QuotaPath Senior Account Executive Alex Brennen was about to close the biggest deal in the company’s history.

In revenue size, and in the number of users, the deal would push Alex across her quota target, help the sales team hit its monthly goal, and set a new precedent for future deals.

If you’ve ever been in sales, you know the type of thrill, accolades, and especially nerves, a deal such as Alex’s can generate.

Yet it wasn’t pride, commissions, or potential loss of the deal that crowded Alex’s thoughts. 

Instead, Alex remained steadfast to uncover and deliver on customer needs. And, set up steps to ensure that, should the deal go through, a smooth handoff from sales to our customer teams followed.

At the end of October, Alex rang our closing bell in front of a line of colleagues, who waited to shower her with high fives in celebration of closing the deal. Then, when onboarding took over, to their delight, they found no surprises or false promises from Alex’s sales process.

Alex’s approach to her work with customers and teammates exemplifies what it means to “Lead with empathy,” — one of QuotaPath’s five core values. And it’s why, at the beginning of the year, we recognized Alex as a winner of our new Value Awards.

The Value Awards

Following a freshening up of our core values last year, we introduced the Value Awards in early 2022 at our companywide kickoff. This annual event allows Navigators (what we call one another) to nominate and celebrate their peers who consistently embody our five values. 

“At QuotaPath, it’s everyone’s responsibility to hold each other accountable for living our values,” said Carrie Carroll, QuotaPath’s Workplace & Employee Experience Manager. “Strong values help create and enhance connectivity and trust across the team. That’s why we opened up the nominations to the entire company and made it peer-driven.”

See our newly updated values below. By changing the wording to make them more action-driven, we aim to make it easier for our Navigators to recognize when our values are being upheld. 

What it means to be values-driven

In addition to celebrating our Navigator winners, we embrace a values-driven culture and embed it into everything we do.

When it comes to hiring, for example, we have adopted a value-based hiring approach. This helps our candidates get a clear idea about how our values align with their own. That way, we both make sure we’re a match. Value-based hiring promotes authenticity with candidates. It creates space for people to live out their values at their own guidance. 

When we’re interviewing under this approach, we look into how people execute projects and interact with customers and colleagues. Are they building trust with their teams and colleagues? Are they staying curious and trying new things with their projects? 

“Instead of looking for people who ‘fit’ a certain culture, we want to work with people who live out our values in different ways,” said Angie Nelson, QuotaPath’s Recruiter. 

Value-based hiring also allows for conversations about company culture and teamwork, and encourages new ideas and schools of thought, Angie added.  

Values exemplified with our customers and one another

Additionally, our values drive our relationships with our customers. For instance, in 2022, we launched our QuokkaPath initiative to allow our customers to nominate members of their team who are excellent mentors, teammates, and share in our values. We then select a winner from a pool of nominations and celebrate the winners across our channels. Oh, and we delight them with quokka-inspired swag packs. 

Internally, we fill our Slack channels with cross-collaboration, support for one another, opportunities to connect with people outside of our immediate teams, and post “water cooler” questions to get to know one another. 

At the end of the week, the entire company jumps on a Zoom call to share our wins and offer shoutouts for our fellow Navigators. Last week’s shoutouts, for example, included a stream of praise for our RevOps team, our Director of Customer Success, and our Chief of Staff who hopped into deals, calls, and data to better support our company efforts throughout the week.

These events, whether big or small, foster connections internally and grow our community with our customers. 

To see how we incorporate our values into our product philosophy, schedule a time to chat with us. 

2022 Value Awards Winners

Lastly, please join us in celebrating our winners and honorable mentions from the 2022 QuotaPath Value Awards.

Lead with empathy

Honorable Mention: Darby Dupre (Marketing)

“Darby always encourages people to look out for themselves and is a huge advocate for mental health and self-empowerment in the workplace. On top of that, she’s always looking out for how to best connect with our customers and serve their needs.”

Winner: Alex “Simba” Brennen (Sales)

“With her prospects and teammates, Alex is always willing to put herself in others’ shoes and offer genuine feedback and support.”

Stay curious

Honorable Mention: Andy Keil (Product)

“Andy brings a creative and experimental mindset to product development. He is always willing to try new ideas and approaches. He constantly thinks of ways to optimize the product and improve the experience for customers, and his curiosity is the key to that.”

Winner: Melanie Taube (Marketing)

“Melanie is always willing to experiment and push the boundaries of marketing, brand voice, and design. She will hear something in a meeting, and then come back to the next one with ‘out of curiosity, last night I looked into x, y, and z.’ She is a strong example of someone who regularly explores new skill sets.”

Navigate with data

Honorable Mention: Meg Rodriguez (Customer Success)

“Meg has taken the lead on so many fronts since joining QuotaPath and at every step of the way she is seeking out ways to ground her thinking and decision making into data.”

Winner: James Truty (Engineering)

Why he was nominated: “Raw data is James’s food. It keeps him alive and allows him to perform the tasks he is responsible for. I can’t think of a response he’s ever given that wasn’t backed up by some empiric data.”

Build trust

Honorable Mention: Venu Kunche (Product)

“Part of being a great Product Manager is building trust with those you work closely with. Venu asks team members how to improve the process and takes the suggestions to heart. He works hard to test various approaches and take setbacks with grace.”

Winner: Josh Kamenicky (Customer Success)

“Josh will always be upfront and tell you what’s on his mind. Every single customer that he works with trusts him. His soft skills and ability to relate to everyone he interacts with is rare and should be celebrated.”

Promote inclusivity

Honorable Mention: Sam Manley (Sales)

“Sam is always supportive to the team and helps drive a positive workplace. She makes everyone feel included and ensures no one is left behind.”

Winner: Angie Nelson (Recruiting)

“Angie brings inclusivity to her day-to-day and is focused on ensuring that we are all creating an inclusive environment. This is evident in who we hire and how we interview.”

Navigator of the Year

Winner: Zoe Wolfe (Engineering)

“Zoe pays attention to the person/coworker as much as the task. She puts herself in others’ shoes. Then she takes that perspective with her own and provides insights into how we can make QuotaPath a better place.”

Congratulations to all of our winners!

Interested in learning more about life at QuotaPath? Check out our page here. 

This FP&A Manager saved a week’s worth of work after retiring her sales commission tracking spreadsheet by switching to QuotaPath.

Muck Rack’s Financial Planning and Analysis Manager Katie Cooper stayed loyal to spreadsheets until she had enough. 

“At the end of the day, the result was great. As long as everything was updated and formulas weren’t broken, spreadsheets did the job,” said Katie.  

At the time, she and her team also leveraged HubSpot’s CRM platform to manage their sales cycles.

But as Muck Rack’s revenue team scaled to 20 reps, the financial planning and analysis manager struggled to keep up manually.

