Scaling and Growth with Chris Degnan

In this episode of the Revenue Builders podcast, our hosts John
McMahon and John Kaplan talk to Snowflake’s Chief Revenue
Officer, Chris Degnan. Chris talks about his experiences working
in a raw startup environment, and why he chose to leave a
relatively comfortable position to do so. Chris lives and
breathes the art of the grind, and relishes the prospect of being
challenged, showing his aptitude for adapting to different
situations and coming up with creative solutions. Tune in to hear
the story of how a startup like Snowflake stood up to the likes
of Amazon and IBM in the cloud data warehouse, and how a smaller
company can overturn the dominance of an established
player. 


 


Additional Resources:


Donate to help cure multiple myeloma: https://themmrf.org/

Connect to Chris on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-degnan-524470/

Listen to More Revenue Builders: https://forc.mx/3bfW5Od



 


HIGHLIGHTS


Why Chris joined Snowflake in its raw startup phase

Getting the first two contracts and building a 'real' product

Standing up to giants in the cloud storage space

Respect the competition, or get crushed

Think of your job as a 90-day contract

Don't put all of your eggs in the large enterprise baskets

The benefits of the consumption model in SaaS



 


QUOTES


Chris on how they stood up to Amazon in the cloud data
warehouse space: "I always say that I'm better lucky
than good. There's a lot of luck that I kind of ran into in my
career at Snowflake. The first set of things that were helpful
was Amazon, while they were the first cloud data warehouse with
Amazon Redshift, it was not a good product. We actually solved a
lot of the problems. What I would do is I would actually build
lists and focus on the people that were using Amazon."


Chris on why he continues to grind,
everyday: "I'm always afraid that someone's going to
take something from me, and I'm always going to do my best to
grind and keep my job. And that's how I am as a human."


Chris on the benefits of the consumption model for the
customer: "The benefit is in the customer, because
the customer is saying that I have a business partner who
actually is invested in making me successful, not just selling
the idea and leaving."


 


Check out John McMahon’s book here:
https://www.amazon.com/Qualified-Sales-Leader-Proven-Lessons/dp/0578895064