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Josh Schachter:
Hey, everybody, and welcome to this week’s episode of of Unchurned. I am Josh Schachter, cohost of Unchurned. I am not joined by Christy nor John. They had some urgent escalation, so they claim. But I have a better, guest joining me today, and that’s Rimpel Patel. Rimpel is the CCO, chief customer officer of Eightfold, eightfold dot ai that is. Ripple, thank you so much for being on this program.

Rimpel Patel:
Yeah, Josh. So happy to be here. Thanks for having me.

Josh Schachter:
And I’m really excited. We’ve talked about this before that because of your background and and getting into that narrative. Also, you know, you’ve been at Eightfold a little over a year and so that’s kind of a really exciting, first year. We can we can talk a little bit about that journey. First, before we go into that, just for context setting, can you share a little bit about the folks that may not be as familiar? I mean, you guys are, you know, hundreds of millions ARR, but tell us a little bit about what Eightfold does, and a little bit about your your purview and your role.

Rimpel Patel:
Yeah. Absolutely. So Eightfold AI, I feel like the AI does make it very official. But Eightfold AI is, really a company that, created the category of what we call talent intelligence platforms. And, it’s a native AI platform. Our founders was founded in 2016 by, former folks that helped build the Google search. They were at Facebook and YouTube, so a really different take on how to solve this problem about talent. And, fundamentally, what Eightfold does incredibly well is matching.

Rimpel Patel:
So when you think about the demands for today and the demands for tomorrow and the future, it’s who is the right person for the right job, who is the right person for this, you know, if you wanna try and upscale? What’s the right learning for this person? What is the right project for this person? So the idea of matching is really core to our platform, and, essentially, what we do is help companies understand, you know, what skills do you have today. You know, we live in a world where skills the skills you need to perform in your jobs is changing drastically. So what are the skills you have today? What skills do you need in the future, and how are you gonna bridge that gap. So our platform, covers everyone from who do you want to acquire, who do you wanna develop, you know, how do you wanna supplement that, and and how you do that to accomplish the work that you need to do. So And

Josh Schachter:
when you say be delightful. That’s great. So when you say, acquire, you mean hire?

Rimpel Patel:
Higher. Is it

Josh Schachter:
higher? Okay. Okay. So who are you hiring then?

Rimpel Patel:
I think I think, like, there’s this whole build by bot, but now it’s also blend. Right? How do humans and agents kinda live in this world together? But essentially, it helps you solve for all those pieces.

Josh Schachter:
Yeah. Yeah. And the company is, like it gives a little sense of the stage of the company.

Rimpel Patel:
So, founded in 2016. I would say that we’re I would consider mid to late stage start up at this point, but, I don’t know that’s We’re

Josh Schachter:
all start ups.

Rimpel Patel:
I I know. I never Yeah. I actually have never worked for a company this early stage, so it is interesting to be at a company this early stage. But, what’s been really incredible is we have customers that are the largest companies on the planet. So our customer base is incredibly impressive, but, also not surprising when you think about this challenge and visibility your to your talent is hardest when you have large companies and don’t know where it’s hidden. Right? So Yeah. I do think, you know, it’s not surprising that we’ve we’ve first started in that big strategic account space.

Josh Schachter:
And and you guys are big I mean, you’re 700 full time employees. FTEs, been around for for, yeah, close to a decade, as it were. Really interesting space. How you’re you’re not necessarily on this side of the equation, but you’re an executive there and you’re influenced and and you’re formed, I’m sure, as well. How’s agentic AI starting to to kind of catch on and and infiltrate the conversations with what you guys do?

Rimpel Patel:
You know, it’s, I it’s really interesting because I saw I’ve been in the SaaS HR space my almost my entire career, and it’s really interesting how I look back at when I started, and you’d have this vision and a road map for a few years. And the world we live in now where there is a level of agility you have to have because the tech space is changing so fast. So how do you still have that north star and vision on the problem you’re looking to help businesses solve, but yet the tech is changing so fast, and how do you incorporate that as part of your strategy? I definitely think, you know, when I’m speaking to customers, doing more with less, driving efficiencies, like, a lot of people are making big bets on AI and agentic AI. So how do you scale smartly, or how are you gonna cut heads and cost there and leverage this AI technology? I mean, is that’s

Josh Schachter:
So does that make it even more important than that makes that makes the people even more important because you may Yes. I mean, mean, I only I don’t wanna be doomsdayer here, but, like, you may have less people, right, as you become more efficient or whatever buzzword we wanna use. But, like but that makes finding the talents of those people, matching them to their matching the roles to the talents even more important effectively.