At the end of every month, Katie had to build a list of every deal sold, pull data from HubSpot, cross-reference the data twice, and make sure that every payment over $1,000 was correct. This entire process took a week to complete. 

Before switching to QuotaPath, the tricky part for Katie involved maintaining a spreadsheet for every sales rep. She felt she couldn’t provide real-time transparency without oversharing information, so they all had their own versions of a master sheet. Additionally, if a sales rep got promoted and their pay structure changed, then that’s back to square one with formulating a new spreadsheet. And it wouldn’t be a true spreadsheet if a formula didn’t occasionally stop working. Which isn’t hard to fix, but who wants to have to deal with another corrective step? 

Even though Katie formulated a way to make spreadsheets “do-able,” she grew convinced that spreadsheets weren’t the most efficient way to work. 

There had to be a way to automate this, she thought. Then in December 2020, Katie changed her entire sales commissions workflow by implementing QuotaPath. Now, a team of 70-plus relies on QuotaPath for attainment and earning transparency powered by QuotaPath’s HubSpot integration.

Meet Katie

After earning a fine arts degree from The University of Utah and an MFA from The Accademia dell’Arte, Katie began her career as a sales coordinator. Next, she became an inside sales rep for a small local tech company. Then in 2019, Katie started at Muck Rack as the sales operations manager. Last year, the public relations media platform promoted her to a financial planning and analysis manager role.

What Katie enjoys most about her job: “Every conversation I have with people at Muck Rack is so encouraging. The company is full of people who believe in the markets we are serving, our product, and how we are building something to serve public relation professionals and journalists communities.”

Why make the switch from spreadsheets to QuotaPath?

Katie: It made sense to pay for an actual software that has a scalable system and is easy to reference for everyone involved. Now, I can send a link in a Slack post when commissions are approved every month. Furthermore, everyone follows the same instructions on how and where to find information that’s specific to them within QuotaPath. Before, I had to tailor directions for every person.

How has QuotaPath changed your workflow? 

The tool allows me to seamlessly automate everyone’s commissions into one platform so that sales reps, customer success managers, SDRs, and revenue management can view their own commissions in the tool. This makes it easier to troubleshoot when needed. It’s easy to reference and the information is made to be transparent for the entire revenue team.

A major game-changer for me is the ease in which I can onboard a new team member…and with our rapid growth, efficiency and accuracy here is a must. Assigning a plan, quota, and rate in QuotaPath saves me about a half-hour per employee.

You mentioned it took you a week when you had less than 10 reps. Today, your sales team is closer to 70. How long do commissions take now?

January’s commissions took me less than six hours from start to finish. 

Lastly, imagine your spreadsheet’s retirement party. What does it entail?

This is definitely more of a party for myself than my spreadsheet. My commission tracking spreadsheet is no more. I don’t want to see it again. I am kicking it out. Here’s some gasoline. A candle. Then I can sit back in my lawn chair and relax in the glow of a bonfire.

Final Thoughts

Now that Katie is done with commission spreadsheets forever, she doesn’t ever plan to look back. Separating from your trusted spreadsheets can be difficult. However, let us help send your commission tracking spreadsheet into retirement by switching to QuotaPath.

Like the scaling sales organizations we support, we too have grown. 

In fact, last year we grew our feature-set capabilities by 100 percent!

“In 2021, we listened to our users and added a massive amount of new value for our current and future customers,” said QuotaPath Founder and Head of Product Cole Evetts.

These changes occurred in stride with our evolving ideal customer profile.

In 2018, for instance, we launched to address the core issues of the compensation process for small, growing organizations with simplistic properties and requirements. We focused on the reps because there was no solution out there that enabled reps to dynamically track and forecast their commissions.  Now, we’ve expanded our product capabilities so that we can offer more to our existing customers, support larger organizations, and include all compensation stakeholders.

Product additions like new integrations, deeper insight capabilities, and greater in-app cross-collaboration have helped us level up to include teams with increasing compensation complexities. 

Despite these technical upgrades — and many more en route — our product and engineering teams remain fully committed to providing impactful and enjoyable experiences for our end-users. 

Check out the major changes below and how we continue to think about making sales compensation a better space for all.

Maintaining simplicity and managing greater complexities

We understand the importance of being able to connect the tools you use to create simple, automated workflows that you can trust. So we listened to our customers’ requests and invested in integrations.

We launched our most requested feature of 2020 early last year with our native HubSpot integration. This added another data stream for our sales customers that run their sales funnels through HubSpot’s Sales CRM, like Tribe Dynamics.

We also launched an integration with Close and improved upon our real-time data syncs so you’re always in the know with the CRM sync status indicator.

The release of Inbound API opens the doors to almost any CRM that exists to pull in deal data to QuotaPath.

Plus, our new Maxio and Outbound API allows for finance teams to build, automate, and track commissions in QuotaPath and then sync to Expense Recognition by SaaSOptics.

We also released features to support more complex compensation structures. QuotaPath’s cumulative quotas mean we can now support period-to-date attainment against monthly and quarterly cumulative quotas.

Lastly, we introduced global currency options and support over 150 currencies.

Hats off to everyone at QuotaPath who played a role here and our amazing partners!

Increased insight and collaboration

We continue to focus on surfacing meaningful insights and strengthening how teams collaborate for a smoother compensation process.

In 2021, we made it possible to upload additional deal data so that you can create payout schedules according to invoice dates, contract terms, and billing periods. Our Deal table enhancements provide those insights and more for at-a-glance views.

Our HubSpot customers loved this next one. The launch of HubSpot Cards opened up the ability for users to view their earnings from QuotaPath directly in HubSpot.

On the collaboration front, Deal Flagging and Plan Verification recently went live. These two avenues enable leadership, admins, and reps to communicate in-app regarding compensation.

Deal Flagging allows for reps to ask commission questions or raise an issue with earnings and deal details. Meanwhile, Plan Verification offers the ability to distribute compensation plans and track rep acknowledgment rates within QuotaPath.

Building cross-departmental alignment

We made serious advancements to establishing QuotaPath as a single source of truth for sales reps, managers, operations, and finance.

Earnings Approval aligns key stakeholders by reviewing commissions for accuracy before you freeze earnings to close the books.

With Payouts, teams can audit, confirm, and process payouts, without relying on spreadsheets. This magnifies cross-departmental alignment through surfacing clear audit trails of commission data. Reps know exactly what’s on their paycheck and the deals that comprise it. And, being able to represent complex pay schedules saves time and headache.

Additionally, to help our finance and accounting teams with their ASC-606 compliance, we launched Ledger. With Ledger, teams can create expense schedules for their revenue teams’ earnings, including complex variables like daily proration and unique schedules between deals.

More streamlined and efficient onboarding

In collaboration with our customer success team, we improved the speed and efficiency in delivering onboarding to new customers.

