Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Welcome to Opfocus’s podcast RevOps Rockstars. Join hosts David Carnes and Jarin Chu as they interview RevOps professionals and explore the challenges they face today. Throughout the show, we dive into how guests got started with their careers, their best tips and tricks, and what excites them about the future of the industry.
RR - Jeremy Curley
===
Jeremy Curley: at the end of the day, we're in a people business and how we can help people be successful.
my job is not to take credit. My job is really to help people. Do great work. And, if I can be a part of that, a silent part of that, I think that's great.
David Carnes: Today, we're thrilled to have as a guest on the podcast, someone who's been a favorite of OP Focus for the last number of years. Uh, a regular contributor to our round tables, and really an expert on rev ops, on financial topics, and on just scaling SaaS companies in general. He is a, uh, uh, senior director at J m I equity.
He's a seasoned advisor to their portfolio companies. I'd like to welcome Jeremy Curley to today's uh, episode. Welcome, Jeremy.
Jeremy Curley: Thank you for having me. I have not been called an expert or a rock star very much so I I, I do appreciate the intro
David Carnes: today.
Jeremy Curley: and thank, thanks for having me.
Jarin Chu: Jeremy, right off the bat, I'd love to dive in and say and understand from you when a new company joins the J M I portfolio and your bat phone rings and you're called to parachute in to help them out, to evaluate where they are, what's going on with their operations, what are some of those areas in rev ops that you see the most issues in and that you start to review first?
Jeremy Curley: Yeah, that's a good question. And I, and I will say, you know, we are growth equity, so we are investing in companies all along the growth spectrum. So no two companies are alike. So, and I think one of the important and, and fun things about my role is that every company is different and, and it's really important for us to understand that and meet them where they are.
Um, you know, when I think about areas we tend to focus on a lot, I. Obviously just data quality and, and really starting from a place of what are, what are key metrics that, uh, drive success in this organization and how do we make them as transparent as possible, um, for the company and for us as partners to meet them where they are and, and, and help drive growth and improvement in those metrics.
So I'd say data is one thing. Um, from a rev ops perspective, segmentation is also something really critical, whether you're a vertical market company, whether you, you sell into horizontal, we have firm belief that, you know, really having a, a clear understanding of your I C P and where you have a greater right to win and.
Where you have differentiate differentiation, um, you know, what are the two to three things you do better than anyone else? And really understanding that helps form the basis for us to help in a lot of other areas around messaging, positioning, around, uh, adding additional data and accounts, uh, into the database segmentation of the sales team, you know, marketing resources, all of those things.
Uh, so those would probably be the two key areas. But I would say, you know, when we start, we have pretty good alignment with the executive team on what are the three to five key initiatives that will optimize value in the company. And our job is to wedge in where we can be helpful and where, where we're wanting, uh, you know, we could be strategic, uh, and help we could.
Get in the weeds right next to the executive teams and, and, and do the work. Um, so, so we're very flexible in terms of our engagement approach.
Jarin Chu: What I liked, also what you described here, Jeremy, is. Things, well, you just mentioned understanding and clarifying I c P, making sure the differentiation is clear. The messaging and positioning, having reviewed your background and your experiences, which I know we're gonna dive into later in the podcast, you know, you have a very sales heavy background, sales ops, uh, planning and strategy related to sales.
And so when you describe these things, you know, I am obviously involved in marketing. The inner marketer in me gets really excited. I'm like, ah, you know, like the investors care about making sure not only are we doing the right things, but we're doing it with the right people. Right. We are selling it to the right people first.
So I'm wondering, you know, given that initial sort of marketing centric focus, are there some things that you would do on the sales ops side, uh, forecasting related that are also kind of those first, you know, 30, 90, 30 to 90 days, uh, that you'd wanna review as well?
Jeremy Curley: Yeah, I mean, I mean, one of the first things, uh, You know, we do like predictable revenue, right? Like understanding the growth algorithm. So forecasting, I mean, and that's typically started in diligence, really understanding conversion rates, pipeline coverage, um, velocity of deals, how much in quarter bookings or starting pipeline, you know, the pipeline waterfall, right?
