ProcureTechSTARS with Eric Christopher & Cory Wheeler, Co-founders of Zylo
- Josephine Walbank
- April 20, 2023
ProcureTechSTARS with Zylo’s Co-founders; a SaaS Management & orchestration platform enabling companies to organise, optimise and orchestrate SaaS.
During the conversation, Eric and Cory discussed the company’s series of well-placed bets, app life cycles, software ownership, the first team mindset, and Bourbon.
1. What’s Zylo’s mission?
Eric
When Cory and I started this business, we learned from first-hand experience that organisations didn’t have one source of truth to work from, from a software perspective. It’s a big, unexpected, cost area for a lot of companies, because there’s not a lot of ownership for software, as everyone’s a buyer.
Our mission has always been to help companies identify every single SaaS application and drive a strategy to make sure they can optimise what they’re spending and use those investments across the entire business.
Essentially, it’s all been about getting one source of truth and information, and then driving real optimisation throughout the organisation.
Cory
We founded Zylo several years into the SaaS explosion. Based on our experience, throughout the 2000s, Eric and I started to understand that software had started to fundamentally change within organisations.
When you think about those radical changes, it was moving from all-in software components under large mega-vendors to a distributed model, which really enabled innovation across a wide set of applications.
Not only the number of applications, but the ownership of applications inside companies changed fundamentally. Then, you started to see large on-prem deployments and SaaS operating side by side. As veterans in the SaaS space, Eric and I got together and said that software is radically changing, ‘So, we can start Zylo now to enable the future of software’. It is our strong belief that at some point in the future, we don’t talk about on-prem and SaaS deployments: we talk about software in a single delivery model. We firmly believe that that delivery model will be based in the cloud.
We wanted to build the next-generation solution that manages the future of software with all of its new challenges, together, in that distributed model.
Those are the core challenges we set out to solve, and thereby radically change the ownership process across the organisation. There was a lot of chaos in the early days, but it was a ripe opportunity for us to drive immediate value and enable software for the employee experience.
We believe we can create a system where you can own your data, manage, take it and distribute it in the same way. Software ownership won’t change, but Zylo will enhance and scale that software as a service inside every organisation.
“Software ownership won’t change, but Zylo will enhance and scale that software as a service inside every organisation.”
Cory
When we began our journey, we went in with the primary user problem set in our minds: companies don’t understand what software they have, where it is, or why they own it. So foundationally, if you don’t have that knowledge, you can’t even begin your journey around SaaS optimisation and SaaS management.
We made that bet early on; of going deep into our discovery and financial models, to help paint a picture for organisations in a comprehensive and confident way. That differentiation means that we bring both finance and IT personas together in a singular way, to own software going forward. No longer does one single group have central ownership over software, like they did ten years ago. We built the model to be able to pull finance and IT together, to manage that collaboratively.
Eric
I think our bet on understanding the entire footprint of every application and getting the right inventory can do a lot of great things for companies. For example, you get accurate inventory and ensure every employee gets the right tools to do their jobs. How can you really do that unless you know the people responsible for managing all of the applications and if they don’t have all of that information in one place?
2. What have been the most significant milestones in the Zylo journey so far?
Eric
In the early days, we had to make investments around aggregating data.
On the first step of our journey, we made a bet, and focused a lot of the feature sets on the elements that Cory has just mentioned.
At this early stage, building SaaS management is about giving companies the ability to perform continual discovery, find employee purchases, and things like that. So, we made a lot of investment in data collection and integrations. We also made investments in people, and now, we’ve got a team of experts that has formed out into a services group. Those are investments we actually started several years ago, which are just coming to full development today.
Cory
Myself, Eric and our other Co-founder all really knew that the SaaS problem wasn’t just limited to a single customer segment. So, we made an earlier bet that the enterprise was absolutely feeling the same pain that a 500-person tech company was experiencing around software distribution across their company.
So, we made that bet on being enterprise-grade. That means offering enterprise-grade integrations, roles, permissions, and our comprehensive discovery. That model allowed us to drive and deliver value in large enterprises from day one, which was early on in the days that Software Asset Management (SAM) was being approached inside organisations. Then, those enterprise-grade features and products that we were delivering very much played across the smaller sub-segments.
That early bet has allowed us to have a seat at the table with those large organisations, and be able to help drive the digital transformation around software.
That early bet has allowed us to have a seat at the table with those large organisations, and be able to help drive the digital transformation around software.
3. What do you look for in the perfect customer?
Cory
The perfect customer, really, will truly understand and feel the pain of their problem. And when a customer can articulate to us what they need and what the symptoms are, then you really know that you’re locking together around a common outcome.
