Beginner’s Mind - The Only Way to Innovate and Grow with Nick Mehta

What this episode covers

Joining this episode of The Jake Dunlap Show is leading technology entrepreneur, Nick Mehta, the CEO of Gainsight. In this episode, Jake dives deeper into Nick's origins that has made him the influential person he is today. Having to overcome the difficulties of constantly feeling out of place coming from an immigrant family, Nick shares how he worked out what it means to be comfortable in his own skin and to find his own place where he could be confidently different, especially when he knew his calling for computer technology at such a young age. Armed with a distinctive interest in technology and an ingrained “there’s-a-million-things-I-haven’t-done-just-you-wait” culture of success, Nick shares more about the challenges he’s experienced that started immediately after being accepted in Harvard where he pursued two degrees, a Bachelor’s Degree in Biochemistry and a Master’s Degree in Computer Science, one for duty and the other in pursuit of his real love: business and technology. Right out of college, Nick co-founded Chip Shot with his friends. He explains his experiences on what it was like to run a start-up – from the operations that involved taking orders, handling customer service and shipping out the products, to the business development that involved pitching for investments and expanding their market. Nick shares his experience going back into employment and narrowing his focus on product management where he discovered his interest in its scope and how it serves to connect business and technology. After learning the nitty gritty of how a big company functions, Nick shares his explorations about how much he wanted to get back on the reins of running his own business and creating a culture. Nick unravels the importance of focusing on a community of power-users and breaking the traditional business mindset that just focuses on product and sales - together. He emphasizes that in actuality, the economic world that’s thriving today fervently follows a new kind of focus that’s ever-evolving and that is the category of Customer Success. Listen to the full podcast and find out more about Nick Mehta’s story of evolution and success. Quotes Importance of strategic learning: It’s “…that learning you get when you’ve done something and you’ve done it pretty well, but you know you could do it better…. I wasn’t the best I could be, and I’m still not the best I can be” “I had seen saw how important customer success was…I just fell in love with the people and idea and…wanted be part of the founding team to get it started” “There’s such a touch balance between focus but also having more things so you can continue to find more ways to grow” “It’s ok to expand the vision, you can stay focused… it’s important to expand and grow your vision and the best entrepreneurs find the balance. And I think we should’ve probably grown our vision even earlier because sometimes you want to keep growing that opportunity…better late than never” “Embrace the history, but also reinvent yourself everyday” “One of the values we embrace is beginners mind. The best way to innovate is from a beginner’s perspective” More About Nick Nick Mehta is the CEO of Gainsight, an innovative computer software company that offers a customer-centric technology known as the Customer Cloud – an effective tool that enables businesses to put their customer at the center of their entire business’ process by offering a solid set of solutions that emphasize customer success, product experience, revenue optimization, customer experience, and computer data. Born in Massachusetts and having grown up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Nick’s interest in computer technology started at an early age and was influenced by his dad, who worked in the same field. He is a holder of two degrees from Harvard University, a Bachelor’s Degree in Biochemistry and a Master’s Degree in Computer Science. Nick’s business career started during the mid-1990s when he co-founded Chipshot, a venture-funded online golf retailer. Despite the business being unsuccessful, it has taught him a lot in terms of experience which allowed him to land his first employment role as the Director of Product Management at XDegrees in 2002, and immediately transferred to Symantec on that same year, where he held various senior operating roles – from being the Director of Product Management, to Vice President of Product Management. It was during his tenure with the company that he helped the business grow to more than $200 million in 2007 and earned recognition from ESG, Gartner, Forrester, IDC, and Radicati as the leading product in the “on-premise” email archiving market. From years 2008 to 2012, he assumed the position of CEO for LiveOffice and worked out the Inc. 5000 company’s profitable growth to $115 Million in revenue and led its successful sale to Symantec. In 2013, Nick became the CEO of the customer success company – Jbara software which has been renamed to Gainsight and is now his life’s greatest work to date. He led the company in multiple funding rounds that resulted in them not only raising a total of $156 Million, but also growing the company to about 500+ employees stationed around the world. Nick is the co-author of two books: Customer Success: How Innovative Companies Are Reducing Churn and Growing Recurring Revenue, released around early 2016, and The Customer Success Economy: Why Every Aspect of Your Business Model Needs a Paradigm Shift – both are available on Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Nick-Mehta/e/B07JX9CRVW?ref_=dbs_p_ebk_r00_abau_000000 Check out the Chipshot.com commercial here: https://youtu.be/J11XRUPu1T8 Find out more about Nick Mehta through the following links: LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickmehta/ Website (Gainsight) - https://www.gainsight.com/