Grit

Guest: Matt Heinz; Chief Revenue Officer at Amplitude

In this episode, we cover: Matt’s atypical career path from sales leader to quota-carrying account executive tasked with building a company’s go-to-market strategy. (3:06) … How top-tier content marketing can create large amounts of inbound demand. (6:55) … Transparency vs. flexibility: The marketing and sales lessons learned from bringing a product up-market. (11:27) … Matt’s ‘blue-collar’ work ethic and the importance of acting like a leader. (14:27) … Why personal success is often tied to the success of a group. (17:56) … How leadership changes as personal responsibility over a company’s success increases. (20:32) … Product analytics: How Amplitude, Matt’s current company, helps organizations understand their customers more fully. (25:52) … ‘I needed a different challenge in my career’: Why Matt left Adobe to work at Amplitude, a smaller company. (30:38) … Why it’s not always possible to fully prepare for the challenges senior leaders face in business. (35:10) … Matt’s take on what a successful relationship between a sales engineer and sales rep looks like. (40:07) … How Matt defines grit. (44:07)

Show Notes

When Matt Heinz took a quota-carrying sales job in 2011 after having worked in sales leadership, he knew that “it was a step back, from the way that you look at it on a piece of paper.” 


But in the end, Matt saw success as he helped turn a company doing $11 million a year in revenue to one that sold for over $5 billion. Now, Matt serves as the Chief Revenue officer of Amplitude, a leading company in product analytics.


In this episode of Go to Market Grit, Joubin and Matt discuss the many leadership lessons Matt learned throughout his career, go-to-market strategies and what a successful relationship between a sales engineer and a sales rep looks like.


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What is Grit?

Grit explores what it takes to create, build, and scale world-class organizations. It features weekly episodes highlighting the leaders who are pushing their companies to make a difference. This series is hosted by Joubin Mirzadegan, go to market operating partner at Kleiner Perkins, a venture capital firm investing in history-making founders.