But that is only step one. Really, for any successful customers, you’ve got to have that executive vision, which not only aligns to the problem set, but that has a vision that goes far beyond SAM overall – so, an organisation that is progressive, innovative and looking to solve those new challenges inside their company.
They are excited about the problem set, and a driven team pulled together. It’s not really a mandate – that they’ve got to go out and solve this problem and hurry up to get it done as fast as they can – instead, they really want to be thoughtful and strategic around the problem set, which allows them and their focus to be on progression and scaling. What that means is that they’re always focused on getting the value, understanding what that progress is, and then helping us by informing us on where to go, and what our roadmap needs to look like with them collaboratively.
So, these teams are focused on executing and getting big wins, and then, are partnering with us to continue to build the future of SAS management in their organisation.
We’re now about seven years in, but when we were at two, three or four years, and working with some of the largest brands in the world, there can be the thought that an enterprise would come in and say, ‘You have to have everything in order and everything has to be perfect for us to be able to utilise that’. And certainly, that could be the case, but those organisations that understand how we can deliver progress and how they can help us get to that next level or that partnership really helps us build thoughtfully and focus on those right outcomes.
So, these teams are focused on executing and getting big wins, and then, are partnering with us to continue to build the future of SaaS management in their organisation.
I would say probably a great example of that ‘perfect customer’ with us would be Adobe.
Adobe is one of our flagship customers, where we really, truly have that vendor management alignment around the problem set. And they have been instrumental in partnering with us on the right features and products to push into the product that continues to deliver a roadmap to success for them.
So, Adobe has saved tens of millions of dollars a year by driving an overall programmatic approach. And that’s one fantastic outcome, but alongside that, they also built an employee experience, an M&A experience and truly operationalised SAS management across their whole organisation. So, they’ve been a phenomenal partner for us to build it to test with, and to grow at scale with the enterprise.
4. What are the foundations of a great team?
Eric
In our founding team, we have this natural kind of experience around the table.
For example, Cory came from the buyer experience side, so he has first-hand knowledge of what it was really like to be a customer, which is really key to having that customer focus. Our other Co-founder Ben came from the product side, which means we have someone with the ability to prioritise and build the right features. And then my background was in sales. So, this allows me to determine how we find market trends early, and understand how we get ourselves in a good position, with a growth mindset early on.
I think what’s important, as a team, is that you find a way to have these different attributes around the table.
And today, we’ve really been building a team around us that is more developed for scale and growth. Now, it’s all about things like mentorship, developing good hiring strategies, resource planning, and so on.
I’m a big fan of the concept of the first team mindset, and the idea that you build a leadership team and an executive team that really have the interest of the entire company in mind (versus one department). And that’s a focus area for us. I think these are dynamics that are important.
Cory
You’ve got to get back to that founding team statement. When it was just the three of us coming together, we called it the ‘make, sell, serve’ model. We came together with different perspectives around the same problem.
So when we brought the organisation together, all three of us were very, very passionate about what the problem set was. And, as we brought each of those together around that perspective, it allowed us to really broaden out the value that we were planning on delivering, which ensured the first team was really unified by the problem set.
That first team concept within our executive team really drives that alignment throughout the organisation.
Now, approaching this seven years later as we’re continuing to scale, Eric’s first team concept is a really important one. It’s where your executive team is so tightly aligned, and that’s your first priority, because it means that the rest of the organisation can operate more effectively, because of the cohesive nature of the executive team. That’s really what Eric has built here.
Our tight executive team is truly collaborative with its sets and department goals, so can lock in on that which allows the company to really operate efficiently going forward. That first team concept within our executive team really drives that alignment throughout the organisation. So that’s been huge.
5. As we emerge from COVID, what will you be doing differently?
Eric
When you think about the technology industry, the thing that we’ve always been fortunate about is that we can connect virtually anywhere, and a lot of the successes of tech companies really came out of that, as well.
Alongside being able to connect the mobile workforce and things like that, I think there’s been a lot of self-reflection that came from individual employees, about how they want to work and how all of us can be more productive. And in thinking about work, as an organisation, we’ve had to think about how we build culture, how we drive alignment and build a company where we’re setting the course – taking everything we’ve learned about what works remotely, trying to embrace that and then finding ways to get people physically together and maximise time together. So it’s a journey that we’re on. I still feel like I’m learning coming out of it. But, I think that we’ll be managing our company differently forever, because of the last couple of years.
I still feel like I’m learning coming out of it. But, I think that we’ll be managing our company differently forever, because of the last couple of years.
