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$100M+ CEO Cadence: How I Structure My Time To Build BrightEdge to 9 Figures

A weekly, monthly and quarterly operating rhythm, from Monday management meetings to quarterly reviews against plan

Jim Yu · BrightEdge

Published September 6, 2024
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What you’ll learn

Topics covered: But this guy's bootstrapped Bri edged to $100 million…; Business and so this drives a lot of the…; Segments that are coming back trending that over time….

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But this guy's bootstrapped Bri edged to $100 million…

“but this guy's bootstrapped Bri edged to $100 million of Revenue he's got an incredible story he's built an incredible team and the product speaks for itself please tell me welcome to the stage Jim you from R Jim come on [Applause] up and did I get it all that right that's all fair almost almost Fair all right all right coach us up teach us up this is great excited to be here with everybody um and share some of the lessons I've learned in terms of you”

Business and so this drives a lot of the…

“business and so this drives a lot of the Rhythm of the operating Cadence of running the business right so across team's about 500 people organized around sort of multiple sites but by function really making sure you're kicking off and running the entire company across that drum beat of driving execution across the business this is important for driving visibility alignment and ultimately team accountability to each other not just to you but to each other around what each of those team members ar”

Segments that are coming back trending that over time…

“segments that are coming back trending that over time is really important to look at the themes and then critically also capacity planning for the organization right each of these goto Market functions and each of the major functions of the business as you scale ultimately is about taking a formula that you've built in the early days and really tuning the capacity that you have across the organization to then deliver that capacity into the market right that's true for prospecting and driving”

Understand in the organization are you moving on those…

“understand in the organization are you moving on those top hires as you scale and then product from a product perspective looking at the road map and then also really tracking the key kpis that you're trying to drive in terms of of what that product strategy is in terms of each of those key business metrics that it's supposed to drive and ultimately does it result in that over time so you see an example here of how we track that and how we look at that”

Nail it before scaling

“Lesson 2: Nail it Before You Scale It Building a 10M+ ARR bookings engine (1.1M MRR) Find the Wedge Segment Big Enough (SAM), Valuable Enough (ASP) Architect the Motion (GTM) Annual New MRR Bookings”

Weekly CEO cadence

“How I Run Cadences Run @ Scale = Cadence Monday: Management & 1-on-1s Tuesday: Market Strategy & Technology Wednesday: Revenue / Sales Forecasting Thursday: Customer Success & Capacity Friday: Product & People Operational Review of All Major Functions Sales Marketing Product & Technology Financials Actual vs. Plan Quarterly Review Review Actual vs Plan & Recasting Forecast Major Initiatives Return and Progress vs. Investment Thesis Calibrate and Tune Strategy WEEKLY MONTHLY QUARTERLY”

Starting the week with accountability

“Monday Management Meeting running cadence Rhythm for running the business Kicks Off Week with a Drumbeat for driving the business Functional + Business Unit Leaders Call Their Weekly Commits and Performance Drives Visibility, Alignment, and Accountability”

Planning customer success and capacity

“Thursday – Customer & Capacity customer joy & be ahead Prospect-to-Customer Journey Capacity – Critical at Scale to plan and build ramped Sales and CS capacity Hard, but need to build ahead”

The struggle to sustain $100M

“Sustain 100M = Decade+ Constant Struggle Health Friends & Family Not great at it – but learned it’s importance…”

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About the speaker
Jim Yu

Jim Yu

Founder · BrightEdge

Company revenue
$105M

Slide by slide

Each slide with a short explanation of what it shows. Open the slide text for its exact wording.

14 passages

The $100M CEO cadence

  1. Slide text

    SaaSOpen, September 2024 $100M+ CEO Cadence: How I Structure My Time To Build BrightEdge to 9 Figures Jim Yu Founder & Executive Chair, BrightEdge

  2. Nail the motion before scaling bookings

    Find a valuable wedge segment and define the go-to-market motion before scaling. The slide frames this as building a 10M+ ARR bookings engine at 1.1M MRR, with annual new MRR bookings rising across four bars: 211K, 523K, 683K and 1.1M.

    Slide text

    Lesson 2: Nail it Before You Scale It Building a 10M+ ARR bookings engine (1.1M MRR) Find the Wedge Segment Big Enough (SAM), Valuable Enough (ASP) Architect the Motion (GTM) Annual New MRR Bookings

Balancing run and build

  1. Agenda: run, functions, sustain

    The talk is organized into three groups. Run covers running at scale, run versus build, and the Monday management meeting. Functions covers market and innovation, revenue, customer and capacity, and people and product. Sustain covers struggle, health, and friends and family.

    Slide text

    Over the next 20 minutes I’m going to show you how Functions Sustain Market & Innovation $$$ Customer & Capacity People and Product Struggle Health Friends & Family Run Run @ Scale Run vs. Build Monday Management

Weekly operating rhythm

  1. Weekly, monthly and quarterly operating cadences

    Each day of the week has a fixed topic, and monthly and quarterly reviews sit on top. Monday is management and 1-on-1s, through Friday for product and people. Monthly is an operational review of all major functions against plan. Quarterly recasts the forecast, checks initiatives against the investment thesis, and tunes strategy.

