After a whirlwind two days, Pulse 2022 has come to a close.
The entire 48 hours were packed with strategic learnings, new connections, and plenty of shared memories. But we couldn’t officially say goodbye without a reminder of why we strive to make Pulse the biggest event for Customer, Product, and Community:
To prove that you can win in business by being human first.
A look back at the community that built Pulse
Dan Steinman, Chief Evangelist at Gainsight, talks best Pulse memories with Nick Mehta, CEO of Gainsight
Nick Mehta, CEO at Gainsight, kicked off the closing keynote by bringing out Dan Steinman, Chief Evangelist at Gainsight and the person who “built Pulse with his bare hands” according to Mehta.
Steinman offered a collage of the best moments from Pulse in previous years, including a look at the first Gainsight parody video, which started a long-standing tradition of music videos.
With each new memory, it became abundantly clear that the magic of Pulse has always been the people who attend. As Mehta said, “This is the story of you, the customer success community.”
Box builds a human-first, customer-centric business
Aaron Levie, CEO at Box, talks customer-centricity
Mehta also brought out Aaron Levie, CEO at Box, to discuss the experience of building a human-first, customer-centric business. As one of the first members of the Pulse community, Levie offered an important perspective about the evolution of customer-centric business models, including how Gainsight fits into it.
Mehta asked why it was important to Levie to build customer success into the foundation of Box. Levie said he almost couldn’t understand the question, because “that’s like asking do you believe in your customers?”
He expanded by saying, “When you are a service provider to your customers, customer success is job number one of your entire company.” We couldn’t have said it better ourselves!
Gong organizes around community
Eran Aloni, CCO at Gong, and Nisha Baxi, Director, Community at Gong talk about the importance of community
Another highlight came when Mehta brought out some of the newest members of the Pulse community, Robin Van Lieshout, Founder of inSided (acquired by Gainsight earlier this year), along with Eran Aloni, CCO at Gong, and Nisha Baxi, Director, Community at Gong to talk through how a company can successfully develop a community in their organization.
Aloni gave great advice for everyone looking to integrate community into their product. He said, “You need to separate having a community and having a community programs.” For Gong, that meant 24 months of strategizing about Gong’s community launch to make sure it was right. Success for Aloni meant a company-wide adoption of their community initiative. He said, “You can’t fake it. You can’t just decide one morning. You have to, as a company, decide to be customer-centric.”
The message is clear—together, we are unstoppable
The keynote came to a close with a presentation from Robin Merritt, SVP, Chief of Staff and Operations at Gainsight, on Pulse Impact. The initiative started over two years ago with CSYOU, and expanded this year with Gainsight ALL and Product School.
CSYOU built in partnership with ed-tech master SV Academy, is designed to level the career playing field in Customer Success for people of color, veterans, and members of LGBTQIA+ community and Product School offers certifications in product-led growth. Combined, these programs have increased the diversity of customer success teams, opened new opportunities for Product professionals, and more. Each stat highlighting, once again, Gainsight’s dedication to building a thriving community around Pulse, and the best human-first organizations possible.
The perfect finale for a human-first community
For one last surprise, Mehta brought out his mom to celebrate her recent birthday. The entire crowd sang happy birthday together and you could feel the joy in the room.
And then, like a true Swiftie, Mehta got everyone on their feet to dance to Shake It Off. We would never let you miss an epic dance party, so here’s a clip.
See everything you missed in the Pulse Library
To see all the sessions, plus the incredible moments from the keynotes, check out the Pulse Library. You’ll get access to every session, including the keynotes. The only thing you need is an epic playlist for a few dance breaks.
