chandar pattabhiram

Ex CMO @coupa, Ex CMO @marketo, VP @IBM Cast Iron @accenture. Board of Directors @blueshift, @DFIN
@GTMstrategy, #storytelling & @teambuilding

[chandar pattabhiram @chandarp]

@saykay linkedin email spam!!

[Startup Archive @StartupArchive_]

Frank Slootman: “There’s lots of people in this world who are not really in the arena”

Frank comments on why he opens his book with Theodore Roosevelt’s famous “The Man in the Arena” quote:

“There’s lots of people in this world who are not really in the arena. They are either observers, consultants, agents, or VCs that provide capital. But there are some people who are in the arena, and they are very very special people.”

Frank is frequently asked to speak at elite business schools, and when they invariably ask for his advice, he responds:

“You all have elite educations… you’ll have many job offers paying you big bucks. Your parents and your siblings will be incredibly proud of you. But they’re all consulting jobs for Bain, McKinsey, and companies like that… You’re going to have an easy path to pretty quick earnings, but you’ll never know whether you have what it takes [to build something new].”

In Roosevelt’s words, you’ll be “those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Full quote from Roosevelt’s speech:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Video source: @FoundationCap (2024)

[chandar pattabhiram @chandarp]

@Marcus_Mosher dude? that’s why they play the whole game

[Startup Archive @StartupArchive_]

Snowflake CEO Frank Slootman explains why your company priorities are wrong

“I found out early on that if you can whittle things down to just one thing, you become unstoppable. Unfortunately, people resist whittling things down to one thing because it’s really hard to decide what that one thing is.”

The former Snowflake and ServiceNow CEO continues:

“People have a very easy time telling you what their top 3-5 things are because hopefully the right things are in there somewhere… I can’t tell you how many board meetings I’ve been in where the CEO puts a PowerPoint up and it’s one bullet after another listing all of the things that are their priorities. You just know that they’re going to be a mile wide and an inch deep, swimming in glue, moving like molasses. The energy is leaving my body already just watching a long list of priorities… You’ve basically devalued what you should be doing because you’re time-sharing now with all of these other things.”

Mr. Slootman urges founders to think really hard about the one thing that matters most to your business and focusing entirely on that.

If you can’t decide, just pick one:

“I like to do things in sequence. Even if you’re not sure, do it anyways. Because in the process of doing, you’re going to find out whether you’re right, wrong, or somewhere in between, and you can adjust.”

When you prioritize just one thing, things move much faster:

���Things are going to go much quicker because have a narrower plan of attack. It’s energizing. The pace picks up.”

Video source: @twistartups @Jason (2022)

[Mike Krieger @mikeyk]

We're donating MCP to the @linuxfoundation and launching the Agentic AI Foundation with @OpenAI, @blocks, @AWS, @Bloomberg, @Cloudflare, @Google, and @Microsoft.

MCP went from internal project to industry standard in a year. Now it gets the long-term stewardship it deserves.

[Nick Mehta @nrmehta]

Michael Lewis (author of Moneyball, The Blind Side, Liar's Poker and many more - and also former Pulse keynote speaker!) did the commencement address for Princeton in 2012. It's one of my favorite speeches of all time.

He talks about the role of luck in his life and how serendipity was always present - alongside skill and hard work. And this quote is what always gets me:

"The “Moneyball” story has practical implications. If you use better data, you can find better values; there are always market inefficiencies to exploit, and so on. But it has a broader and less practical message: don’t be deceived by life’s outcomes. Life’s outcomes, while not entirely random, have a huge amount of luck baked into them. Above all, recognize that if you have had success, you have also had luck — and with luck comes obligation. You owe a debt, and not just to your Gods. You owe a debt to the unlucky."

As someone who can see how the ball of career randomness bounced in my favor over the years, I feel his sentiments deeply.

Happy Thanksgiving!

[chandar pattabhiram @chandarp]

@nrmehta amen brother

[CMOs Unscripted @CMOs_Unscripted]

Happy Monday! Have you seen the new episode? Our last episode of season 1?

