours of energy every day, every week, and every month to make their customers successful. They make mistakes, learn from them, and share their learnings with the CS community to improve the outcomes for their customers and Customer Success professionals worldwide. Thank you all for allowing us the opportunity to share all our learnings through this book.
I am fortunate in my career to have had wonderful mentors who have inspired me to push myself more than I could have on my own. I'm eternally grateful to Kamal Haddad, Ray Casey, James Dillon, and Badri Kothandaraman for recruiting me at Cypress Semiconductor – my first job in Silicon Valley. They encouraged me to try new roles and got me hooked on the amazing world of working with customers and solving tough problems. I must acknowledge that one of my best educational experiences was at McKinsey & Company. I owe so much to the firm for giving me the courage to believe that no problem is unsolvable. The education I received from Marc Singer, Dan Leberman, Alexis Krivkovich, Brian Gregg, Roxane Divol, Monica Adractas, Robert Byrne, Barry Ames, Abid Mohsin, Alfonso Pulido and Kausik Rajgopal about executive communications and creative problem-solving are priceless. Most importantly, thanks to all of them for letting me make mistakes and learn from them.
I come now to the crowning glory of my working career – Gainsight. There are so many people to thank. Thank you to Nick Mehta and Allison Pickens for believing in me and letting me join you at the forefront of a new and thriving category. Nick Mehta, you've been the most inspirational CEO and human being I've ever worked with. You've taught me how to win at business while being human first and the importance of leading by example. Thank you, Allison Pickens, for taking innumerable chances with me. You've given me the space to create things from scratch, watched my back when I made mistakes, and you have always been available to trade notes and ideas. Thanks to my amazing former and current teammates Nadav Shem-Tov, Ganesh Subramanian, Tyler McNally, Kellie Capote, Kelly DeHart, Barr Moses, Easton Taylor, Emily McDaniel, Peter Wride, Daniel Levine, Tony Smart, Sridhar Gollapalli, Elaine Cleary, Seth Wylie, Rich Busch, Davi Shorter, and many others for making our customers, investors, and teammates successful. A special thanks to Allison Pickens, Priyanka Srinivasan, and Seth Wylie for all the work on Gainsight Elements. It had a significant impact on this book.
This book would not be possible without the editorial team at Wiley, in particular, Richard Narramore, Vicki Adang, and Victoria Anllo. My first foray into writing a book would not have happened without your impressive guidance along the way. A huge shout-out to our Developmental Editor, Martta Eicher Rabago. You took my scribbles, thoughts, and mumblings, and gave them a voice. You were patient and encouraging when the process looked impossible. You made sure I brought my best to every word and chapter in this book. Thank you Martta!
A very special thank you to Brian Millham for generously providing the foreword of this book. Your founding efforts at Salesforce has been pivotal to the customer success profession.
I saved the most important dedication for last. To my wife Ragini and my daughter Shaira, you make me a better human being every day. You were selfless in giving me the space to create this book. I'm sorry for all the weekends when I was absent in your lives busy writing. I can safely say that the book would not have happened without your endless support and love through this process. I'm so lucky to have you both in my life. To my mom and dad, thank you for making me who I am. You have sacrificed a lot in your own lives to make sure I got to where I am today. Please know that I'm thankful each and every day to have the best parents in the whole wide world.
I hope this book takes our Customer Success Community one step further in our evolution. If you find the book valuable, please share it with your friends and colleagues. Happy Success for All!
From Ruben
When I learned that Ashvin and I were going on a book-writing adventure together, I knew right away that there was a missing variable to its successful completion. Every good book that withstands all types of weather has a strong binding. The binding serves as the book's spine so that it can stand upright and on its own. It is the glue that keeps all the pages tightly structured, presenting it as a singular, consistent form. The binding must also be remarkably malleable, flexing but not breaking, as each chapter turns and a new one begins. Throughout this entire project, and for the nearly 30 years we've been together, my binding has been my wife, Martta. She encouraged me when I was in doubt. She extorted words when I thought there were none left to share. She poured herself selflessly into my work. She took on everything in our home life that I couldn't do while pulling 80–90-hour weeks. This project, and my career, for that matter, would not have happened without her. In fact, if you look at the Copyright page of this book, you will find her credited as the Developmental Editor, which is factually one of her many talents and functionally her material role in this project. Thank you, my love.
To all my children: your sacrifice and support have always been my inspiration. Don't ever give up on your aspirations and embrace the unpredictability of life. To my mom and dad: thank you for your unconditional love, providing me with a solid foundation and an abundance of privileges that led me here. I am forever grateful. To my brother, thank you for your generous heart and your always sincere desire for me and our family's happiness. To my now departed mother- and father-in-law, your steadiness, wisdom, and good counsel are reflected in this work. Thank you for teaching me the true meaning of The Word. To my extended family and friends, thank you always for your shared enthusiasm. A distinct thank you to Joan Johnson for the use of your beautiful SoCal home as a two-week writing retreat. It served as a sanctuary on so many levels. May you be forever blessed. To my number one mentor, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, thank you for always believing in me and imparting the truth that every situation can result in a win-win.
Thank you, Anthony Kennada, for your genuine friendship and fateful advocacy (and book cover idea). You have truly impacted my life forever. Thank you, Dan Steinman, for your mentorship, bringing me on board, and the many conversations we had from across the pond. Thank you, Nick Mehta, for being living proof of #humanfirst leadership, always being your authentic self, and embracing me as part of the Gainsight family, starting even from the day you interviewed me. Thank you Ashvin Vaidyanathan, for the opportunity to partner with you on this quest. I truly appreciate you. Of course, none of this would have been possible without Jim Eberlin and Sreedhar Peddineni, Gainsight's founders.
This book is a reflection of all Gainsters past and present – I just happened to be one the scribes. To my original CS cohort, Elaine, Kelly D., Tracy, Julia, Paul P., and Nikka, this book is your work too. Special thanks to all my Phoenix teammates, especially the other crazy guy who decided to join me as PHX #2, Mike Manheimer, as we worked out of a temporary North Scottsdale office/storage closet loaned to us by Scott Salkin back in the day. So many good memories, such as moving downtown (three times) and naming our new conference rooms after Mexican-style meats because we were hungry that day. I appreciate you, Mike, and Lauren Sommers for your encouragement, giving me latitude on deadlines and limiting new assignments for the three months while keeping me contained to no more than two full-time jobs. Thanks to Mervin John for helping me launch Pulse+ and for keeping the lights on during this book project. A big shout out to Ryan Anderson for curating all 50+ images and figures we needed for this text and for doing it on an outlandish timeline. Thanks to Priyanka Srinivasan, Seth Wylie, Allison Pickens, and Ashvin for the CS-Elements content peppered throughout this book. A literary thank you to Matthew Klassen, our principal wordsmithing craftsman and Head of Creative. Your kind spirit and facetiousness are keenly reflected in Gainsight's written voice; much of it echoed herein.
A huge thank you to the amazing team at Wiley, in particular, Richard Narramore, Vicki Adang, Beula Jaculin and Victoria Anllo, for your amazing guidance and encouragement throughout this entire process. It was very meta to be on the receiving end of your “customer success” best practices playbook for first-time authors.
A very special thank you to Brian Millham for honoring us with the foreword of this book. Your pioneering work at Salesforce is one of the reasons customer success exists in the first place.
Finally, thank you to ALL of the incredible thought leaders that contributed to the project as well as the entire Customer Success Community. Thank you for the opportunity to share our voice. I hope this work serves to edify you. Cheers and success for all!