Uh, and really understanding the business. Um, so, so forecasting definitely is something that is one of the early things we're working on. And, and we're, a lot of times we're implementing a standard weekly dashboard, uh, that's like a go-to-market dashboard that really shows, you know, weekly bookings against like historical weekly attainment along with pipeline coverage based on forecast category or stage, wherever they are.
'cause we don't wanna, I think a lot of people fall into the chapel like, what is best practice? Unless let's implement best practice, but. I'm a firm believer, you've gotta meet organizations where they are and you need to get alignment and sometimes you gotta move a little slower to eventually move fast and get to where you want to go.
Um, but definitely forecasting from that segmentation, you know, a lot can come around territories, just quota, sales capacity. Do we have enough? Uh, what sales enablement, how do we onboard reps? How many reps do we need to meet our bookings plan? Um, how many territories do we need? And a lot of times companies that have, you know, three sales reps and all of a sudden we're saying we're gonna go to 12, they've never done that before.
Um, so that's somewhere we can lean in from a rev ops perspective and really be helpful.
David Carnes: Oh, that's so interesting. You mentioned, uh, in your first answer, growth equity, and I'm curious if we come up a few levels and just, uh, if you could share with us, so j m i, equity, um, what is the investment thesis and how might it differ from other growth equity firms?
Jeremy Curley: Well, there's a lot of different models in, in, in private equity. I think growth, equity, you know, we're making investments a lot of times in companies that are between 10 50 million in a r r. Probably the average is like 20 million in a r r and they're growing companies. Um, so, you know, if you go earlier sometimes, um, some companies are really early, maybe don't have any revenue, right?
Like they have a really good idea. Um, and venture capital, um, you know, is invested to, to make that idea a reality. And I think growth equity. You know, the, we have product market fit. Um, we have customers, we have really good gross retention. Uh, we, we, we really do a lot of diligence on product to ensure that, you know, we have good product quality, so we try not to take product risk.
Um, and so like at companies at a certain scale that, that are in that growth mode, um, you know, that's where we're making our investments and, and, and our job from an operator is to, to help accelerate that growth. Um, and you know, based on having invested in a lot of different B two B growth, SaaS companies, being able to see around corners, understanding that, you know, scaling growth can be very hard.
Um, and we've made a lot of mistakes and we want to share those with the portfolio. So, so they don't make 'em as well.
David Carnes: That's so interesting. So you've shared that you're investing in companies of, of different sizes and they're in different points in, in their growth. I'm curious, how do you advise these portfolio companies to spend resources and target the right segments? I.
Jeremy Curley: A lot of it comes to data. I mean, I, you know, we, we invest in, in great leadership teams, so, so they, they know it. Um, they just have seen it in, in day to day. They're, they're in the business more than we will ever be. Um, so they understand their business, so they know intrinsically, like where they win more.
I think when we provide the data, it helps really hone in on the, the right allocation of resources to optimize that. Um, so it doesn't really take a lot of selling when you show the data and you show okay, in, in segments A, B, C. We have a 40% win rate in segments like de and f. You know, we have a 15% win rate and it, and it represents 50% of our losses.
Um, and when you start showing data around that, people start to really understand, man, we're, we're taking up a lot of overall company capacity going after these segments that we don't have as good a product market fit as some of these other segments. And, and we're big on focus. So, you know, what we work with them on is like, okay, how do we, how do we build a database that has that really good i c p that we're, we're ranking accounts based on propensity to buy that we're building territories based on that 'cause that can drive the most amount of equitable territories and put sales reps in a position to be successful.
Um, And then one, and then, you know, the results start to happen. So it's not just like necessarily cutting something off. And, but those small tweaks a lot of times start to show up in the numbers, and that's where you get a lot of alignment.
David Carnes: Must be fascinating. You're starting with companies who all have a different starting point with their infrastructure and you talk about reporting. Reporting relies on data to be in systems and structured so that you can pull it out and take advantage of it. I, I'm curious, how do you help companies build out their rev ops infrastructure?
Jeremy Curley: you said, it starts with data. So really it's around I C P. Okay, let's, let's figure out what that, what that world is. Um, what's the overall tam? How many, how many counts are in there? How many, so these are, these are the areas we wanna play in. These are the areas we wanna sell to. Um, what are the, you know, buyer personas there?
What are the titles, right? Um, and then, and then we will enrich the database with that segment and make sure that we have all of that, that market that we wanna, we want to target, right? So that's first. And that, then I think second, a lot of companies want to jump to tech, right? Mm-hmm. And so like, have a big tech stack.