    Slide text

    How I Run Cadences Run @ Scale = Cadence Monday: Management & 1-on-1s Tuesday: Market Strategy & Technology Wednesday: Revenue / Sales Forecasting Thursday: Customer Success & Capacity Friday: Product & People Operational Review of All Major Functions Sales Marketing Product & Technology Financials Actual vs. Plan Quarterly Review Review Actual vs Plan & Recasting Forecast Major Initiatives Return and Progress vs. Investment Thesis Calibrate and Tune Strategy WEEKLY MONTHLY QUARTERLY

  2. Run versus build needs the right balance

    Leaders should tune their time between running the business and building for the future. The illustration contrasts a sprinter on a red track with a figure in a suit looking through binoculars toward the horizon.

    Slide text

    Run vs Build tune for the right balance

  3. Monday meeting sets the weekly drumbeat

    A Monday management meeting gives the business a rhythm and makes leaders accountable. Functional and business unit leaders call their weekly commits and performance, which drives visibility, alignment, and accountability. The screenshot is a Monday morning agenda covering go to market, customers, technology and product, and finance, with a lead source table.

    Slide text

    Monday Management Meeting running cadence Rhythm for running the business Kicks Off Week with a Drumbeat for driving the business Functional + Business Unit Leaders Call Their Weekly Commits and Performance Drives Visibility, Alignment, and Accountability

  4. Reserve Tuesday for market strategy and innovation

    One day a week goes to big-picture thinking about the market, partners, ecosystem, and competitors, plus work with the innovation (Labs) teams. The examples shown include a calendar entry for a recurring weekly innovation session, a competitive-deals pie chart, and BrightEdge material on AI search.

    Slide text

    Tuesday – Market Strategy & Innovation Market Strategy and Dynamics Dedicated to thinking about and working with Innovation (Labs) teams Partners, Ecosystem, Competitors Big Picture Thinking innovate & lead market

  5. Wednesday forecasts make segment leaders own revenue

    Wednesday focuses on revenue, with each segment leader calling a forecast and expected to hit it. The review runs by business unit across new business, retention, and upsell. The template table compares forecast and target against actuals for retention and upsell by segment, rolled into a total, to close the loop on accountability.

    Slide text

    Wednesday – $$$ Sales Forecasting – Segment Leader calls and expected to hit number Revenue Focused – Drives revenue accountability across org By Business Unit – New Business, BU Retention & Upsell find the revenue Close loop to drive accountability

  6. Plan sales and customer success capacity early

    Sales and customer success capacity need to be built ahead of demand. The spreadsheet projects monthly ARR for 2025 alongside account executive and CSM headcount, hires in ramp, exits and capacity. Red highlighting flags potential customer success capacity shortfalls.

    Slide text

    Thursday – Customer & Capacity customer joy & be ahead Prospect-to-Customer Journey Capacity – Critical at Scale to plan and build ramped Sales and CS capacity Hard, but need to build ahead

  7. Friday tracks people metrics and product metrics

    Friday reviews people metrics and key hires, plus product metrics. The people table lists items such as ticket volume, reply time, turnover, and hiring scores, each with a weekly or monthly frequency and a current result. The product scorecard sets targets for adoption, performance, and quality across two halves.

    Slide text

    Friday – People and Product People – Metrics & Key Hires Product – Metrics and Review build

Monthly and quarterly reviews

  1. Monthly review covers SaaS metrics by segment

    The monthly operations cadence reviews overall SaaS metrics, key functions, and each segment, since dynamics at scale differ by segment. The examples show an overall metrics sheet with actual, goal, and variance columns, a units of economics list including LTV, CAC, and payback, and a monthly NPS by segment line chart.

    Slide text

    Run Month Monthly Ops Cadence Overall SaaS Metrics Exec Review of Key Business Functions Exec Review by Segment (@scale dynamics diff by segment)

Sustaining the journey

  1. Sustain yourself through a decade of building

    Building to 100M takes a decade or more, and the speaker names constant struggle, health, and friends and family as the sustaining areas. He says he is not great at it but learned its importance. The images show a waterfront scene, a resting heart rate chart, and weekly activity streak badges.

    Slide text

    Sustain 100M = Decade+ Constant Struggle Health Friends & Family Not great at it – but learned it’s importance…

  2. Recap of run, functions, and sustain

    The closing recap repeats the three groups from the agenda. Run covers run at scale, run versus build, and Monday management. Functions covers market and innovation, money, customer and capacity, and people and product. Sustain covers struggle, health, and friends and family.

    Slide text

    Over the last 20 minutes… Functions Sustain Market & Innovation $$$ Customer & Capacity People and Product Run Run @ Scale Run vs. Build Monday Management Sustain Struggle Health Friends & Family

  3. Thank you from Jim Yu

    The speaker closes by thanking the audience. The slide shows his name, title, and BrightEdge logo, and lists his LinkedIn, Twitter, and email contact details for follow-up.

    Slide text

    SaaSOpen, September 2024 Thank you! Jim Yu Founder & Executive Chair, BrightEdge https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimyu1/ twitter @jimyu [redacted email]