Rimpel Patel:
Yeah. I I guess the best way to think about it is every company or every you there’s certain work you need to get done. Yeah. And how can you do certain parts of that work using agents? Right? Like, whether and and where do they exist? So, like, I know Salesforce has obviously gone all in on agent force. Like, we’re going all in on on agents as well initially with, like, this idea of an AI recruiter. So, like, large parts of the recruiting process you could use an agent for. So it’s really thinking about how can that work be done. And then for the stuff that’s left, like, even when you think about a recruiting process, you could use, for a large part of that, an AI recruiter.

Rimpel Patel:
But when is the right time to have the human in the loop, and what are the skill sets that you need that human to have? So I do agree that it makes the specialization or the skills for the people you do have really important. And, Josh, you made a point that I just, you know, it’s it’s debatable, but, like, when you think about, yes, companies may cut, but the reality is, like, there’s always fear on agents gonna take all the jobs, but we do have a declining population. Right? When you think about, like, you know, people have like, there’s less growth in terms of population. AI is just a way to supplement and add to that productivity is the way the best way that I think about it. It’s not so much it’s just that the jobs will evolve, and there’ll be new jobs created based on this as well. So

Josh Schachter:
So less replacement.

Rimpel Patel:
So I’m less disabled. Yeah. Good.

Josh Schachter:
I like that. No. I like that perspective. I hadn’t heard that before. Yeah. That’s great. Let let’s shift the conversation over. I wanna talk about, you know, your team.

Josh Schachter:
Absolutely. You’ve got, you know, about a 30 people that that sit underneath your purview, the entire post sales. And I wanna talk about your background, and then we can get into, about the team. So, going all the way back, you are from Malawi. You are now the first Malawian, is that right, that I know?

Rimpel Patel:
Malawian.

Josh Schachter:
Malawian? Okay. This is a complete sidebar because this is just geography now, but tell all of us, you know

Rimpel Patel:
Where it is.

Josh Schachter:
Yeah. Well, all of us I was gonna say all of us American idiots here. Let’s just be honest, right? Our geography is not that great. Like, where Right. What let’s give us the the download.

Rimpel Patel:
Yeah. So I was born and raised in Malawi. Malawi is a country Southeast Of Africa, so it borders Mozambique. It’s landlocked, although a fifth of it is a freshwater lake in the Rift Valley. So born and raised there, moved to The US, when I was 17. So, I think now you can pay put you can probably find Malawi eat more easily on the map. And I would say that Madonna really put Malawi on the map because her first child, she adopted from Malawi. So

Josh Schachter:
Is there anything about your upbringing in Malawi? Because it wasn’t like you were there for five years. I mean, seventeen years, that’s your that’s your entire youth. Yeah. Is there anything that you would trace back to that, you know, upbringing to the way you handle your professional life today or or the development of your career?

Rimpel Patel:
Yeah. That’s so interesting. So I would say I grew up with well, my parents, were always, ones that told us that we need to be independent and that, you know, the world was limitless. So I think we all like, my sister and I always grew up with this idea that, you know, anything can be ours if we set our mind to it. My dad was, someone who played a lot of sports for the country, for the continent as well in some sports. So we grew up with this idea Wait.

Josh Schachter:
What sports? It sounds like your dad was like a

Rimpel Patel:
a a a

Josh Schachter:
different athlete there.

