Ep # 160: Rethinking GTM: Aligning Every Team Around the Customer ft. Paul Staelin (ex CCO, Vercel)

In this episode of the Hyperengage Podcast, Adil Saleh sits down with Paul Staelin, CCO of Vercel, to explore how customer success can scale in the developer-first era. Paul shares his journey from early startups to leading customer success at a $9B company, where he’s reshaping how enterprises and startups alike achieve outcomes with modern developer tools.They discuss the evolving role of CSMs as “midfielders” rather than “strikers,” how AI is transforming health scoring, sentiment analysis, and success workflows, and why use case–driven segmentation is key to retention. Paul also dives into building hybrid success organizations, driving up GDR and NDR, and what early-stage founders should prioritize when hiring their first CSM.From PLG motions and digital CS models to AI-powered playbooks and scaling enterprise relationships, this episode highlights the future of customer success and what it means for SaaS founders, revenue leaders, and GTM teams building for long-term retention and expansion.