Um, there's a lot of great rev ops technologies, but. Uh, a lot of times we want to focus on the process first. Let's understand the process. Let's build good processes. It's not gonna be as efficient, but it'll be right. And we'll have the opportunity to fix it. And then once we get to a certain point where we have process, we have documented processes, they are working, we've somewhat built the machine, then we'll start to layer on technology over that to drive greater optimization and, and greater just effectiveness of, you know, across the go-to-market stack.
For instance, an example like before we get, you know, uh, you know, before we get a churn zero or Gainsight, right? We want to do customer segmentation. We wanna understand what is our, let's segment the customer base, let's figure out. Um, how we want to do that and then figure out our engagement model against those different segments.
Then once we understand that and have that documented, then we layer on the tech that can help us do it so much better.
Jarin Chu: that's very helpful color. As I'm hearing the kinds of ways you are advising a portco, I, I'm kind of looking for maybe a, a, a broader idea of like, How you engage with various members of the Rev ops team? Is it typically primarily advising that Rev ops leader? Does that, um, engagement involve other folks over time?
You know, how does it differ? How does it evolve and shift, you know, first 90 days when the investment, uh, happens versus like, say a year, in two years in? I'm sure your role looks quite different with each of those Port cos over time.
Jeremy Curley: Yeah, and, and, and you know, rev ops is just the piece of it. Like we, we, in our roles, we need to be gen generalists and we really need to get alignment with the CEOs and the, and the executive team. And that's, that's who we're trying to build relationships with and, and build that trust and execute on the value creation plan.
I tend to, you know, like based on my background, I tend to work a lot with ops teams, but, um, That isn't, that isn't the goal. The goal might be like, how do we, how do we scale the sales team? And so like I'll work with the CRO, C s o, CMO, um, C F O and, and, and then have an overall plan and approach of how we are going to do that.
And then I might work with Rev ops to execute on that plan. Um, and a lot of times my role is not to do it, although sometimes I need to, sometimes I don't even have anyone in rev ops. And, um, I do love, I do love that work, so I like to get my hands dirty, but at the end of the day, my job, like I, I want to work with them, um, partner with them and then like moving forward, they don't need me.
To do some of that work, you know, like that's, um, that's the best for the portfolio company and that's the best for, for j m i for us to do that. Um, so, so it does evolve over time and then, but there's always projects we might do m and a, so we have an integration, so there's a lot of different projects that come up.
We might need to implement C P Q David. We've, we've done some of those together. Um, so like then it, sometimes it get, it's, it's very big projects, sometimes it's initiatives. Um, but I always try to try to stay close to rev ops because that is where a lot of the reporting and business transparency, um, and, and, and just that knowledge cadence comes from.
So having a good, good alignment with the board, with the executive team on what are the KPIs. How much are we gonna be looking at them? When are we gonna be looking at them? In what format? What's the definition? When are they gonna be sent out? So everyone is aligned on what drives success here and let's keep score.
And in week three of the quarter, let's figure out that something is not going right because we have time to fix it. Versus finding out week 13, you know,
Jarin Chu: I think so much of what you're describing is, um, visibility, transparency, and being able to trust the information that gets reported up and starting at that foundational level, making sure that the, the entire business, not just the executives, but of course as the investors, we can all trust and know that we're looking at the same set of dash dashboards with, with so many of the rev ops audience we have for the podcast.
The folks that are listening, would you say like, are there anything they could do or they should do more of if there's an operator like yourself involved that they should be taking advantage of? Like how would you encourage them to work with you so that they're maximizing kind of the value that they can get, um, from you as an operator?
Jeremy Curley: Yeah, I mean, and I, I tell this to people all the time, like where if I am being successful, They will view me as an extension of their team. Um, 'cause it's very important for me, you know, like how I rate myself and my performance. You know, like there is company performance, there's the value creation plan we have to develop, which is a scorecard.
It's very outcome driven. So that keeps score. But what is, what is also important to me is, is building relationships and being a trusted advisor with executive teams. And it's, and it's, I take great pride in companies succeeding, but also just careers and, and people succeeding. And at the end of the day, we're in a people business and how we can help people be successful.