First, we significantly improved our sign-up flows by adding accessibility and security to the login process.

Secondly, we learned a lot about how complex comp plans can become and added Rate and Quota Manager to easily customize quotas and variable rates for reps in one plan. This provides flexibility for more scalable plan building.

We introduced Official Teams to include our new Team Manager role in QuotaPath. Now, managers can access their team’s Earning and Attainment Leaderboards to easily track performance.

We also streamlined the setup of Teams so that you can create more teams, more efficiently. 

Keeping your data safe

None of these additions matter if we can’t promise the security of our customers’ data. That’s why we earned our SOC2 Type 1 Certification. We also added two-factor authentication, improved our terms and conditions, and updated our workflows for annual contracts and billing automation. 

Package changes

It’s nice to stop and reflect on how much we’ve grown while getting excited about everything we have on deck.

As part of our evolution to deliver great experiences as you scale, we’ve made adjustments to our pricing. Our free offering is staying put! And, we will maintain our straightforward, transparent pricing with no implementation fees.

For smaller teams, we’ve added the QuotaPath Startup Package.

“The SMB market is underserved in this category and in need of a solution,” Cole said. “For this reason, we’ll maintain a budget-friendly, easy to use, and low barrier to entry option for those organizations .”

Our QuotaPath Scale Package pricing increased by $10, following our product feature-set that surpassed 100 percent growth. This offering includes Ledger, payout scheduling, attainment leaderboards, Plan Verification, Deal Flagging, and more. 

The future is bright

We’re proud of everything that we delivered and accomplished in 2021, and we’ve got even more in store this year. Join us as we continue to support scaling revenue organizations with their sales compensation needs! 

QuotaPath customer Blackthorn shares its successes after adopting QuotaPath’s Salesforce integration. Photo Credit: Jake Rauscher, Blackthorn.io.

Blackthorn, a native Salesforce app that manages events and payments, relied on Salesforce formulas to calculate sales commissions. It was a workable solution for a small sales team until they began to scale. 

As the sales organization added sales development, customer success, and partnership teams, the complexities in commission structures outgrew Salesforce formula capabilities. Blackthorn had been handling Salesforce administration internally without a designated admin on staff. Since every change to quota required a new formula, the frequent changes of a scaling startup became a “formula frenzy.”

Further aggravating the situation, Blackthorn loves monthly kickers and end-of-year accelerators to drive performance, which called for more formulaic adjustments. 

For maximum impact from these additional incentives, reps need to be able to easily track their progress against them. But the Blackthorn sales team had to review four different Salesforce reports when trying to determine how close they were to reaching these incentives. So, they were never quite sure if they had qualified or not.

Blackthorn had reached a point where, as VP of Sales Joe St. Germain said, “Formulas could not handle the complexity and scale as we expanded our teams and departments.”

Updating formulas had become so cumbersome that CEO and Co-Founder Chris Federspiel started searching for a solution. He hoped to find a solution that integrated with Salesforce and did not require a heavy lift to implement. 

Enter QuotaPath

QuotaPath delivered on all accounts, and Blackthorn began using the compensation performance management solution in August 2021.  

In the time since, Blackthorn’s revenue team has experienced significant time savings while providing clear visibility of compensation tracking for reps and management alike.

Setting up new quotas with Salesforce formulas used to require at least five to 10 hours of work per quota. Now in QuotaPath, it’s a simple update that only takes a few minutes.

Additionally, checking quarterly quota calculations and correcting errors previously took two to four hours per rep and per quarter. With QuotaPath, the team has found peace of mind with the consistent accuracy in their commission calculations and knowing that any adjustment takes a few clicks.

Team performance has also seen a boost. Increased visibility for Blackthorn’s reps through QuotaPath’s reporting has helped drive record sales over the past three months.

Below, the VP of Sales takes us through his QuotaPath experience, including selection, onboarding, ease of use, and increased visibility.

First, what is Blackthorn and who is Joe?

Blackthorn partnered with Salesforce in 2015 to offer a native app that makes managing events and payment processing easier. Higher ed, healthcare, and nonprofit organizations use Blackthorn’s tool to manage event processes like running event phone registrations, creating landing pages, and handling mobile organization. Its payment processor supports companies with mobile and subscription payments. Blackthorn gives companies full control of business processes through automation, configuration, and customization with no coding required. That’s two products that Blackthorn reps get to cross-sell.

The company now has 70 employees, 20 of whom make up the sales organization.

Joe leads as VP of Sales at Blackthorn and oversees the sales and business development. He joined Blackthorn in 2019 as a senior account executive. He has since climbed the leadership ladder, advancing to director of sales in 2020, and VP of Sales in 2021.

There are five different quota-carrying positions at Blackthorn: account executives, business development reps, customer success, partnerships, and sales leadership.

This means there are 10 different complex compensation plans, that include kickers and accelerators, and are tied to monthly customer payments.  

Selecting an “out-of-the-box” solution

Although Joe has become an evangelist of QuotaPath across his sales team, it wasn’t Joe who initially introduced Blackthorn to our platform. It was CEO and Co-founder Chris Federspiel. Chris said he checked out a handful of commission tracking software and sales performance management providers before selecting QuotaPath.

“QuotaPath had the best ability to configure criteria without having to write SQL queries or run big data exports,” Chris said. “It was a click-through path that gave us what we needed with little training.”

Sold on speed

During the sales process, QuotaPath had promised Chris fast onboarding, implementation, and time to value. To both his and Joe’s delight, our onboarding team got Blackthorn up and running in less than two weeks.

That includes the total time it took to sync Blackthorn’s Salesforce CRM, set up every plan or “Path” for reps, and map out commissions. Training for the entire team came in later weeks but within the first 30 days.

“We figured onboarding would be quick based on what QuotaPath told Chris, yet we were still happily surprised that it worked out the way it was sold,” Joe said.

Plus, the QuotaPath onboarding team has been helpful and responsive to questions within the same day.

Easy additions

Before QuotaPath, if Joe had to add a new quota, which was happening every two to three months, he’d assemble a small task force. For example, when Blackthorn added a partnerships team last year, Joe corralled sales, a Salesforce admin, and a department leader to set up the new quota.

Not anymore. 

“Now I can do it myself and directly in QuotaPath without having to create a formula,” Joe said. “It’s saving us five to 10 hours of work for every new quota.”

Adding his team’s monthly kickers and end-of-year accelerators have also been easy, accurate, and effective in QuotaPath.

Complex comp plans…no problem

While Joe began to relish in the time he got back from no longer having to mess with formulas, his reps began to see the benefits from new visibility into their quota attainments. 

“Our reps realized they could run scenarios and see how much they could earn from our monthly kickers,” Joe said. 

