Jason M. LemkinCEO, SaaStr · Co-Founder of SaaStr AI, SaaStr Fund, Adobe Sign

The Power of CEO Relationships: Unlocking Special Features and Success

10 Feb 2024 · 1 min

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Jason M. Lemkin explains how having a direct relationship with a CEO can unlock prioritized product features or functionality that legacy vendors may not provide. He argues that when you can pick up the phone and escalate needs to a CEO, you improve the odds of getting the one or two critical features that matter to your organization—even if delivery takes months or up to a year—turning you into a hero for your company. The excerpt emphasizes pragmatic trade-offs (timing vs. eventual outcome) and the special leverage of CEO relationships.

Chapters

There's some meta reasons you're doing that right to improve improve that functionality in your company but there are specific needs. You need a specific feature, a specific set of functionality that probably does not exist with the legacy vendors or you would just continue using them right? And if you have the relationship with the CEO you are going to get a better outcome for the one or two things that really matter to you, to you in that job and organization and that is special to be able to pick up the phone and you may not get that feature next week or next quarter and cos screw this up on the other side they're stressed that they can't release that critical feature next month but it's okay if you're a circuit. The fact that in a year, in 12 months you're going to get something you've been waiting seven years for and will be a hero to your organization, that's the magic of the CEO relationship.