Mik Lernout

Next year, Lightspeed Commerce will exit its teenage years and turn 20. What does that maturity mean? For me, it’s all about shifting from simply a growth mindset to one of profitability. I sat down with Gus Papageorgiou, our Head of Investor Relations and host of the Inside Lightspeed podcast, to discuss this cultural shift, where we’re heading, and how my role as CEO will guide this moving forward. When Lightspeed first started, we were all about seizing opportunities — whether it was moving to the cloud early on, expanding into new markets, or launching payments. These bold moves have driven us to where we are today. Now, as we approach this new chapter, we're putting an emphasis on: - Doubling down on areas where we can truly excel and deliver the most value to our customers. - Making profitability our new North Star and ensuring that every move strengthens our foundation. - Staying true to our core mission: helping SMBs thrive. But now, we’re doing it with a sharper focus on long-term success. Had a great time reflecting on Lightspeed’s past, as well as discussing our vision for the future. Check out the full podcast here: https://lnkd.in/gF3vG-Qn

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Last night, I attended BetaKit's Town Hall on the state of innovation in Canada. It was an inspiring event that brought together Toronto's brightest minds to discuss how we can move forward. Every speaker resonated with me, but a key takeaway is the immense opportunity we have to showcase Canadian craftsmanship in building world-class products. We can also empower the next generation to follow suit. Here are the top points that struck a chord with me personally: 1. Tech Talent: Scale up your career in Canada and make monumental impact here. (Ivan Zhang of Cohere) 2. Canadian Government: Continued innovation is crucial for solving problems in outdated industries like healthcare and pharmacy. Don't stifle our ability to make a real difference in the everyday lives of Canadians. (✨Joella A. of MedEssist | Transforming Pharmacy with Technology and AI 🏥) 3. Top Tech Leaders of Canada:  Our arguments about stagnation hold weight across Canada. Let's focus on the most impactful solutions. Is capital gains tax the most effective approach to get buy in from the average Canadian? (Ali Asaria, formerly Transformer Labs, Tulip) 4. Industry Veterans: Our mentorship is invaluable, especially for young professionals entering the remote workforce post-pandemic. Make time to guide them. (Jocelyne Murphy of Socratica) 5. Canada: Our differentiator is our CRAFTSMANSHIP. We have excellent product builders. Let's keep building here. Let's keep learning here. Let's get better here. (Tobias Lütke of Shopify) Let's go 🚀 #CanadianTech #Innovation #BetaKit #TownHall

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Are you ready to unlock the full potential of Product Operations? 🔍 Only 2 weeks left until Product Ops: 101 - Getting Started with Product Operations on October 30, 2024, led by Denise Tilles! With only 2 spots left, this hands-on workshop will give you practical tools to implement and scale Product Ops strategies. By the end, you'll have a clear roadmap to drive better outcomes within your organization. Secure your spot now: https://lnkd.in/exBcs2V5 🎟️ #productops101 #productoperations #productmanagement #workshop

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Product Leaders: Visibility is your responsibility. Don't just say, "Oh, that's all politics." If you don't take 100% ownership of communicating your achievements to your organization, your career suffers. But even more so, the company suffers because wrong decisions get made on who gets promoted and put in charge of important things. Do the work, and then take responsibility for communicating it.

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Our partnership with Brex now gives us unparalleled insight and breadth in SaaS purchasing reports

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Kyle Poyar's excellent post on Lenny Rachitsky's newsletter today contains a ton of great info for any product leader to noodle on (link in the comments below). One thing Kyle and I were talking about that I saw at both Hootsuite and SecurityScorecard was looking at a company's "in-app expansion & paywall strategy," especially in B2B SaaS within the first 90 days of joining an organization. I found that many organizations either lack a Paywall Strategy completely or are way too aggressive with one. In the past, I've definitely found myself too aggressive with my team to push upsells, but having a balancing act between making sure you're deriving value from features that customers care for without being annoying is supercritical. For those who don't have one, you're leaving money on the table, and it's time to change that! I find it's as simple as ensuring PMs and PMMs spend some time during Product Discovery on pricing and packaging but then bring that to the Product Design team to do their magic on how the paywall will interact with the UX. The latter is often missing and left for someone to do on Pendo or Appcues. #productmanagement #pricing #productmarketing