Um, my job is not to take credit. My job is really to help people. Do great work. And, if I can be a part of that, a silent part of that, I think that's great. And so how I try to position that with people is just like you, you mentioned the bat phone, I use that term all the time. You have the bat phone, call me nights, weekends, whenever you need advice.
Um, if you're struggling with something, use me as a resource. Use me as an extension of your team. Um, and it, at the end of the day, it's still your work. Uh, I am only there to help you and make you successful. So I think people taking advantage of that, and a lot of people do. Um, and, and then I think another key thing is just to drive as much business transparency and communication as possible.
Like, 'cause like I said, uh, in the best situations, the best companies. Have that early sounding alarm when something isn't going good. Um, and having more resources that can, that can look at that and figure out what we need to do to, uh, understand the root cause and improve that the, the better we all are.
Um, and I think, you know, the, the one thing that separates, when I think about great rev ops leaders versus others who are also good data tells a story. So when you look at a spreadsheet, some people just say, see a bunch of numbers. Some people see a story. So sometimes I get this spreadsheet or this data analysis and I look at it and right away I'm like, this can't be right.
'cause this story just doesn't make sense. Right. But really good rev ops leaders will review that and they'll catch it. Um, and they're already. I think they have a curiosity to really understand why things are the way they are and what are the different variables that feed into this bigger K p I, uh, and, and what levers can we pull to really drive improvement in that.
And when they see that story doesn't jive, they're already diving in, finding the root cause, coming up with areas of opportunity to drive improvement.
Jarin Chu: What really strikes me in your answers, Jeremy, is not only in how thoughtful you are sharing the way you're approaching all of this, but also I think that real sense of shared success and collaboration comes through very clearly. Obviously, as a private equity investor, the success of the business success of that team will positively reflect on each of you and.
In a really, in a real way, you are in the same boat together. And so I'm gonna push you just a bit more and ask kind of the flip side of the coin of the question I just asked, which is, are there times, you know, you mentioned there are really great rev ops leaders. Are there times when a Rev ops team might disappoint you?
Um, where they might not be spending time and resources in the right place where they might not be seeing that story and, you know, kind of sharing this contradictory data. Um, what are some examples of that? And like how, how would you advise folks to prevent that from happening?
Jeremy Curley: I mean, we all started somewhere, right? And I think, um, I. When I first started in rev ops, it was all about the data. It was all about the spreadsheets. And one of the key things I learned is like, that data's great, but at the end of the day, it's the people and it's the execution that actually drives all the value.
So get out of the spreadsheets. So I, you know, my first, my first approach to that is to try to be a mentor, to try to help them. Um, and, and, and if that takes me working late and doing some of the work, uh, that is perfectly fine. 'cause again, my job is to make them successful. Now that company deserves and needs to have good data, good transparency, good reporting, that that is critical to the success of the organization.
So sometimes we have to make hard decisions, but I always want to ensure that everyone is in a position to be successful. So if I need to invest more time, Um, and doing some work, showing some people, some, some of the things I've learned or some of the things I've learned from other portfolio companies, other rev ops.
I mean, one of the beauties of my job is I get to meet so many great rev ops leaders and they, I learn something from every single one of them. Um, and I try to pass that on. Um, so I would say more often than not, just leaning in a little bit more, setting clear expectations of what we're looking for, finding the teaching moments in terms of like, you can't send this out like this and, and here's why.
And here are some things you should look at moving forward to ensure that that data is correct. And guess what? Next time send it to me and we'll walk through it before you send it out. Right? So there's little things like that. Um, and I would say the majority of time I. People wanna do good. So like if you invest in them, uh, I'm a firm believer.
I, I won't talk about the exceptions 'cause I would say that's more the rule.
David Carnes: Yeah, that's so great. And knowing that, you know, no one's going to school to learn rev ops, you know, not yet. It hasn't become a, an official course or, or a degree. What you're doing is just so incredibly important and valuable. I know one of our, uh, one of our mutual, uh, friends has, uh, been working within one of your portfolio companies for the last four to six months, and she loves that.
She can lean on you with questions like that.
Jeremy Curley: That's great to hear.
David Carnes: yeah. So, um, so just I guess sticking on this topic for, for a minute, just, and you talking about success, uh, how do you measure Rev Ops success across the portfolio? So you mentioned there are a handful of metrics, you know, that, that you're tracking. Um, may, are there other, uh, you know, conditions or areas that help you define, you know, who's being successful, maybe who isn't being as successful?