Rimpel Patel:
I think he would have loved to have been paid for that, but he he represented Malawi for a number of sports and then Eastern Central Africa for cricket. But he played golf. He played hockey. So field hockey that is. So, you know, the idea of, like, operating as a team, everyone having their role, thinking about what’s better for the team versus yourself. Right? So I think there is and I was very sporty growing up and, you know, I’d love to play more now, but, what what gets in the way sometimes? But but I played a lot of sports growing up too. So I think there is there’s things that I, both just having parents that always taught us to go that no dream was too big. And then in parallel, like, the the the level of, influence I feel like sports had, team sports had in my life, I feel like still carries through.

Rimpel Patel:
And I would say the third thing is the spirit of community. I grew up in a while it was a populous town, there were two main streets. So, everyone knew everyone, the idea of, you know, living in a community and everyone trying to take care of each other. So there is that aspect that I absolutely take in terms of how I lead as well. So, yeah, those are probably a few things that, that I would say have influenced who I am today.

Josh Schachter:
I mean, 222 Main Streets doesn’t sound overly populous to me. What what how big was this town?

Rimpel Patel:
It’s, well, I would say that if you look at, like, the neighboring areas, it’s just yeah. It’s like it’s there’s a lot, like, a lot of, townships and etcetera that kinda make up the the core part of the city, but, like, yeah, when I was going up, I would say probably less than a million.

Josh Schachter:
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Alright. Alright. So popular.

Rimpel Patel:
Significant. Yeah.

Josh Schachter:
Yeah. Significant. Okay. So then you went to the to The States, then you moved over to to The US, went to school, in The United States, and then you were off to the races and you spent ten years in consulting. In some ways I pity you for that, but I know it was I’m sure it was a very fertile ground for professional growth and development. You know, I spent five years myself in in that world. And then and so maybe we could talk a little bit about how that might have influenced your you know, the way you operate now. I know it is, like, just some of the best training you can ever get.

Josh Schachter:
And then you were at Workday for six and a half years, followed by a shorter stint at, Solonis and then, now at eight Eightfold for a little over a year. You were hired in as the chief customer officer, and you’ve never been a customer success manager or a director or a VP. You’ve worked in customer experience for sure and strategy as well. Yeah. But so maybe tell us a little bit about that journey and, yeah, perhaps we can just jump to the end of it. Like, how do you get the job managing a 30 people as CCO? You’ve never officially worked in CS before.

Rimpel Patel:
I know. I, well, first of all, I feel like I did do have a twenty year career now at this point spanning in roles where I’ve put the customer first. And, you know, consulting was incredible, and I feel like I always approach consulting in the mindset that am I solving problems for my cuss for my clients that I would want someone to solve for me? And I feel like that mentality has stuck with me, throughout my career, from the early days that I was at Accenture. Moving to Workday was a really great experience because I left, you know, from being a road warrior for ten years to then going to work for a SaaS company. And I was, you know, I feel like what excelled my career at Workday was, there’s always a better way of doing things, and often those large opportunities to really drive an impact to the business fall between organizations. So I feel like my career trajectory there was really fast because I tried to solve problems that no one was really trying to solve even though they had a massive impact for the company. And when I think about my background That

Josh Schachter:
just came from consulting. Right? That just came from your your not afraid to speak up and take it on your own.

Rimpel Patel:
That and probably a little bit of, like, I I’m a big believer that every year or two, there needs to be a fundamentally different role. So it keep me, engaged and excited in a new problem because I definitely think I’m a builder. Like, I’d like I like to take things from zero to 80. I’m not the person who love to do 80 to a hundred. So that’s just my nature is designing, building. But, yeah, just progressively different roles on solving problems that no one was really solving. And I think that customer experience background, really lends itself to what I’m doing because I always say that, the shortcomings of the organization every shortcoming of the organization does impact the customer. Right? Like, whether it’s, selling a deal we shouldn’t have sold, saying the product is x when it might not be all the way there.

Rimpel Patel:
Right? Like, there’s so many things, and bad operations means bad customer experience. So I think as a CCO, it is more about those cracks and aligning the organization and influencing the organization in a way that you are trying to improve the experience for your customers. So, while I hadn’t done, anything in CS previously, I led CS strategy and CX strategy. I was, you know, I of course, there was a a moment of fear when I did take the job and, was considering taking the job, but, then I told myself that, one, the person who did reach out to me, who’s now the co CEO at Eightfold and he was the co CEO at Workday, that if he has confidence within in me, that I can do this role, like, why why wouldn’t I? And, I’m not starting from scratch. I have all this experience that I have to build upon. And in fact, I think not coming from CS and having a little bit more of a broader view of, the whole value chain and the whole customer experience, I think, makes makes me a better leader, because of that background. So today, I have the global CS organization as well as the global professional services organization, which is also responsible for our partner delivery.