This led to big pushes from reps as they moved to fully maximize the accelerators set by Joe. QuotaPath’s ability for reps to run “what if” scenarios also broke down how much they would need to book monthly to lock in an extra 2 percent per deal toward the end of the year.

This added visibility led to record sales the past 3 months.

Sure, there’s a number of factors that can lead to record-breaking sales months, but Joe was quick to credit QuotaPath.

“Our team has had record sales months the past three months,” Joe said. “QuotaPath’s visibility has given our reps a little extra boost to go out and get as much as they can.”

If you would like to see wins at your organization similar to Blackthorn’s, schedule a time to chat with a team member.

This is a story about a Director of Finance who retired his sales commission tracking spreadsheet in favor of QuotaPath and its Salesforce integration. 

For Josh Seltzer, Simplex Health’s Director of Finance, the spreadsheet will always have a special place in his heart.

“I’ve seen everything from sharing Excel spreadsheets across departments to SharePoint and Google Sheets to spreadsheets that talk to each other. And, now we’ve got smart spreadsheets with code plugins and logic gates,” Josh said while reflecting on his 10-year-plus tenure in finance.

The spreadsheet is, as Josh put it, “a really easy database.”

However, despite his fondness for spreadsheets, Josh quickly flagged its flaws. The errors pile up as spreadsheets pass between teams and as newer sheet versions replace older ones.  

“On top of that, we have to put together a million different inputs that can become very ad hoc,” Josh said. 

So, when the fintech leader saw an opportunity to increase data cleanliness while decreasing his time spent dedicated to spreadsheet maintenance, he took it.

Simplex Health, a health tech startup that focuses on the prevention and reversal of lifestyle-driven chronic health conditions, adopted QuotaPath in Spring 2021. 

Upon sending his spreadsheet into retirement, there were no hurt feelings.

“We’ve come a very long way since adding QuotaPath,” Josh said. “As long as I set up our commission plan rules correctly, QuotaPath just works. I don’t have to worry about it.”

We asked Josh a few more questions to understand Simplex Health’s move to retire their commissions’ spreadsheet. (We also asked him to imagine and describe what his spreadsheet’s retirement party would include.)

Meet this Finance Leader

Josh Seltzer used his accounting degree from Temple University to work up the finance ladder at IBM, inVentive Health Clinical, The Avoca Group, and RADIUS Corporation. Then in February 2020, Josh joined Simplex Health as Director of Finance.

“What I like about my job is that I am able to influence strategy. I can’t help our patients the way our dietitians can,” Josh said. “But I can build out the infrastructure and the roadmap for the corporation so that we can continue to serve our patients.”

What were your team’s final “last straws” to replace spreadsheets with an automated system?

Josh: For a while, we didn’t have a CRM. Instead, we ran reports from our electronic health record system (EHR) and paid commissions based on patient appointments from our EHR. When we added Salesforce, we began downloading manual-intensive reports for this. I’d create a report for every single sales rep. Someone would have to review it. Then I’d download it, report it, digest it, and translate it to a dollar figure. There was a lot of going back and forth and manual lift.

How has your job been since retiring your commissions spreadsheets with QuotaPath?

Less back and forth and more transparency. Reps can see what’s happening behind the curtain in a timely manner. They don’t have to wait for me to build the spreadsheet, put it into a static report, and then set up a time to discuss it. There are no waiting gaps. 

Humor us! What would you bring to your spreadsheet’s retirement party?

A bonfire to burn it. 

Harsh, but fair. Lastly, how’s your commissions spreadsheet spending its retirement years?

It’s just trying to get the most out of its days until it’s permanently vaulted. 

We recognize that it can be difficult to part ways with your sales commission tracking spreadsheet and hope stories like Josh’s can offer a glimpse into the other side. Are you ready to throw your commission spreadsheet a retirement party? Talk to one of our teammates today. 

This article interviews Pete Crosby, who teaches the revenue leadership course The Definitive Guide to Revenue Leadership through Sales Impact Academy. This course is being offered for free to QuotaPath customers.

The chance of getting fired as a VP of Sales is high. 

For instance, a VP of Sales averages 17 months per gig. Meanwhile, a CFO’s tenure comes in at 4.7 years. 

“The revenue leader role is one of the most insecure because it’s the most measurable,” said Pete Crosby, a revenue leader, executive coach, and founder. “You’re measured based on how much revenue you deliver, and you’re paid well compared to other executive roles. The chances of you getting fired go up because there’s more on the line.”

That alone leaves many sales leaders stuck in a mental cycle of impending doom.

Fortunately, plenty of resources, revenue leadership courses, and coaches exist to help sales execs manage these feelings of doubt.

And, Pete is one of those resources. 

The 4x Chief Revenue Officer coaches about 40 sales and revenue executives from around the world and supports five companies in an advisory capacity. He led several companies through successful exits, including Viadeo, the French equivalent of LinkedIn that went public in 2014.

He’s also an author and instructor. In Spring 2021, Pete partnered with Stage II Operating Partner Mandy Cole on the Sales Impact Academy Course: The Definitive Guide to Revenue Leadership. Mark Roberge, Managing Director at Stage 2 Capital and former Hubspot CRO, also serves as a guest coach and teaches the Masterclass “Building the Revenue Model.”

Sales Impact Academy: The Definitive Guide to Revenue Leadership

The duo split the entire learning pathway into two courses. The first course, Design & Build, focuses on product-market fit, the Raskin Matrix, unit economics, and creating the right culture. 

Execute & Scale, the second course, then covers data-driven hiring processes, developing a revenue playbook, pipeline and forecast management, fundraising, and executing and scaling the revenue model.

Pete and Mandy deliver each course over 12-live classes following a six-week schedule. Those who cannot attend live can catch up with recordings of each session. 

After completing the Design & Build course, students will be able to:

• Confidently guide an executive team through the GTM process
• Contribute effectively and strategically to product and engineering decisions
• Design value proposition
• Build a predictable model
• Have a model to prioritize and focus time

With the first course, Design & Build, beginning March 1, and Sales Impact Academy offering QuotaPath customers Design & Build for free, we asked Pete to tell us more.  

What can students expect when taking this course? 

Pete: Expect three things. First, expect a cohort of people who are at the same stage as you in your career. We have VP of Sales, CROs, founders, and CEOs who need to better understand the mechanics of revenue. We all bring our own perspectives and share them in an enriching learning experience. 

Secondly, between myself and Mandy, we’ve raised over a billion dollars together. Mandy ran revenue for Zenefits, one of the biggest success stories in scale. Now she’s on the other side, as a partner at Stage 2 Capital. She spends a lot of time with startups reviewing their decks and proposals and helping them with the early predictability phase. Between the two of us, there is a lot of experience, and we apply that directly with our students. 