Jeremy Curley: as you know, there's so many different variables. So, so like, um, I don't wanna look at one metric and say like, somebody's good or bad. Like, some people are just in great markets, right? And, and things grow regardless of what people do. Um, I would say the things I do focus on are obviously hitting.
Budget, like forecast accuracy I think is something that's really important, right? Um, and if you understand the data, um, and if you put in the work to build, to understand the correlations and what drives bookings, and you know, like velocity, conversion rates, stage conversion, um, you know, you can get pretty good at forecasting.
There's a lot of great technologies out there that, that help you do that even better. Um, other things I look at are, are just overall tainment. Like I, I want people to set up plans that put people in a position to be successful. And, and, and not only just tainment. Rep productivity and optimizing that.
Are we seeing improvement in rep productivity? Are we seeing a good distribution of rep quota attainment? So like we don't have just the winners and the losers. Uh, and that, that's somewhat, it's not always the case, but a lot of times that is how well are you optimizing, you know, territories and segments within your business.
Um, and that, that's a critical one because I, I feel like, you know, repetition is one of those things that I, I, I know a decent amount of people talk about it, but I don't think it's talk enough talk about it. 'cause they somewhat blame like, oh, the, they left because of the manager. Then I look at some of these stats and I'm like, they left because you gave them a quota that was not attainable and they did not make money.
And typically the ones that leave are not your under performers. They're your best reps, uh, who can leave and have other opportunities. So, um, you know, I probably, the thing I look at the most to understand how good of a grasp Rev Ops has on the business is their go-to market strategy at the beginning of the year and the variables, they're looking at the data, they're looking at how cross-functional they're being in terms of driving alignment across the business, the targets they are setting.
You know, that's a, it's a tough job. Um, and there's a lot of difference. So I don't wanna oversimplify with my answer, but, but those are some things I'd look at.
David Carnes: So I know a number of people listening today are interested in what somebody does, who's on an operational. Excellence team. Uh, I'm curious, what does your day-to-day look like?
Jeremy Curley: Every day is the, the reason I love this job. I, I feel like I have the best job in the world. It, it, it's a lot of, um, those context switching a lot. You're in internal meetings, you're, you're potentially meeting with a c e O on an update on the value creation plan. You're meeting with a CMO who's looking to, uh, uh, improve demand gen.
You're talking to, you're interviewing some people that we're trying to hire in the portfolio. Um, you're meeting with rev ops on a, on, on helping them build out a forecast. Um, I have a. Uh, a customer segmentation call tomorrow. I have a call tomorrow around, um, around implementing renewals in Salesforce and that's right before a board meeting, um, that I'll attend.
So like it goes across the board. Um, in terms of meeting, meeting with the executive team. Some are projects related, sometimes some of 'em trying to go deep, some of 'em just trying to give advice or, or, or get status. Um, but, but it is, it is all across the board. 'cause like I said, from our seat, we need to be, uh, we need to help the portfolio any way we can.
That's how we add value. Um, so however they need us, we try to be there or, or bring the resources that can really execute on that. Um, so every day is different. Every week's different. Um, but what I always tell people, it's all work worth doing. And, um, and, and that's why I feel like it's the best job.
David Carnes: Yeah, it's just so fascinating and I know that you, you know, you're so gracious to spend this time with us. You've probably been on 15 back-to-back calls already, uh, today with portfolios, all portfolio companies all over. Um, so I, I bet that there are a number of ways to measure the success of the operational excellence team.
You know, are the portfolio companies able to scale because you're investing and they're starting in all different parts or all different places. With their processes, with their tech stack, with their data, with their analytics. Um, so how, how would you say that your team is, is measured, just sort of given all the variables.
Jeremy Curley: Yeah. I mean, at the end of the day, it's, it's company performance. Um, and I think taking that down a level, it's, it's the value creation plan. We have alignment on the three to five things that are gonna optimize value in the company. Um, and then, uh, you know, we work, you know, at j m I, it's one team across the deal team in our operating group, but we work together to make sure we're executing on that value creation plan.