Insight from @lisamartinmedia : The biggest shift in the modern CMO role? Mastering the “O”: orchestrating teams, systems, and the entire GTM engine. As my guest, Workato GTMO Chandar Pattabhiram says, marketing gets you in the door, but leadership + orchestration is what drives real impact.
#CMOsUnscripted #B2BMarketing #GTMO #GTM #AIinMarketing #RevOps

Watch the Full Episode Recap here: https://t.co/Fhd5BT9bx3

@Workato

[CMOs Unscripted @CMOs_Unscripted]

New Episode Drop! In the final episode (lucky number 13) in season 1 of CMOs Unscripted, I sat down with my longtime friend and colleague Chandar Pattabhiram, now Workato’s first-ever Chief Go-To-Market Officer, and one of the most respected marketing leaders in the world.

You’ll hear why Chandar has been named one of LinkedIn’s Top 5 CMOs to Follow, one of the Top 10 Most Influential Marketing Leaders globally, and has decades of experience shaping SaaS, cloud, and digital marketing. He’s a board member, a keynote speaker, a category shaper, and now he’s redefining what GTM leadership looks like.

In this episode, we dig into:

- A CMO’s pathway to becoming the Chief Go-To-Market Officer
- How GTM is evolving across the enterprise
- Lessons from decades of modern marketing leadership
- The stories, pivots, and “aha” moments that shaped his career

If you want to understand where go-to-market is heading, this is the one to watch.

Tune in now: https://t.co/Fhd5BT9bx3

@Workato
@chandarp
@lisamartinmedia

#CMOsUnscripted #B2BMarketing #GTMO #GTM #AIinMarketing #RevOps #EmbraceFailure

[CMOs Unscripted @CMOs_Unscripted]

The role of the CMO is changing fast. It’s no longer just about marketing.

It’s about leading, shaping markets, and orchestrating the entire revenue engine.

In this week’s episode of CMOs Unscripted, I sit down with Chandar Pattabhiram, who breaks down the real meaning behind the C, the M, and the O. He shares why the future CMO looks a lot more like a Chief GTM Officer than a traditional marketer.

If you’re a CMO, aspiring GTMO, or marketing leader looking to level up your impact, this one’s for you.

Full Episode Link: https://t.co/Fhd5BT9JmB

@chandarp
@Workato
@lisamartinmedia

#CMOsUnscripted #B2BMarketing #GTMO #GTM #AIinMarketing #RevOps

[theCUBE @theCUBE]

The “World of Workato” is LIVE! 🚨 In this event preview, @theCUBE’s @SavIsSavvy speaks with @Workato’s @chandarp about three big themes: AI adoption, Workato GO launch, and 500+ stack modernization features.

📺 Tune into https://t.co/SVWJTyvEI1 NOW!

[Daily Stoic @dailystoic]

Marcus Aurelius' rules for a better life.

[chandar pattabhiram @chandarp]

@SlaterNFL @WerderEdNFL Only lens thru which Jerry will look at this @SlaterNFL : what is the safest ensure return on Dak's $240M. Kellen, while not the best option, could be seen the safest. Or a defensive coach like Deion or Glen + Doug Nussmier as OC. An OC without Dak history is risk for jerry!

[chandar pattabhiram @chandarp]

#Exciting start to my next chapter @Workato #GTM

https://t.co/JlV5iO3rjz

[chandar pattabhiram @chandarp]

@jasonlk This advice is true when you are a growing brand that is seeking strategic category expansion; this advice doesn’t matter as much when you have become a Megabrand despite this limitation - eg sfdc, peoplesoft, Broadcom , dell et al @jasonlk

[chandar pattabhiram @chandarp]

@ConnorNFLDraft we are Resigned to this fate @ConnorNFLDraft

[chandar pattabhiram @chandarp]

@vkhosla @vkhosla welcome your POV here ... If an org. starts as a non-profit to serve humanity & gets some funding for it, & then shifts to a profit org raising capital from Mega brands...then should the original funders of the non-profit be entitled to a good portion of the new org?

[chandar pattabhiram @chandarp]

@jasonlk In the PE world that I experienced, the Board meetings were every month with a maniacal metrics mindset ! @jasonlk

[chandar pattabhiram @chandarp]

@davegerhardt I agree with your uber point about brand but wouldn't use "simple chart" and "Gartner" in the same sentence!

[chandar pattabhiram @chandarp]

@Kellblog Or sales execs trying to create the corporate presentation