Josh Schachter:
Do you ever or in the earlier days, do you ever find yourself this is gonna sound disparaging, but it’s not, do you ever find yourself, like, chat GPT ing? You know, what’s the definition of this, or what is, like, you know, what are the proper benchmarks for that, having not been a CS leader or CSM yourself at any point?

Rimpel Patel:
So I think the benchmarks piece, because I led strategy, I felt more comfortable. Right? And even, like, one of the roles that I had at at Workday, I remember it was, like, the COO. I was reporting to the COO at the time, and he’s like, Rimpel, I need like, and he he was on his way somewhere, and he called me for literally two minutes. And he’s like, Rimpel, can you give some thought to solving this problem? And I was like, okay. What’s the problem? And he’s like, I need you to help figure out how we can maintain high levels of CSAT but massively scale this business. And that was all he said. And that led to creating a role and a strategy, everything from sec segmenting to digital strategy. So I feel like, yeah.

Rimpel Patel:
So, you know, I knew the benchmark side.

Josh Schachter:
You know all the the basics. You’re learning the Yeah.

Rimpel Patel:
I knew all the fundamentals. Yep. But but obviously having complete responsibility for a number like GRR, NRR, etcetera is, is the first time I’ve I’ve had that kind of responsibility. So

Josh Schachter:
And and what’s, so for folks that are looking to step into similar shoes, which there are many out there, what’s the what’s the the biggest, difference perhaps in what you expected versus what you found going into this role, what you have found going into this role?

Rimpel Patel:
So I you know, it’s it’s interesting because when I left Workday to go to Solonus, I felt like I asked all the questions that I would wanna ask, right, to have a really good understanding of what I was getting into. And then you get there and you’re like, holy shit. I should have asked x. I should have asked y. And then when I, you know, came to this role, I felt the same way. I’m like, okay. I asked all the questions that I would possibly need to know, and and then I’m like, wow. Like, this is not what I expected when I started either.

Rimpel Patel:
And I honestly think part of it is just, the connection. Right? Like, the person who reached out to me, I trusted him, and I know him, and he was starting at the same time I was. So we were while we were both coming in to a new environment, I felt confident that he would have potentially looked at a different or evaluated a different set of criteria as he was evaluating as a co CEO. So I felt comfortable that, okay, between the two, it would be, like, I felt like, okay. You know, great decision. Right? And it has been a great decision, but when I started, I would say that, there was just a lot of rebuilding to do. Yeah. And so, you know, how did I like, for me

Josh Schachter:
It looks like he he was looking he was looking to shake things up a little bit. Right? Let’s be honest. Right? Like, that was it seems very intentional. Hey, everybody. It’s Josh. I’m taking a quick break from the podcast to tell you a bit about UpdateAI. I started UpdateAI to solve two major challenges for CS teams. The first is that we save CSMs four to five hours per week with our productivity through AI.

Josh Schachter:
Secondly, we give leaders a window into all the conversations across each account and the entire portfolio. So we help knowledge transfer, we help increase the coverage model of your CS teams, and we help you detect emerging patterns in what your customers are telling your CSMs across all the risks, product feedback, advocacy moments, and expansion opportunities. So come check us out at www.updateai. It’s completely free to sign up and trial. Let’s fast forward now. Yep. You know, a year into this, where are some of those areas as specific as you can get? Like, where are some of the areas that you guys have focused on taking the next step with the program?

Rimpel Patel:
Yeah. So it’s not a 12 step plan, but it’s a nice step plan that I feel like we took. So I feel like it’s all building blocks. Right? Like, the first thing I did was, evaluate the leadership team. And I’m a big believer that if you have the right talent, right, you can solve anything together. And, that right talent also helps you, like, drive changes much faster. So I think my initial focus was, okay, let me evaluate the skill set and who do I actually need to scale this business. Mhmm.