And, and they're very, the, the value creation plan is very outcome oriented. So that's really the scorecard. And then like, if we execute on that and performance still isn't better, we need to reassess and really look, look to say like, okay. Um, Those were the three to five things we executed on them. We still have areas of opportunity.
Let's, let's figure out what we can do to help drive improvement here. Um, and this is, this is not in a silo, this isn't in some room. This is with the company. And, and figuring out how we can work together to optimize growth. And, you know, we've had a lot of that over the last few years. There's been a lot of, um, a lot of change.
And, and that might be the, uh, that might, um, you know, underestimate all the different types of change we've seen. And there's a lot of uncertainty. Um, We've had to do a lot of that, but I think being aligned with the portfolio is the most critical thing. 'cause, because then you can move fast, then you can see around corners, you can figure out when things aren't going to plan, and then reassess and then execute.
David Carnes: So I wanna shift gears and talk about due diligence for a moment. Your, uh, people that do what you do invariably are involved in, uh, vetting. Uh, companies that might become part of your portfolio. I'm curious, within Rev ops, is there something that's a red flag when you are doing due diligence that just sort of makes you, makes you pause or, or have concerns specific to rev ops?
Jeremy Curley: Yeah. Specific to rev ops, I would say like not, I'm gonna go back to the I C P, um, not being able to clearly define where you win and why you win. I think that's one. Um, I think not having a clear growth algorithm, right. Like not, not having predictable revenue in any way. Right. Um, and it seems very lumpy and, and some, and guess what?
Like there are businesses that have, you know, closed one two deals a quarter and are great. Um, but I still think you, you have a growth al algorithm there and you can understand that. And you're not, may, maybe looking at it quarterly anymore, you're looking at maybe like, uh, you know, two halves to the year or, or yearly.
But I think, you know, when the, there doesn't seem to be the, the, when you look back at the data, when you look at it just doesn't, you, you don't know what you need to do to really drive. Because we're growth equity, like what can we do, what resources we can, can we bring to bear to grow this company? And if it's difficult to answer that question, that's a yellow flag.
I also want to say that a lot of times yellow flags are opportunities. So you need to understand and you need to do the work to understand, is this really, is this a market thing, a company thing? Or is it execution? And if it's execution, like that's not, that's an opportunity that we can work with them to drive improvement.
David Carnes: Alright. Jeremy, I think one of the most fun parts of the podcast is finding out a little bit more about who you are. Uh, you studied at Stonehill College. You studied managerial economics. Sounds perfect for what you're doing right now. That's not always true. You did an M B A here in the Boston area at Babson College.
Very cool. You've, you've been in charge of growth operations, so previously at Way Star, um, you were also at Bo Bomgar. Sorry if I said even correctly. And then you had eight years at Monster, which must have been fascinating just considering that company's growth and trajectory over the years. How did you get into this, uh, operations role, this operational excellence role, uh, within private equity?
Jeremy Curley: Yeah, I mean, I, I might start with just the experience in, in, in customer success 'cause I don't think people make this parallel enough. But customer success has a tremendous amount of data and I. Um, you know, we were forecasting 15, 30 minute increments and, and trying to match up capacity to that. We had quality programs.
We were listening to calls, scoring people on quality. Um, you know, and it was re really important 'cause it's a little bit, it's a cost center, right? We had to be really good and really accurate. So I, I, I felt like that background really helped me. It's not the same, the, there's different variables, but the mentality is the same.
It's like, how do we take these limited resources and, and, and, and drive as much, you know, productivity and, and optimize performance as much as possible. Um, I I, I did realize like, this isn't what I wanted to do. Um, and I, I got, uh, I had met somebody who, a consultant who, who got me in at, at, uh, A B two B growth.
SA company was founder, founder led at the time. Um, and I was more of a consultant at the time, like customer consultant helped them optimize their, their services. Um, but I had that, again, again, I had that curiosity to understand why things are the way they're, so I started looking at data, started looking at Salesforce, understanding, um, understanding conversion rates and, and those things.
And, and, and luckily the, the head of sales noticed and he is like, he brought me over and said, like, I, I know you haven't done this before, but you're asking the right questions. You're looking at the right data. You're, you're wired that way. I think you'd be successful here. So that's, that's how I got my start.
Um, and I've loved it ever since.
