Jeff Gardner joined me on the Accelerate Show to discuss what he's been doing as the new President and CEO of CalAmp, a local company that has always been a pioneer in IoT and connecting the mobile economy. He’s been on their Board for over 5 years, so he knows the company well and has a strong vision for its future.  

Through their hardware and software they have enabled others to track, trace and manage their assets more effectively, such as vehicles in a fleet.  One of the brands that you may recognize that they own is LoJack, which has helped many people recover stolen cars over the years.  They have over a million customers and track over 20 million products where they are installed. We talked about their roots, innovation and solutions today and into the future.

Prior to CalAmp, Jeff was the President and CEO of Brinks Home Security, a well-known national company home security solutions.  He was also President and CEO at Windstream for 10 years, a multi-billion dollar telecommunications company, which had been a part of Alltel, where he was the CFO. He’s also been heavily involved in M&A and technology throughout his career.

I did my best not to hold it against him as Jeff graduated from my college rival, Purdue.  It's great to now have him in the area, accelerating a leading technology company!

Jeff Gardner of Graphy joins Landon and Kyle to discuss his 8-year journey at Intercom. He chats about the early days of the product (he was employee #4), growing a support team from 1 to 100, launching a developer platform, and more.

Today’s Topics:

• Intercom pricing (and potential IPO?)
• Growing support in lockstep with customer growth
• The evolution of hiring needs as a company scales
• Being remote in a majority in-person company
• Going from "we have an API" to "we are a developer platform"
• Advice for indie developers building on a platform
• Back to the beginning: moving to Graphy
• What is customer success?
• Customers as collaborators on the product journey
• Thinking in trade-offs

Links & Resources:

• Jeff on Twitter: @erskingardner
• Graphy: Data collaboration in a visual, fun and flexible way
• Finite and Infinite Games by James P. Carse

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When you're starting up, your company story may be all that you've got to convince others that your product matters. At the Inside Intercom World Tour last year, our Head of Platform Partnerships, Jeff Gardner, broke down the elements of great storytelling and explained how leaders could leverage stories to figure out who to hire, shape team performance, and influence product roadmaps.

Sacred Conversations on Work Episode 14

In Episode 14, Host Carol Ross speaks with Jeff Gardner. Before starting Springtime Ventures, his brand-new venture capital company, Jeff served as the CEO of Zen Planner, a software provider to fitness business owners. During his time at Zen Planner, the company grew over 50% over six years, and was rated as one of Outside Magazine's Best Places to Work for four years in a row.  In their conversation, Carol and Jeff discuss workplace dynamics and the culture required to keep workers feeling fulfilled. Jeff's three main passions of family, adventure, and working with great people to build amazing businesses come through loud and clear in this episode. Listen in for an in-depth discussion about how to build and support an atmosphere of freedom and fun at work. 

standoutandbelong.com/blog/ Show Notes: https://standoutandbelong.com/sacred-conversations-on-work-episode-14/

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Credits:

HOST: Carol Ross, standoutandbelong.com

PRODUCER/EDITOR: Kyle Donovan, kyledonovan.com GRAPHIC DESIGN: Nicholas Geier