And third, there isn’t anything out there that teaches VPs of Sales all the elements they need to know. We don’t expect our students to know how to do RevOps after a 60-minute class. But they will know how to investigate it further and what questions to ask. We offer a solid systematic framework for sequencing what revenue looks like. 

What have you noticed sales executives struggle the most with? How does “The Definitive Guide to Revenue Leadership” address this? 

One trend I’ve observed is the idea that there isn’t enough time in the day. You have this level of insecurity shared amongst revenue leaders and this idea that time is a precious commodity. 

In our course, we discuss time management and how to de-risk your position by focusing on the right things. Part of that time management involves focusing on one thing at a time and getting really good at it. Breaking things down into prioritized bite-sized chunks is a better way than looking at a mountain of stuff. 

What are some other revenue challenges your courses address?

There’s the classic problem of hiring salespeople before establishing product-market fit. Or, hiring salespeople before setting a motion that creates a flywheel of predictability, scalability, and repeatability. Too often, revenue leaders believe that if they hire salespeople, then sales will follow. We know this isn’t true.  

Another thing that comes up is unit economics, something that CFOs and CEOs tend to understand pretty well, but maybe not a VP of Sales. In my experience, I’ve seen the topic of unit economics intimidate a lot of sales leaders. In one lesson, we highlight how to calculate core unit economics, what to know, and why they are important. We peel back the curtain and remove some of the mystique around it. 

How does your course improve general leadership skills?

We get into the basic fundamentals of leadership in the second course. This includes how to create a culture that intrinsically motivates people. A culture where you’re able to hire in a diverse way and where people are treated equitably and feel included. It’s hard to find people who disagree on these. However, it’s actually very hard to find companies that function like that. We talk about communication, leadership, and what other elite qualities you should hold as a leader. 

Lastly, how would you sell this course to a sales executive? Why should they take it? 

I wouldn’t sell it to anyone. If what people have heard is not sufficiently interesting then it’s not for them. Being a VP of Sales or a CRO is hard. You don’t have many allies. VCs and founders want you to do well, and they will try to help you. But you have to succeed. A course like this is really useful for showing that we have your back. We care about your career. We have tools that can help you do well. Also, you’re probably pretty good at what you do, and this course helps plug any remaining holes.

To learn more about this course, visit Sales Impact Academy. QuotaPath customers will receive free enrollment for the Design & Build section, register here.

Not a QuotaPath customer yet? Chat with us today to see how we can automate your commissions.

In less than a decade, revenue operations, or RevOps, has exploded in popularity amongst the SaaS world. Organizations from all growth stages continue to add this function to their business model. As RevOps continues to grow and evolve, we tapped our first Director of RevOps Ryan Milligan for five best practices.

For some context, QuotaPath welcomed Ryan in November. When we opened the role, our listing joined hundreds of other RevOps positions across job boards.

What is RevOps, and why now?

RevOps serves as the data thread that connects sales, marketing, and customer teams with the goal to increase revenue. RevOps leaders set up communication systems to eliminate silos between teams and create feedback loops. They also review operational models and means of technology to identify what works and what can go. 

Oh, and data. Lots of data. 

RevOps bring to light buried data that organizations struggled to uncover before from the sales and customer experiences. Then they make it easy for the marketing, sales, and customer teams to access it and understand it.

“RevOps emerged as a methodology for solving the customer’s needs while optimizing every area that touches revenue generation,” wrote Aubrey Morgan, in her article “What is RevOps?”

The timing of RevOps’ surge in popularity aligns with the never-ending stream of marketing, sales, and CRM apps and tools that all promise to drive growth.

“Leading companies are restructuring their organizations to address the app bloat that is happening across marketing and sales, and the new operational force needed to tame it. This movement is called RevOps,” said Bhaskar Roy in his Forbes article, “The Rise Of RevOps.”

It’s been a few months since Ryan joined our team, and already we’ve felt his impact.

Ryan and his team have set up a data warehouse, launched an automated lead-to-MQL (marketing qualified lead) conversion process, and developed a repeatable outbound sales process. All of these efforts have resulted in immediate efficiencies across our team, topped off with a flood of Ryan-aimed #shoutouts in our dedicated Slack channel.

As Ryan continues to build out and finesse our RevOps model, we asked him to share his learnings. Whether you’re a growing company looking to spin up RevOps from the ground up, or a seasoned RevOps team hoping to improve, check out Ryan’s five RevOps best practices.

RevOps Best Practices

1. Make sure the data is correct 

Correct data ensures you pay your sales teams accurately. Plus, accurate data allows the finance department to make better projections. When incorrect data spoils a spreadsheet, that means payouts to your reps and financial projections will be wrong. This can lead to strategic missteps, frustrated reps, and growing toxicity within the sales organization.

Ryan said, “It’s important that people understand how we calculate the data because the wrong conclusions can be drawn. Your reputation is based on telling people the right thing to do. The other big risk is if the data is wrong, your business can take incorrect actions.” 

2. Understand the company’s revenue goals

RevOps leaders serve as the liaison between sales and marketing operations. They own the entire sales funnel to make sure the company continues to generate revenue. RevOps then works together with finance to understand the company’s revenue goals in order to set quotas for the sales team that profit the business and competitively reward the rep. 

Ryan highlighted how all of the data works together to create a healthy functional company. “Compensation planning, quota attainment, and sales numbers play major factors in creating a financial plan for the business. Understanding these areas helps us identify the amount of money we need to get, and how we’re going to get it.” 

3. Use QuotaPath for commission tracking

RevOps spends a lot of time deep in spreadsheets. One area of the biz where they can afford to drop a spreadsheet is in sales commissions. By implementing QuotaPath, sales, finance, and RevOps can focus elsewhere by allowing our system to automatically load deal data and calculate commissions in real-time. Native integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, or Close CRMs ensure the accuracy of the data. No double-checking is necessary.

Additionally, QuotaPath helps RevOps leaders save time by making it easier to adjust commission plans, deals, and earnings. Plus, our new features Plan Verification and Deal Flagging create more in-app communication and transparency for commissions and compensation plans. 

4. Have your peers verify the data 

Once you have verified your own data, have a peer or supervisor double-check it for you. Your work reflects your department and your boss, and that data will determine the next steps for multiple departments within the company.

“I lean on peer-reviewing a lot to double-check my work, whether it be the VP of Sales or VP of Finance. I also set up validation rules in spreadsheets, so that I receive a flag if someone entered data incorrectly,” said Ryan. 

5. Offer a desirable comp plan to incentivize the sales team

Once RevOps leaders understand company goals, then they can set strategic expectations for the sales team. By expectations, we of course mean quotas. These should be attainable and realistic, and you can use this tool to see how your quotas line up. If the sales team believes they can reach quota, they will perform better to meet their goals as well as the company’s.