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The Quarterly Business Review (QBR) is a great way to understand what's happening in your business. The best are run with participation from adjacent groups including Product, Marketing, Engineering and CS. https://lnkd.in/gXhe3aYP

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RevOps vs Chief of Staff work "I think RevOps is like a right hand to CRO of an organization. So a Chief of Staff is essentially like an extension of an executive member on any team. I think if you're smaller, than you have your hands in a lot of different pots." - Ravi Neppalli from our new Chief of Staff Podcast episode 🎧 Key takeaway: the size of company and who you report to impacts the work you do!

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“Organizations buying your software are asking for a VPAT (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template) and you can tie business metrics to that.” Andrew Chung Chief Product Officer at Level Access explains that two strong ways of advocating for product resources for accessibility are to bring product customers who are asking for VPATs, and quantifying the business risk of not being accessible. He goes on to share a great reminder that “don’t wait, just start” is a compelling way to create evidence of the benefits of allocating a small amount of resources, which can then be used to build a business case for unlocking more resources to build accessible products. Use free tools to help you get started and if you can show early success you can build a much stronger case for incorporating accessibility early in the product process. We all purchase software, next time ask for a VPAT during the process.  Every request adds up, and it will make a meaningful difference in how Product teams prioritize limited resources. Full interview is in the comments. This is now conversation #5 in our series for National Disability Employment Awareness Month, and we have a few more that we’re editing and will share soon. My mission with these conversations is to help build awareness of the importance and business opportunity for building accessible, and give advocates the tactics and strategies they need to make forward progress in their organizations. Stay tuned for more and in the meantime let me know what more you’d like to hear from our guests.  Upcoming conversations include conversations with startup founders, senior accessibility leaders who have worked at major tech and consumer companies, venture capitalists who invest in the ability space, and more. Drop your questions in a comment, and I'll get as many asked as I can. #NDEAM #GoodJobsForAll #inclusionworks #DisabilityRights #InclusiveWorkplace #InclusionMatters

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👋 question for the operators out there: In your experience, at what price point does an individual license for a SaaS productivity tool no longer stay under the radar and require formal approval? In other words, at what price can it no longer just be placed on the corporate Amex or easily reimbursed?

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What really changes on the journey from a "Product Manager" to a "Principal Product Manager?" Two things: ambiguity and scope. Let's dig in. At the product manager level, you're handed a problem and a rough solution. Your task? - Dive deep into the business and customer issues. - Polish the solution and test its viability. - Launch, measure, refine. Moving up to senior product manager, the problem is clear, but what is the solution? Not so much. Your role expands to: - Define the solution from scratch. - Drive alignment. - Execute as you did at the product manager level. At the principal level, things get murkier. The problem isn't well defined. Your mission, should you choose to accept it: - Identify the problem. - Drive alignment. - Repeat the Senior Product Manager process. - Have a point of view beyond your own scope. As you ascend the professional ladder, ambiguity becomes a fascinating and ever-present challenge, your constant companion. But here's the good news: If you can demonstrate to your manager and stakeholders your adeptness at handling any ambiguous problem of increasing scope, you can accelerate your journey to success and professional growth.

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Tailoring your #demo to SVPs

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Amplitude Announces First Quarter 2024 Financial Results: - Fourth quarter revenue of $72.6 million, up 9% year-over-year - Number of paying customers grew 37% year-over-year to nearly 3,000 - Free cash flow margin up 7 percentage points YoY We’ve been up-leveling our GTM strategy over the last year, and Q1 was all about execution. Our self-serve account is attracting diverse customers, our named account strategy is seeing early promise, and we're building healthier and deeper relationships with our customers. We also continued to innovate. We released Session Replay and are making it easier than ever before to get started with Amplitude. As always, I’d like to extend a massive thank you to our awesome Ampliteers, partners, and customers—your partnership is invaluable! #ProductLedGrowth #DigitalAnalytics #ProductAnalytics #Retention #Acquisition #Monetization Spenser Skates Christopher (Criss) Harms Kristina Johnson Francois Ajenstat Shadi Rostami Shintaro Matsui Nathaniel Crook Tifenn Dano Kwan Jenna Schwalbe Elliott Chris Sharp Daniel Carpenter Rachel Courtney Jonathan Anderson