Jarin Chu: You're coming up on almost five years. Uh, I think in a month or next month, uh, maybe by the time this podcast is out, it will, you'll, you've already gone through your work anniversary. What would be advice you give yourself on day one of the role knowing what you know today?
Jeremy Curley: that, that is a good one. It, it is a much different role. Um, you know, I think when you are in a company, um, and you have a team, you know, the first three, six months, you're, you're building equity and, uh, for the most part that stays with you, right? Like, uh, you know, the, you know, all the people and, and you can just get in execution mode.
In, in this role, you're building equity every day. You're meeting new companies every day, right? Like, so, so there's a challenge. Um, I think my, my advice would be, be a sponge. Build, build relationships and continue to learn, right? Like, and, um, and don't try to do too much, right? Like I, I do feel like, uh, when you start, you're always trying to add as much value as possible.
And that's some something I've always struggled with. Like the most stressful times in my career haven't been, have been where times that I wa I, I felt like I wasn't adding as much value as I could to organizations. Um, but I would say stick with it. 'cause it, because it is easy. The first year is probably pretty tough when you're moving from that type of structure to this type of structure.
It's just different, different skill sets. So, so I might give a few books. I might, there might be some, some additional feedback, but I would, I would just say, Learn as much as you can, stick with it. Um, ask questions, um, and, and, and find ways to add value.
Jarin Chu: We're coming up on probably 30 some episodes at on the podcast and
at least. Probably like a half dozen of the heads of rev ops on the podcast have mentioned, oh, you know, as part of their career bucket list, they would at some point love to work in an operating excellence team or maybe work in private equity.
What kinds of experience would you encourage, uh, our audience and our listeners to develop if they wanted to take a similar path that you've taken, going from in-house to now being able to work with dozens and dozens of companies every day.
Jeremy Curley: Yeah, I think, I think probably the, the biggest piece of advice I would do is to get in a private equity portfolio. Um, I do feel like Rev ops works with. Uh, private equity more just because of the nature of their job. Uh, you know, they, they own a lot of the data and they're presenting a lot of the data.
So I would say that, I would say do hard things. I mean, m and a integration, you know, uh, migration of like if you, if you have on-prem to SaaS opportunities, there's these things that are very hard C P Q implementation, like those cross-functional projects that really show your ability to work, uh, with people who you might not have, uh, authority over and, and execute and get things done.
I think that tells a lot about, about, uh, a person. Um, but I would say like getting in, getting into a, a PE. Portfolio company would be the first step.
David Carnes: So, um, Jeremy, you and I have had lots of conversations over the last number of years as part of round tables and, uh, you know, other, other situations where we're digging into a topic you seem all in, in every conversation. And I love that. I think it's fantastic, really willing to get down into the weeds, to dig through something and whatnot.
I'm curious, after these back to back to back days that you must have Zoom, call to Zoom call, uh, challenge to challenge that you're solving. Uh, how do you unwind from all this?
Jeremy Curley: Do you have any advice? I, I, I still struggle with this. Like I, I, uh, you know, these are, we, we all have hard jobs and, and I have a family I care about. Um, and I'm always trying to be better in every aspect. Um, and so I, you know, um, you know, some of the key things that I've found is like, workout as much as possible.
If I don't work out for a couple days in a row, like I'm sluggish. Like I don't have the energy. I'm, I don't have the mood. Um, so, so that's critical. And, and, and you know, like I try to create intentional habits that will, um, Allow me to be intentional and present, present for the things I care about. So when I go home, I try to put the phone away, I change clothes to get outta my work clothes to get into like, like, uh, shorts or whatever, like my, my home clothes, right.
And just those acts of habits will, will some, sometimes allow me to somewhat shut off the brain from the, from the other, the other work. Some nights I can't do that. Some nights I have to be on. But, but when I can, it's always about just what do you care about? How can you be intentional? What are you willing to sacrifice to do that?
Um, and then be disciplined, you know, like, and I would say the things are, you know, working out. I just started training Juujitsu probably two and a half months ago. That has been really, I. I stink at it and that, but that's the value. It's like so humbling. There's so much to learn. Um, but when I'm there, there's nothing else.
It's, it's an hour, hour and a half of like my, a clear mind, I'm focused. Um, so finding those little outlets to not be good at something or learning a new skill. Um, and, you know, just, just make sure you carve out time for the things that are important to your life. Because I'm not sure there's many of us that our only interest is rev ops, right?