“Sometimes RevOps leaders make the mistake of not asking the sales team what they need, what they see in the market, and how they want to be measured,” Ryan said. “By gathering this feedback from the sales team, I can incentivize the team through compensation plans that drive results and keep the team motivated and happy.”

RevOps leaders carry a heavy load managing the sales funnel, financial projections, and company growth. We hope Ryan’s RevOps best practices help to lighten the load.

Thanks so much for sharing your RevOps best practices, Ryan!  

Ready, set, raise your flags! QuotaPath Deal Flagging is live.

With QuotaPath Deal Flagging, we have increased communication and collaboration within the app. Now, when a sales rep spots an incorrect earnings amount, they can proactively surface discrepancies within QuotaPath. 

No longer will a rep have to wait to report an issue after receiving their paycheck. Instead, they can get ahead of a potential error as soon as the earnings populate in QuotaPath.

Deal Flagging provides reps with an easy, operational way to raise a payroll issue without having to email or message someone. Plus, it creates a centralized documentation log for sales reps to point to as questions arise.

Once a rep submits a flag, QuotaPath immediately notifies the admin to address the issue.

This marks another step toward strengthening commissions transparency between those who earn commissions and those who pay them.

By enabling reps to notify admins of earnings errors and have a location to house these records, we build their confidence that their paycheck will be accurate. 

We are so excited to deliver Deal Flagging and provide your teams with a smooth workflow that enhances the reps’ and admins’ experiences within the app. 

Why Deal Flagging matters

Scaling sales organizations can especially benefit from in-app commission issue resolution.

Prior to our release of Deal Flagging, reps had to rely on email or outside communication channels to resolve commission problems. As sales teams scale, this puts a lot of added stress on our admins to ensure they respond swiftly and correctly to rep-reported issues. 

It’s even more frustrating for the reps, who continue to receive error-filled paychecks and no easy route to address them.

QuotaPath’s Deal Flagging alleviates these stress points for both our reps and admins by opening and logging lines of communication directly within the app.

Watch below as our Product Marketer guides us through the complete deal flagging process or read on for a step-by-step.

Here’s how reps raise a flag.

From the “Deals” table in QuotaPath, reps will now see a “Flag” column.

To raise a flag, reps will use the 3-dot menu icon on the far right side that’s visible beside every deal. 

Once selected, the rep then chooses from two reasons for flagging: “Incorrect earnings” or “Another issue.” This step gives admins insights into what types of issues the reps have reported. From our experience, most flags will involve incorrect earnings. However, outliers exist.

Regardless of the reason, reps will have a comment window to leave a note and offer additional detail.

When the rep submits the flag, a small green window appears to alert the rep that the issue has been saved and reported to their QuotaPath Workspace admin. The flag submission also populates an “Open” status to notify the rep and the admin that it hasn’t been resolved yet. 

Now, when the rep returns to their Deals table in QuotaPath, they will see a red flag icon next to any deal they’ve submitted a ticket on. To see a preview of the flag submission, a rep can simply scroll over the icon. 

That’s it from the rep’s side. Now, for our admins.

Inside QuotaPath’s Deal Flagging functions for admins. 

Immediately after a rep submits a flag, the admin will receive an automated email that says “Deal flagged.” A call to action to enter QuotaPath within the email will direct the admin to the deal in question and show all previous comments and statuses from this flag. 

From here, the admin can look into the deal, make any adjustments, and bump the status of the flag from “open” to “resolved.”

Once the admin updates the status to “resolved,” the flag icon within the Deals table for the rep and the admin will turn from red to grey. This indicates it has been addressed. Should either user need to quickly recap what the prior issue was for that deal, they can scroll over the grey flag to see the history. 

Admins can also filter deals by open flags to push any open cases to the top. 

That’s it!

If you have additional questions about QuotaPath’s Deal Flagging and sales performance management software, we encourage you to schedule a time to chat with our team. 

PS: This wasn’t the only feature our team released this week! Check out our Plan Verification function that we also just announced.

QuotaPath Plan Verification is live! 

First, what’s Plan Verification?

Remember at the start of last year when you led your team through the new sales compensation plans? You addressed their questions. Then you followed up by trying to get every rep to sign off on their new comp agreements. 

That’s Plan Verification. 

This step shows that your reps understand how they get paid and creates alignment and transparency across the comp planning process. Plan Verification, and re-verification, should occur anytime someone makes a change to a comp plan. In our experience, these changes most frequently happen at the start of the year and again during mid-year adjustments.

At larger companies, leaders often administer comp plan verifications via DocuSign and store the agreements in Dropbox or Google Drive. Sometimes they sit in a saved email folder. Smaller companies usually run this similarly, in person, or not at all. (By the way, if you’re on a team that doesn’t have any Plan Verification in place, please start!)

The entire process can take weeks to reach 100 percent verification, is often manually tracked, and can induce headaches for those in charge.  

Still, verifying your reps’ understanding of their comp plans is a necessary step. It gets your team to slow down, re-read their comp plans, and ask for clarity before signing. A clear understanding of rep’s comp plan agreements and how they are getting paid, leads to motivation and empowerment.

That’s why we’ve made it easier. 

Introducing QuotaPath Plan Verification

With this feature, sales organizations can roll out new comp plans and collect rep signatures directly in QuotaPath. 

Here’s how it works:

Through QuotaPath Plan Verification, admins can upload comp plan documents in our platform and distribute those plans to reps via email. As reps review and sign off that they understand the new comp plans, admins will be able to see verification completion statuses directly from the Plans page view. All verified plans will be stored and accessible in the platform with the option to print or download as needed.

By verifying your comp plans within QuotaPath:

• Save time and simplify the Plan Verification process
• Strengthen rep understanding of comp plans
• Create more transparency around commission payments
• Lean on one system for entire workflow
• Receive automatic updates as reps complete verification
• Easily re-administer as compensation plans change

We love a streamlined workflow and think you will too.

For more information on QuotaPath’s Plan Verification feature and sales compensation software, chat with a team member today. 

Hello, and welcome! You’re here because you want a commission calculator, right?

Perhaps you read through “Calculating commissions in Excel? Start here” and decided there’s an easier way.

Great news! There is, and you’re in the right place. 

QuotaPath built its sales commission reporting, compensation management, and payout functions so that users can immediately run commissions in our system. Equally as important, QuotaPath designed its platform so that users actually want to — and enjoy — using it.

“We created QuotaPath to be straightforward and obvious,” said Director of Product Andy Keil. “Everything should feel effortless and intuitive, whether that’s setting up a compensation plan, referencing how much money you’re going to make on a deal, or using the product in general.”

To see how Andy and his team achieved the challenge of simplicity in design and experience, we asked him to navigate us through a new user journey. 

Read on for an inside look into what you can expect upon joining our growing community. 

