Dave Blake

Dave Blake is the founder and chief executive of ClientSuccess, a Lehi, Utah, customer success platform that software companies use to manage renewals, retention and growth in their existing customer base. He started it in 2014 after a decade building customer success teams at Omniture and Adobe.

Graduating from Brigham Young University

He graduated from Brigham Young University in accounting, but he has never worked as an accountant, he said on the 14 Minutes of SaaS podcast. He began in technology consulting with Arthur Andersen's business consulting group, doing Oracle implementations, before moving into software as a service.

Managing Strategic Accounts at Omniture

He joined Omniture, the Utah web analytics company, in 2003 as a customer success manager, a job then called account management, he told Cervin Ventures. He went on to build its global enterprise and strategic teams for brands such as Microsoft, Sony and Apple, through Omniture's IPO and its acquisition by Adobe, and stayed three more years at Adobe.

By the end he led about 120 customer success managers responsible for a $400 million book of business. "We were trying to do that on customer spreadsheets and dashboards and a few fields in Salesforce," he said. That gap pushed him to leave Adobe and build the tool he wished his team had.

Designing ClientSuccess Around Frontline Teams

Blake describes ClientSuccess as built "for CSMs by CSMs," with quick setup through configuration in place of long implementations. Peak Ventures led its $1 million seed round in December 2014, with Techstars Bullet Time Ventures and former ExactTarget chief executive Scott Dorsey among the backers, according to FinSMEs. The company later acquired Product Signals to turn customer product feedback into insights, according to its about page.

His view of the field is that customer success is "a culture, not a department," and that it only works when the chief executive buys in. For founders, his advice is to hire the strongest technology and product leaders from the first day and to listen closely to the most vocal customers.

Personal Life

Blake lives in Pleasant Grove, Utah, outside Salt Lake City, with his wife and their five children, after earlier stretches in London and Southern California. He grew up one of seven children with five brothers, two of whom are also chief executives, and he credits that rivalry with shaping how he leads. Away from work he points to Utah's winter skiing and to Zion National Park in the south of the state.