Rimpel Patel:
So talent was really important. Following talent is culture. Right? Because I needed culture carriers for the type of organization that we wanna build. So

Josh Schachter:
Which is what?

Rimpel Patel:
Which is really a custom of us. Like, there’s a spirit like, there’s a value system that I have carried with me, and it’s, my mentor beautifully articulated this. And it’s customer over company over team over self. And I I feel like I have always, looked at problems, looked at solving things in that manner because I think if you solve for the customer first, everything else kind of falls into place. Yep. So I needed people to believe that that that in that same kind of value system, so to speak, on how to how to look at why are we why why are each of us here is to do first and foremost, what’s the right thing for the customer is. And in many ways, like, we do represent the voice of the customer internally, so we do have to really understand that. So Yeah.

Rimpel Patel:
So culture was another one. And and and part of that culture was also Part

Josh Schachter:
of that’s the same thing as the talent, review of leadership. Right? Because you’re making sure that those leaders are are carrying the torch of the culture you want.

Rimpel Patel:
Yep. And part of the bringing in the right people was also to cocreate what was that mission that we were on. Right? Mhmm. What are the CX principles we want to instill across all the teams, and then for them to help rebuild the entire organization. I feel like we we let go of half the CS team at this point than than what was there, and almost the entire leadership team is brand new except for one person. So So

Josh Schachter:
what were the what were the the the pillars then of the of the mission that you you

Rimpel Patel:
guys built? So, we anchored around three things. One is trust because I feel like without trust, we don’t have anything. The second is confidence. We are a newer player. Right? Like, we are trying to, compete with a lot of names that have been around for a very long time. So it’s not only how do we build trust, but how can a customer be or prospect be confident that we are the right partner to drive value. And then the third thing was around inspiring action. We are we are evolving fast really fast.

Rimpel Patel:
We’re a small company. We can be more agile compared to, like, the work days and the SAPs, etcetera. So, making sure that we’re having cost taking customers along this journey, and we’re partnering together in a way that we’re continuing to inspire, like, to do more

Josh Schachter:
Yeah.

Rimpel Patel:
Along with our platform. To me, those were, like, three three three words, I would say, or three phrases or three areas that is core to our mission. And how do we deliver an experience in such a way that’s really not only driving value, but really creating pathways for growth for companies and helping them innovate as well. So that the our mission was very much anchored around that. And then we have a set of CX principles as well. Like, things like, we wanna create delight moments with drop, you know, mic drop moments is what we call. We wanna be more an advisor. We want them we want customers to rethink What

Josh Schachter:
what do you do, Rambel, what do you what do you do to to make sure that that those values and those missions are cascaded throughout the organization, especially somebody who’s new? You know? Like, you’ve got the microphone now, but you’re meeting people and, like, you got a lot of people around the world. How do you make sure that this is instilled and and actually affects their their MO?

Rimpel Patel:
Yeah. So, you know, there’s a thing that I learned from my, previous boss at Salonos, and she did this and it and I thought it was just brilliant. When you have global teams, so every Friday, I record a message. It’s just a very like, a five minute top of mind, things that are important to me, things that I’m seeing that I would love changed. I think there that’s a very simple way to connect on a regular cadence with everyone. And also, like, what are my challenges for what what challenges did I have this week? What am I focused on next week? So I do think

Josh Schachter:
I love that.

Rimpel Patel:
So those principles that I want to instill in the entire team absolutely come through there. We also created awards relative to our, you know, the the kind of behaviors we wanna drive. Right?

Josh Schachter:
What are the awards you created?

Rimpel Patel:
So, like, for each of the principles, we have an award. Right? Like, so who who was the person that really created the most delightful moment, for example, for our customers? So we like, how do we each week or or monthly? No. No. No. So I think right now, it’s, like, twice a year is what we’re thinking. But it’s a way to celebrate, and also I use these Friday calls to celebrate a lot of what I’m seeing relative to principles that are that are that are incredible.