Thanks so much for the chat, Andy! 

Q&A with QuotaPath Head of Product

To get started,guide us through what happens when a sales leader first signs up for QuotaPath.

Andy: The first thing you do is set up compensation plans for your team, the rules for how they get paid. We’ve made this really easy for you to set up and create through a no-code, no-formula wizard. It’s a human-readable, step-by-step process that translates your compensation plans into our commission software. 

These plans are immediately extendable, meaning you can assign to multiple reps instead of having to create an individual one for each team member. 

That sounds too easy.

Andy: Our differentiator is our ease of use and onboarding time. Competitors in our space can take months to get up and running. We can get customers onboarded in a few days. We provide support and offer explanations to ensure you’re setting it up the right way. Our team is ready to jump in and help with anything you need, even if it’s to double-check your work. 

Then what?

Andy: Next, we have an insanely straightforward setup to connect your CRM through our native, real-time integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, and Close. Our integrations can be set up in just a few clicks. 

Once you set up the plans and connect your CRM, QuotaPath starts populating the platform based on your closed/won and pipeline stages. Each rep is able to see their current progress towards quota along with historical data.

What can the reps see?

Andy: They can see how much they’re making in the current period, they can forecast earnings based on their pipeline, and they can see earnings details broken out by each individual path on their plan. (Paths are the different ways a rep can be compensated within a Plan.) With MyPath, sales reps can set their own earnings goals to connect them to more tangible targets.

What parts of the commission process is QuotaPath alleviating for its users with its commission calculator?

Andy: We’re removing spreadsheets entirely from the equation and handling all the heavy lifting on the calculations side. Any manual step in the commission process leading up to the actual payment, we’re taking on in real-time. Whenever someone logs into QuotaPath, our system will reflect exactly what Salesforce, HubSpot, or Close shows.

Another example is if reps are trying to see how they’re tracking against the month or quarter. All they have to do is log in. There’s no extra work. No copying and pasting into a spreadsheet. By moving commissions out of a spreadsheet, we’re mitigating and alleviating the back and forth so commonly associated with commissions. There’s no chain of email exchanges when something looks off because it’s all located transparently in one place.

Our release of Deal Flagging also allows for our users across all levels to raise their hands when something looks incorrect. 

How is QuotaPath supporting RevOps and finance?

Andy: At the end of a period, RevOps and finance teams can easily run through the system to make approvals. If something feels off, they can check and see how something was calculated, and update or override as needed before proceeding to approvals. The workflow between team managers, RevOps and finance, works really well. Finance teams, too, can amortize commissions over time and stay compliant with ASC 606 within QuotaPath. Once approved, commissions can be exported and uploaded to payroll. 

How does QuotaPath use QuotaPath?

Andy: Our teams obviously lean on our platform for its commission calculator tool and sales performance management software. But our sales team also runs their weekly pipe review from our Attainment page. It’s how we forecast. This view gives the team the ability to see closed/won existing deals and quickly run through the deals expected to close. Toggle on forecasting, and you’ve got your final number.

Two more questions, and we’ll let you get back to it. What makes QuotaPath so easy to use?

Andy: We made it obvious what the next step would be for the user. Our entire UX approach and philosophy focus on the idea that whatever we’re building shouldn’t require lots of training. We want our users to log in for the first time and already have a general understanding of how to use it. Anything but that, and we’ve missed the mark. 

Lastly, what would you like someone unfamiliar with QuotaPath’s commission calculator to know?

Andy: It’s just so easy to start and try it out. We’re not hiding anything. Everything is in plain sight, so if you want to see it, jump in, and play around. Software like this can feel daunting, but ours makes intuitive sense. Coupled with a team that is overly invested in the success of your entire commission process, you’ll have everything you need. 

Interested in learning more?

Check out what our customers are saying or schedule a time to chat with us today. 

G2, the business software and solution review platform, recently released its annual Winter Report. Once again, QuotaPath’s commission tracking software earned key honors, including the highest implementation score amongst our competitors. (Cue: kazoos!)

We topped the sales compensation implementation report with a score of 9.14. QuotaPath’s commission tracking software ranked significantly higher than Spiff (8.60), Sales Cookie (8.42), and CapitvateIQ (8.41). G2 calculated these scores based on ease of setup, implementation time, user adoption, and other factors, from verified user reviews.

Users love us

Since 2018, we’ve prioritized building a commission tracking platform that can be set up quickly. Paired with simple pricing, a friendly user interface, and a team that partners for the long term, we take the success of our customers seriously. We’re glad they recognize that!

However, with this recognition comes great responsibility, and we promise not to lose sight.

That’s why we continue to add features and integrations that will deliver value to our customers. 

“We love the easy visibility of our sales team’s commissions, plus we love the ease of sending payouts to payroll for processing! Bravo Quotapath. Our commission process used to take almost three workdays to audit and ensure accuracy; we are down to 15 min to check and approve commissions.”

Leah W, People Operations

New features in 2021

For instance, this past summer we introduced Ledger, a tool that helps finance and accounting teams recognize and amortize expenses from sales commissions. By automating these processes, we’re able to lend a hand in keeping teams ASC 606-compliant. 

Hold up, what is ASC 606?

If you don’t know, be grateful! It’s a series of new standards issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board. The goal is to promote more consistent and comparative financial reporting. QuotaPath launched Ledger specifically to address ASC 606’s subtopic ASC 340-40. The subtopic requires ongoing record keeping and reporting of costs incurred while obtaining or fulfilling a contract with a customer. (Like sales commissions!) Our tool cleans this up by automating it for F&A teams.

Next, we launched an integration with Close to flow deal data from the CRM platform into our commission tracking software. 

Then, a couple of months later, we made it possible for HubSpot and QuotaPath users to see QuotaPath directly in HubSpot. This integration was especially important for our customer Tribe Dynamics that required a platform that synced with HubSpot, was fairly priced, and could be implemented quickly. 

To wrap 2021, our product team followed through on in-demand items from our customers. This included deal flagging, plan verification, and cumulative quotas. If you know someone on our product and engineering team, please send them a virtual high-five. They deserve it!

All this to say, we listen to our customers. We hear what they want, and we try to execute on that. To that end, we won’t stop… and we can’t stop!

“When I log in as a manager and look at my centralized view of deals that are closing, deals mapping through to each reps’ commissions, and every reps’ quota progress, I can trust that the data will be there and correct because it’s feeding over from HubSpot.”

Ryan M, VP of Sales

Cheers to 2021, cheers to our customers, and cheers to you!

2021 badges

Best Relationship: The Best Relationship product in the Relationship Index earned the highest Relationship rating in its category.

Most Implementable: The Most Implementable product in the Implementation Index earned the highest Implementation rating in its category.