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#Fintech organizations have 3 main NEVERS: NEVER want to see downtime NEVER default on regulations NEVER miss a chance to know their customers But achieving this at scale = Ingesting TBs of data = spending millions of $$$ on SaaS observability tools = sharing financial/PII data with vendors = compliance issues This simple yet straightforward (+ extremely costly) gap This is where Incerto’s Observability solution comes in = Single unified platform, custom-built to your infrastructure = 85+% guaranteed cost savings + 100% control = #OwnYourObservability Still on the fence on making the switch from SaaS observability? You’d surely want to hear from our clients from FYERS, Dhan, and other leading orgs. #observability #financialservices #monitoring

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Happy Q4! 😊 Great time to highlight, when setting up LiveRecover agents - we understand it is not a "one-size fits all" for our merchants. Let us help you. Our dedicated Account Management team will ensure your P2P / live agent workflows are optimized for success this Q4; proper segmentation, include/exclude existing marketing subscribers, cart value thresholds, etc. Want to reach 7x more customers and increase revenue lift by 10-20%? Let’s chat asap and get you on a risk free test before BFCM! #IncrementalRevenue #5minuteinstall

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👋 Hey product hiring managers! You may have noticed dozens of people now with a new certificate from the Alberta Product Leadership Program. If you manage or are prospectively seeking a new PM to join your team, you should know that: 1) The program is selective. You can't just sign-up. Since it's inception, the program has sought to upskill professionals that have shown their motivation for growth and desire to hone their product management craft. 2) The graduates get broader exposure to practices and industries beyond their resume. Our sessions are interactive and facilitate sharing of perspectives and ways of working across multiple organizations - from grassroots startups to FAANG giants. 3) There's more to it than training. During the course of the program, many participants gain mentorship, build a supportive peer group, and get out of their comfort zone. The program is refreshed every year by hiring managers just like you to optimize for the skills we need to hire and promote for. So if you see the APL certificate with a candidate profile, know that candidate choose to do more than your average course. #abtech #yyctech #yegtech #productmanagement

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We grew the Exit Five team this week - we're now at five full-time teammates. It's a long way from solopreneurship; and I'm having a blast. I'm up early excited to dig into work each day. I feel challenged creatively. I'm back studying and learning. There are times where I'm out of my comfort zone - spending money, taking chances, making decisions without lots of data. But this is GOOD. I can feel myself growing again. That little brain inside of my shiny bald head is growing. It's awesome. ____ This week we welcomed Danielle and Anna to the Exit Five team: • Danielle Messler joined as Head of Content after running marketing at Founder Path and previously working at ProfitWell. She'll be running our podcast, newsletter, and webinar strategy; helping guide content for our events; and helping us build out a long term website traffic and content strategy for E5. • Anna Vermillion join us fresh from the University of Texas (the top advertising school in the country) and already did a handful of marketing internships before graduating and came to us with raving reviews; she stood out in a crowd of 600+ applicants we had for the Operations Assistant role. Thankfully we found two awesome women to balance out the Dave - Dan - Matt energy we've had for the first six months of the business. We decided to pull forward some hiring for this year because of the trajectory that we're on; we'll double the business this year and the signals continue to be strong. But we have even bigger goals for 2025 and I wanted to get more people in here now so we can create the 2025 plan together, have everyone ramped up and be building together - vs. hiring in November/December and waiting until March to see the impact on the business. ___ Inside of Exit Five - by popular request - and at no additional cost to members, we rolled out a new member matchmaking program to help B2B marketers connect with peers, share stories, get advice, and build their networks. And next week we're doing a Live Session on Email Marketing and have 992 registered as of writing this (the session is on Tuesday, you can find it at exit five . com / teardown if you want to join us) Plus, these notes from a member call this week comparing Exit Five to other communities out there (well known, I just blurred them out of respect)

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