Like it's a big interest and we spend more majority of our time doing it, but find those other things.
David Carnes: We're gonna, we're gonna try to dig up some video of you in your Brazilian jujitsu, uh, in a tournament or something. Wouldn't that be great?
And, and aside from being an awesome contributor to some of Op Focus's, rev ops roundtables, uh, across the many years, what other resources have you turned to for your learning?
Jeremy Curley: I used to read a lot. I listen a lot now. Like, so like a lot of audio books, a lot of podcasts,
Jarin Chu: Specific volumes or podcasts you're following, you'd call out.
Jeremy Curley: um, Yeah, so I mean, I, I'll try to find anything specifically around sales. There's not a ton of rev ops ones. I mean, just business in general. Like, I like diarrhea of a c E O, like that's something, and that's more of like, that, that, that isn't really for work.
That's more like, I'm just interested in the conversations of really successful people. Um, but, um, you know, I try to have a couple books going at a time. Um, I'm not, I, you know, it's been a busy few months. I haven't, I need to get back on that.
David Carnes: I think we found the same with our round table. So I think, you know, kind of, kind of similar, uh, sharing challenges, sharing experiences, uh, just so, so valuable. So Jeremy, thank you so much. Like, I wanna, uh, ask you, uh, where people can find you. Uh, I know you're out on LinkedIn. Are, are you on any other social media sites where people can find you?
Jeremy Curley: LinkedIn's probably the easiest.
David Carnes: Okay. And then, uh, the j m I website's probably a good place to learn more about j m i equity.
Jeremy Curley: Yep.
David Carnes: Just jmi.com. Great. Jeremy, it's really been a pleasure having you on the podcast today. Uh, we appreciate you taking this much time sharing so many of your experiences. I really liked hearing about, uh, implementing a a, a standard weekly dashboard and also, uh, figuring out the metrics for historical weekly attainment.
Um, I really love your background starting out in customer success and how that's proven to be relevant. And even some of the metrics that you had to do and that discipline around those metrics has, has, has served you well throughout the career. Um, you shared advice on being a sponge. You shared, uh, advice on building relationships regardless of the role early on, that that builds up equity that you, you can take advantage and tap into.
And then just that overall theme of continuing to learn, uh, it's really been a pleasure having you on the podcast today, Jeremy.
Jeremy Curley: I, I greatly appreciate the invite. Again, when I saw the title, I'm like, why are you asking me? But, um, David, I've always had, uh, uh, I attend a lot of your little round your, your round tables and your monthly meetings and, uh, always had a great, great amount of respect. So I appreciate what you've done for the, for the Rev Ops community, um, everyone needs to go out and buy David's new book.
It's really great on reporting dashboards. Do you wanna wanna flow that up there? Yep. Um, and a pleasure. I look forward, I look forward to future speakers and anywhere I can be helpful to the broader rev ops community. Um, look me up. Uh, uh, I'm available and, and, uh, call me, send me an email. Connect with me on social media.
I would, I would love to meet you.
Jarin Chu: I also want to thank our audience for continuing along with our show for the last almost 20, 30 episodes, um, listening to our chitchats and conversations with amazing people like you, Jeremy. And, um, you know, for me, I'm, I'm most interested in at some point seeing you choke out someone on the mat, uh, practicing B j J and then leaving Rev ops just far in the dust, uh, not needing to worry about solving.
Business problems and just focusing on the mat. Um, loved everything you've shared today. You bring so much humility and also just, um, this sense of, hey, we're growing together, we're collaborating together. We're in it together. The teaching moments, when you described how you found those opportunities to educate, uh, rev ops leader, you know, assuming that they have the best intentions that they wanna do better, it made, really made me think how, you know, that growth, equity, uh, operating excellence role feels a bit like the parent for a growing business and really enjoyed all these lessons and gems you've shared.
So thank you again for taking the hour to, um, share with our audience so much from your work today.
Jeremy Curley: No, I, great. Greatly appreciate it. Uh, appreciate, uh, the words and I appreciate your time as well. Um, and look forward to future conversations.
Jarin Chu: Wonderful. And this has been another exciting episode of Revs Stars. See you next time.
David Carnes: Stay classy. Rock stars.