CS in the chaos of startups
So how do you approach Customer Success in early-stage startups?
And what lessons from CS in early-stage startups apply in more established companies?
Johan and I had a super-fun conversation on this week's Impact Weekly episode about building CS operations in early-stage startups that I think you'll like even if you're not in a startup.
Listen to the episode here (or on Spotify, Apple, or Youtube)
And if you're thinking about joining a startup as an (the) early CS hire, this episode will help you better understand what you're getting yourself into. 😬
~ Lincoln
BTW: Next week we have two Impact Academy training programs starting on Monday, 5-Feb:
Partner Success - This 2-week intensive program is for anyone who works with channel partners, distributors, VARs, Affiliates, or basically if any 3rd party sits between you and the end-customer of your product.
Head of CS: How to Build - This 3-week program is foundational for modern Heads of CS, regardless of experience level, as we focus on the three areas key to your role: Leadership, Management, and Coaching.
I hope to see you in one of those programs.
Lincoln Murphy
I help SaaS companies Maximize LTV through Customer-centric Upselling
November 18-20 in Kelowna, BC, Canada. This intensive is designed for SaaS companies ready to integrate AI into their growth strategy. Over two days, we'll explore how AI is transforming the five growth levers: product, marketing, customer success, sales, and leadership. I'll be leading the session on AI-first Customer Success Management—with practical, actionable strategies you can implement now, plus a roadmap for scaling over time. You'll leave with a clear operating model for your next...
On Monday, you find out. Join our Head of CS training starting October 20, 2025. This is one of the most impactful programs we offer because it focuses on the critical aspects of Leadership, Management, and Coaching that every Head of Customer Success needs to leverage to drive real business impact. Our live sessions are going to focus on the big shifts AI is having on everything we do in Customer Success. While the core, underlying principles of building, running, and scaling a CS org...
Trying to get customers to execute perfectly when they don't have experience, expertise, or even the desire to do so. Yet, we've designed our entire operation and organization to try to make this work. We've created a profession and discipline around this. That's insane if you think about it. I remember way back in 2012 when I was working with email marketing platforms. Customers would churn from one provider to another looking for better results. But the problem wasn't the platform. It was...