Easiest To Use Small-Business: The Easiest to Use product in the Usability Index earned the highest Ease of Use rating in its category.

Easiest Admin Small-Business: The Easiest Admin product in the Usability Index earned the highest Ease of Admin rating in its category.

High Performer Small-Business: Products in the High Performer quadrant in the Small-Business Grid® Report have high customer Satisfaction scores and low Market Presence scores compared to the rest of the category.

Easiest Admin: The Easiest Admin product in the Usability Index earned the highest Ease of Admin rating in its category.

Easiest to Use: The Easiest to Use product in the Usability Index earned the highest rating in its category.

High Performer: Products in the High Performer quadrant in the Grid® Report have high customer Satisfaction scores and low Market Presence scores compared to the rest of the category.

Mid-Market High Performer: Products in the High Performer quadrant in the Mid-Market Grid® Report have high customer Satisfaction scores and low Market Presence scores compared to the rest of the category.

Enterprise High Performer: Products in this quadrant at the Enterprise level have high customer Satisfaction scores.

Easiest Setup Small-Business:The Easiest Setup product in the Implementation Index earned the highest Ease of Setup rating in its category.

Easiest Setup: The Easiest Setup product in the Implementation Index earned the highest Ease of Setup rating in its category.

Users Love Us: The Users Love Us badge is earned after collecting 20 reviews with an average rating of 4.0 stars.

Ready to see if you’re a good fit?

If you’re curious about QuotaPath’s commission tracking software, please schedule a time to chat with us. We’re excited to meet you!

On Wednesday, QuotaPath released the premiere episode of its new original series Value Props featuring AJ Bruno, QuotaPath CEO and Co-Founder. In the first episode, AJ welcomes Dreamit Ventures Managing Partner Steve Barsh.

Watch it below, and to receive updates ahead of our second episode, sign up here.

Introducing Value Props featuring AJ Bruno

Aside from his family, there is nothing AJ loves more than flying and entrepreneurship.

So, when the opportunity presented itself to pair his two passions through “Value Props,” AJ was all in. Or, all up?

The new original series sends AJ and a guest from the entrepreneurial atmosphere up in his plane. AJ pilots his Beechcraft Baron 58 while interviewing his passengers on the hardships and wins of their journeys as investors, founders, and leaders in tech.  

In the first episode, AJ and Steve discuss their own experiences in the biz, including what investors actually look for, what it’s like to raise funding as a founder, why you should sell benefits (not features), and when to recognize that it’s time to throw in the towel or pivot. All while buzzing above Philadelphia. 

Viewers can expect some surprising takeaways. For instance, did you know that founders have to set aside about $100,000 to shut down a company? Or, that as a pilot, you don’t actually have to have your hands on the yoke the whole time?

Come for the knowledge sharing. Stay for the laughs, and, most importantly, enjoy the flight!

But first, some backstory. 

Why “Value Props“

AJ began flying when he was 16 years old. His dad, a former pilot, and his mom, a former flight attendant, piqued his aviation interest at a young age. Fun fact, his parents actually met while both working for U.S. Airways, a real-life rom-com!

Although AJ took a hiatus from flying at age 20 to finish school and begin working, the founder re-committed at age 27. It was then that he promised himself that he would launch his own business and pick up flying again. 

AJ has since earned his commercial pilot license, and launched and successfully exited his first company TrendKite. Then in 2018, he co-founded his second venture QuotaPath, alongside TrendKite pal Cole Evetts and Philadelphia tech wizard Eric Heydenberk. 

His idea for “Value Props” came after learning about a unique customer engagement effort in early 2020. At an event, AJ heard author and marketing expert David Meerman Scott highlight a classic car insurance company that created an online video series about classic car engine restoration. The company, Hagerty, did this specifically to deepen its connection with its community. 

That’s when AJ began brainstorming how to launch something that intersects his interests in startups and flying. 

Prepare for take off

After a few months building out the idea, AJ outrigged his plane with several GoPro cameras and welcomed his first guest, Steve Barsh, Managing Partner at Dreamit Ventures aboard his twin-engine, piston aircraft.

From there, a few more guests were invited up including Joe Levy, Dataminr’s Director of Strategic Accounts, and Danish Dhamani, Orai’s Co-Founder & CEO.

We will continue to schedule flights throughout the year and hope to release a new episode every month. Don’t forget to sign up for updates so you never miss an episode!

In the meantime, let’s get to know AJ and his flying experience.

A Q&A with the pilot

How many pilot hours have you logged?

AJ: 1,150 total. I try to fly at least once every two weeks to keep my piloting skills sharp and to make sure my airplane is doing what it’s supposed to do.

What would non-pilots find surprising about operating an airplane? 

AJ: It’s so much more than “flying” the airplane. At all times, you have to monitor navigation, systems, radios, weather, airspace, air traffic, checklists, and flows. It requires laser focus. At the end of the day, flying is the easy part!

What gives you the biggest rush?

AJ: Landing! I love making the perfect landing every time, or as we like to call it, “greasing the touch down.” Navigating bad weather in tight airspaces can also be a rush if done correctly. I love doing it with passengers who are curious as to how it all works because I tend to really lean into it and it helps me stay on top of my game. 

What have been some of your favorite flying experiences?

AJ: Two come to mind. By far the best and most memorable experience was during the height of the pandemic in 2020. A friend of mine reached out and asked if I could fly to Memphis to help out a friend of theirs, a family whose very young daughter had just finished six months of chemo and three life-saving surgeries at St. Judes Children Hospital. Prior to the surgeries, the daughter had a very low chance of survival. She was immunocompromised and couldn’t risk a commercial flight. I woke up early, flew 3.5 hours, picked them up, and then flew them to their home in New York. Today, their daughter is doing amazing. It’s something I will never forget, and that family and I remain friends to this day. 

My other favorite memory is flying with my dad (who is a Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award recipient) in my own plane for the first time. We flew into Bozeman, MT, and safely beat a microburst by about 10 minutes. 

What about your least favorite?

AJ: I’ll begin with saying everyone was safe! But one time I left the door open with my 4-year-old (she’s now 8), sitting next to me. The door popped open at 1,000 feet. My wife screamed at me and said she’d never fly with me again. Don’t worry, she did, and I always make sure the door is closed. 

Where would you like to fly that you haven’t yet?

AJ: St. Lucia

What airplane model would you like to fly next? 

AJ: Pilatus PC 12. It’s the plane I’ve wanted to own since I was 12 years old.

Lastly, what can Value Props guests expect out of this experience? 

AJ: A once in a lifetime experience that they will never ever forget!

To learn more about AJ’s professional endeavors, check out his LinkedIn profile. For more on QuotaPath, visit quotapath.com or follow on LinkedIn and Twitter. Or, to receive updates of Value Props featuring AJ Bruno, sign up here.