Cory
Then from a market perspective, the impact of COVID for us has been that we’re now doubling down on what’s more important. Organisations are turning to off-premises extensions (OPX) right from the first optimisation, as we need to cut our back costs, which are the most controllable, and are the ones that we can impact right away.
And it is a very important decision. It is the drive to optimise employees’ software that is the focus of a lot of organisations right now. And so, it’s more important than ever for us to be at the forefront of that – working with our customers to drive optimisation, which preserves headcount and hits those targets going forward.
We’re out of COVID, but the reality of the global expense that had to be taken on during COVID is now being felt. And so we are not a vitamin, we’re absolutely an aspirin and something that every organisation should be leaning into.
We’re out of COVID, but the reality of the global expense that had to be taken on during COVID is now being felt. And so we are not a vitamin, we’re absolutely an aspirin and something that every organisation should be leaning into.
6. What is the vision for Zylo? What does ‘great’ look like in five years?
Eric
In five years, I’m envisioning us being the standard of how enterprises look to make decisions about how they’re building their processes automating internally, and how they’re thinking about managing software.
The vision for us is to be the global leader, helping companies really manage software for the future. And I think we’re well on that journey.
Cory
We have to manage application life cycles, employee experience and distributed management in a more effective way, and scale those in a meaningful way. So, that means growth. As digital transformation extends, growth is directly in front of us, out of the conceptual phase into the execution phase, across these large enterprises.
In those traditional industries, we’ve got large software deployments in SaaS, but this is kind of a secondary line item. Now, five years down the line, in every industry software drives the workspace. Now is the time for us to really, really be able to accelerate towards the completion of digital transformation, and now, it’s the opportunity for a re-run for industries that have not prioritised it yet.
INSTANT INSPIRATION
1. What is your favourite book or blog?
Cory
I’m into blogs that focus on venture markets: what they’re seeing, headwinds etc. They’re very indicative of what will happen over the next 1-3 years.
Eric
In general, I gravitate towards books where CEOs have accomplished great things, like Frank Slootman’s ‘Amp It Up’, about how to inspire employees.
2. What is your favourite piece of technology?
Cory
I love Gong. It’s a replacement for when, ten years ago, everybody had in-person meetings, which you’d be involved with all day long. Now, you can really learn and coach teams in a much more different way.
Eric
I love checking out new technologies and trying new things. I’d say I probably use Krisp everyday. This is a noise-cancelling solution to block out every bit of background noise except your voice – it’s sort of incredible.
3. What’s your favourite way to celebrate success?
Eric
When we have a win or we hit a milestone, I just love everyone being together. Being around people, seeing their faces, emotions and things like that, it’s great. I think given the recent times that we’ve been in, it’s been harder, but I really cherish that time together.
Cory
I agree, that’s so special. When I’m around other folks at the end of the quarter, when a big deal comes in or a big renewal, you can hear the shouts out in the hallways! That’s an excited team operating together, and nothing can replace that, especially in this distributed world.
4. What is your favourite cocktail?
Eric
Bourbon. It’s a small tradition we have on a Friday night.
Cory
Yep, same. We might be on a call, and that’s where the ideas start to spark. So it’s a fun, relaxing way to end the week.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
1. Build up your process knowledge – if you don’t already, learn what software you have, where it is and why you have it.
2. Building SaaS management is about giving companies the ability to perform continual discovery.
3. Building a team that is developed for scale and growth is about things like mentorship, developing good hiring strategies, resource planning, and so on.
4. Application life cycles, employee experience and distributed management have to be managed and scaled in a more effective way.
5. Celebrate your milestones reached, as your team.
6. Adopt a growth mindset early on
7. Deploy a ‘first team’ concept within your executive team to really drive alignment throughout the organisation.
About Zylo
As the world leader in SaaS management and optimisation, Zylo enables companies to organise, optimise, and orchestrate SaaS. Organisations such as Adobe, Atlassian, Coupa, Doordash, Hootsuite, Intuit, Slack, Salesforce and Verizon Media leverage Zylo’s enterprise-proven technology and SaaS management expertise to control the rising costs and risks of SaaS, while improving the software experience for employees.
About ProcureTechSTARS
Our industry is moving forward faster and faster, empowered by innovative, progressive digital procurement solutions, and created and led by inspiring teams. ProcureTechSTARS are the digital procurement company CEOs and Founders that are leading the change.
They are entrepreneurs, engineers and architects collaborating to transform procurement and the enterprise. In an open conversation with these leaders, Lance Younger will be discussing the highs and lows of building the future, the challenges they’ve faced, their perspective on accelerators and hot topics, and what keeps getting them up in the morning (and keeps them up at night).
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