Josh Schachter:
Recognize what

Rimpel Patel:
where they’re not. Right? Like, you know, I I and I would never mention a name, but I’d be like, I was in this situation, and, I you know, this we should have handled this this way, and we didn’t. So it’s a way of, like Yeah. You know, basically, it’s a way for me to not only share with the whole team what are acceptable and non acceptable ways of of, behaving and how we make our principles come to life, but then it’s also holding the leaders accountable. Yep. And so that’s why that whole, like, bringing in the right talent and cascading the responsibility, that was really, very important for me.

Josh Schachter:
And have you seen that that could

Rimpel Patel:
can’t do it alone. Right? Like, you need to have each one of us has to have support to try and drive that kind of behavior.

Josh Schachter:
I mean, you’re also driving culture. Right? Because you’re being transparent, you’re openly communicating, you’re giving the team updates. Have you seen that culture transpire you know, transform into your leaders as well?

Rimpel Patel:
Yeah. I’ll give you a great example. So, we had our kickoff, as you as you, you know, were alluding to. So, you know, our fiscal year ends January. We had our kickoff where the whole global go to market team comes together. And, initially, like, we had a breakout for just the global CX team. And initially, I was like, let’s have q and a because there’s nothing better than q and a, like, a chunk of time for q and a

Josh Schachter:
when you’re

Rimpel Patel:
Transparent. Like, it’s just easier to do it that way. Yep. And we always make space for it, but I just think it’s, like, the right forum. And, some of the folks that have been here for many years were like, wow. Like, it’s a chunk of time. What if no one asks questions? And let’s do anonymous questions. And I said, I’m not a believer in anonymous questions.

Rimpel Patel:
To me, that’s a sign of a very unhealthy culture.

Josh Schachter:
Mhmm.

Rimpel Patel:
Like, I wanna create a space where everyone can feel free to ask whatever question they have. And and we went well over. There was absolutely no shortage of questions. Right? So to me, that in itself is an indicator that we are heading on the right path in terms of rebuilding, creating a safe space. Right? Like, bringing and and when I joined, CS was under me, but solution delivery came after. So these two teams and the leaders of these two teams had never even gotten in a room. Yeah. One is responsible for delivery, and one’s responsible for so even just breaking down the historical silo that silos that existed for the post sale experience and making sure that we’re collectively driving kind of the culture and the principles and the experience has made a massive difference.

Rimpel Patel:
But that’s just, I felt like the kickoff q and a was a great indication that I feel like we’re on the on the right path.

Josh Schachter:
Sounds like it. Alright. So we got three thing and I I don’t want to be cognizant of time here, but we’ve got three out of the nine. Yeah. We’ve got we’ve got the the, you know, leadership, observations of leadership and and changes if needed, culture, which we’ve been talking, but it’s kinda laced into everything. Mhmm. And then oh, jeez. What was the what was the third one you just talked about?

Rimpel Patel:
The joint mission and

Josh Schachter:
Yes. Yes. Yes. Defining the mission. Right? And and and and distributing that. Okay. What’s next? What else did you did you

Rimpel Patel:
shake up? The the early on, it was also what is our consistent way of assessing the the customer base? Mhmm. Because, we had three three segments. First of all, those three segments won’t even align to the sales segments. So part of it was so there’s two parts here. One was I need one consistent way with objective measures to assess a customer’s health so that when I look at a dashboard, board, I know that a green customer is really a green customer and a red customer is really a red customer. So really looking at the dimensions of health, and that’s everything from, like, relationships to do we have the right governance structure, change management, adoption, value, advocacy, etcetera. So that was really important because now when we do look at our customer base, we have confidence that we are focusing our attention in the right places. And related to that, I mentioned the segmentation.

Rimpel Patel:
We also shifted our entire post sale organization to align to sales so that, we went to a regional model. So, like, the North American sales leader has a counterpart for North American services and North American CS. That way, you’re driving real accountability of three people to manage a book of business and make trade off decisions versus there not being that alignment and accountability. So that was It’s

Josh Schachter:
like a leadership pod effectively.

