“You behave like a founder.”
Throughout our collaboration over eight years, those were among the most significant remarks made by Justyn Howard, Sprout’s co-founder, ex-CEO, and current executive chair. The realization that Justyn recognized the same passion, vision, and tenacity shared by Sprout Social’s founding team was an outstanding acknowledgment and intensified my motivation to perform for our team.
The most impactful? When Justyn expressed his wish for me to succeed him as CEO and conveyed his trust and confidence that I was the right individual to guide Sprout into the next phase of growth.
In the past 14 years, Sprout has marked significant milestones and plenty of reasons to celebrate. However, what I cherish most about Sprout is our forward-looking approach, striving for continual improvement—to provide more value for our customers, foster greater growth for our employees, and lead our industry. We hold true to the belief that “Better, Better, Never Best”—our best achievements always lie ahead.
As I contemplate my transition into the role of Sprout’s CEO, I wanted to share insights about my journey here, how we aim to fulfill our vision, and my enthusiasm for the future.
Stepping into the CEO role: My journey
In moments like this, you have the opportunity to reflect and express gratitude for the many experiences that contribute to your current position.
For me, it begins with a first-generation immigrant background and the fortune of being nurtured by exceptionally hardworking and values-driven parents. With a father who worked as a technologist (from night shifts watching over servers to roles of CIO and COO) and a mother who operated a daycare as an early childhood educator, I was instilled with a strong set of values. Their approach—demanding yet supportive—was vital in shaping me into a leader who holds high standards and understands the necessity of winning both the hearts and minds of a team. The unwavering support and love from my wife and two daughters (ringing the bell with them during Sprout’s IPO remains one of my life’s greatest moments) completed this incredible support system that has enabled me to excel.
From this strong familial base, a series of choices, dedication, remarkable teammates and mentors, fortunate timing, and luck led me to this juncture.
A pivotal choice early in my career (more luck than strategy) was joining Salesforce in 2006. Over the subsequent decade, I had remarkable opportunities to take on diverse roles, establishing new offices and managing newly acquired products—all while observing and learning from Marc Benioff and an array of incredible leaders throughout the journey.
In early 2016, I received a call from Justyn inviting me to dinner, where I discovered we lived in the same neighborhood, our children played at the same park, we were both SaaS enthusiasts driven by a competitive spirit, and our personalities and skills complemented each other perfectly. That dinner was a turning point in my life.
As I learned more about Sprout’s culture and the remarkable product they had developed, I began to notice the same outstanding qualities I had seen in Salesforce’s early days. It was a company aiming to establish itself as the premier workplace and best venue for customers, believing that the finest salesperson was the product itself, possessing a daring vision to transform their industry while creating a new category, and addressing vast customer needs that were inadequately met.
I realized I would always regret not joining the Sprout team, so I made the leap.
In the ensuing months and years, Justyn and I collaborated to grow Sprout from a startup with under $30 million in annual revenue to a publicly traded entity surpassing $385 million. We achieved this by cultivating a high-performance culture, featuring the #1 best product in software, supported by an outstanding team.
Over the past eight years, Justyn has been generous with opportunities, allowing me to assist him in fundraising, acquisitions, executive recruitment, board recruitment, an IPO, 19 earnings calls, and much more! Our complementary strengths have driven us to this point and will carry us forward.
Realizing our vision
The crucial lesson I learned during my tenure as Sprout’s President was the necessity of focus. Focus has been the driving force behind our success, and it’s an area where many competitors have stumbled. Since day one, Sprout has remained intensely focused on social media and the potential it offers to brands and industries. Social media and insights can propel businesses to the pinnacle of their sectors, with Sprout as the partner they require to harness this potential.
With our focus on social media sharper than ever, I plan to emphasize these three essential areas as CEO:
- Continuing to fortify our team and culture: We’re proud to be recognized on numerous best workplace lists, but I believe we must earn this distinction daily. Building a victorious culture is an ongoing evolution, requiring us to adapt ourselves. That means we must embrace and celebrate change, attract top talent, and commit wholeheartedly to mentoring our team to reach their full potential. I have been keenly focused on enhancing our Executive Leadership Team, or ELT (which I endearingly call our Sprout Avengers), and I’m delighted to have a remarkable group of experts dedicated to this mission.
- Enhancing customer satisfaction: Our customers are our core purpose. We hold the #1 product in software due to our exceptional offerings and experiences that simplify and enrich our customers’ lives. We recognize that social is crucial for brands throughout the customer journey, and they need a partner dedicated to serving them. We will continue to elevate the quality of our products and the Sprout team supporting them daily. This is illustrated in the innovation we deliver and the deep industry expertise accompanying our offerings. Our customers inspire our work, and we will strive to be a joy to work with.
- Transforming incremental improvements into remarkable results: While we have a strong foundation of continuous growth, we acknowledge that we can elevate our expectations regarding quality and productivity and innovate more swiftly. A dedication to innovation, excellence, and expansive thinking will characterize Sprout’s next chapter. Expect more focused investments, heightened urgency, and greater expectations in our deliverables. I am already feeling the momentum as we refine our plans for 2025 and execute our goals for 2024.
Operating at the pace and scale of social
With more than half the global population engaged in social media, it’s evident that it has permeated our personal and professional spheres. It stands as the foremost channel for news and product discovery, not to mention Gen Z’s preferred platform for customer support. It embodies the voice of culture, backed by trillions of data points that can yield transformative insights. And it operates at an unprecedented speed and scale. Can you envision any brand thriving without a strategy and reliable platform to manage it all?
This is why our possibilities are boundless. We’ve constructed a platform that serves every sector (including B2B, B2C, and B2B2C), accommodates every company size (from small enterprises to global corporations), spans various applications (i.e., sales, marketing, product, strategy), and enjoys partnerships with leaders like Meta, TikTok, X, LinkedIn, Google, Salesforce, and many more. We have steadfastly maintained our focus on social media because it remains an unresolved dilemma for brands, and we are uniquely equipped to tackle it. Our unwavering dedication and prowess in social, coupled with our award-winning solutions and skilled team, position us to achieve extraordinary outcomes. The success stories of our clients, such as McDonald’s, Honda, Autodesk, Procter & Gamble, The Department of Energy, and Universal Pictures, exemplify this.
As I assume the role of CEO, I am more assured than ever in Sprout’s capability to surpass expectations for our customers and team while defining our market. It promises to be an exhilarating journey, and I eagerly anticipate keeping you informed as we achieve more thrilling milestones along the way.
The post From President to CEO: Sprout’s next chapter appeared first on Sprout Social.
Recent Comments