Rimpel Patel:
Yeah. Like, the structure, the accountability, and kind of responsibility for the KPI. So that way it’s like and, you know, it goes both for add on sales as it does for retaining revenue and margins for services, etcetera. So I do think that that’s we’re seeing a lot of wins in terms of operating in that in that manner. So that’s another and also, like, making sure the incentives were the right incentives. So when I joined last year, it was it it had already been set. But this year, we came together to make sure that we are driving and creating that right incentive model across all these different teams, so we’re driving the right outcomes for our customers and then the company as well. So so I would say that was a big focus.

Rimpel Patel:
The other one was just I mentioned that the shortcomings of the organization, they all impact the customer. So, like, what were those big rock items? And there was a long list, but it was, like, prioritizing. And then once that’s solved, and this is, like, you know, whether it’s performance or analytics from products What

Josh Schachter:
was the most impactful thing that you’ve that you’ve identified and solved?

Rimpel Patel:
I would say the one that the most well, I would say value. Like, we didn’t have a framework or a way of quantifying and the value that our platform was driving for for customers. So when I think about value, it’s, to me, it’s a value chain. Right? Like, why is product building product for a specific area? What’s the value it’s driving? How are we selling that?

Josh Schachter:
The consultant would think of a value chain, by the way.

Rimpel Patel:
What did you say? Sorry.

Josh Schachter:
I said a ten year consultant would think of everything in terms of a value chain.

Rimpel Patel:
Yeah. So Yeah. So it’s that whole activating that whole value chain and aligning on a consistent methodology, I think, was a really great win. And that’s allowed us to not only up level the conversation with our existing stakeholders, but also build more senior relationships. Because when I when we talk about value, it’s not just are you improving your time to fill. Right? When we’re talking about value, it’s like, what is the actual business problem you’re looking to solve? What is the top line impact? What’s the bottom line impact? And then how does our platform get you there. So to build that kind of storyline and storytelling around it. So I’ve seen us being able to nurture more senior relationships at our customers as a result of just having a value conversation rather than a feature function conversation because, that is not where where we wanted to be.

Rimpel Patel:
Yeah. But but there’s other product related items too. But but I guess the point I wanna make here is just what is gonna drive the biggest impact for our customers, and how you know, like, tiering, like, the focus on some of those big rock items. And as there’s momentum in others, like, adding new ones on the list, but, being very focused on on that and getting cross functional buy in on why those were important was was really, a a big focus as well. So

Josh Schachter:
And this this paid dividends. I mean, you don’t have to share the numbers, but but by a large margin, you’ve helped to improve NRR, GRR. Can is there anything you wanna share about that Or any other metrics?

Rimpel Patel:
You know, I feel really proud. I would say that this first year, I said, is a year of stabilization, and then I’m calling this next year, year of scale. And then the third year is where we’re soaring. Yeah. I feel really proud at the impact we’ve made on GRR and NRR, and then it’s like, how do we continue to prove that it’s repeatable and predictable, I think is a really important thing. Like, I feel like when targets were set when I joined, it was just like, oh, here’s a target, and there was no path to it. And yet, like, a lot of the things we focused on, like, I always say that if you focus on the right things, the right outcomes will happen, and I and it was great to see those outcomes, happening. And now we need to just, you know, continue to take shift shift gears and make it better and better every year.

Rimpel Patel:
So

Josh Schachter:
Awesome. Well, I’m placing my money on you. It sounds like you’ve had a wonderful career, and now you’re just you’re just at this inflection point of just kind of going off to the next level within your career. So with the same level of conviction that I have that that that Bitcoin will get past a hundred k again, I have conviction that you will be doing some incredibly big things, in the near and, longer term future. Vrindful, thank you so much for being on the program. It was a pleasure, and I’d love for us to be able to come back and have you again in the future.

Rimpel Patel:
Yeah. Thanks so much, Josh. I really appreciate you taking the time, and I I it’s rare that you reflect back on the journey you’ve been through, but, I think it’s so important, you know, like, to take a moment and and recognize the the effort that’s gone into bringing us to where we are today. So thanks so

Josh Schachter:
much for your time.

Rimpel Patel:
Yeah. Yeah.

Josh Schachter:
Awesome. Thank you.