In this episode of Inside the Workflow, we had the pleasure of speaking with Dave Blake, founder and CEO of ClientSuccess—a platform revolutionizing how SaaS companies grow and retain their customers. With a career spanning iconic companies like Adobe and Omniture, Dave is not just a leader in customer success; he’s one of the pioneers of the discipline.
From his early days as a consultant to building one of the most recognized platforms in the customer success space, Dave’s journey is filled with lessons on leadership, innovation, and building lasting relationships with customers. In this blog post, we’ll dive into Dave’s inspiring story, his leadership style, his thoughts on the evolution of customer success, and his vision for the future of the industry.
Meet Dave Blake: From Consulting to Founding ClientSuccess
Dave began his career in consulting, working with Arthur Andersen and Hitachi Consulting, where he honed his skills in problem-solving and client engagement. This early experience set the foundation for his entry into customer success—a field he has been shaping ever since.
“I feel like I was one of the OGs in customer success. When I started, they called it account management. The key was simple: make sure customers get value from our product, and don’t lose them. That’s where my journey began.”
After joining Omniture and later Adobe through an acquisition, Dave worked with top-tier clients like Apple, Microsoft, and Disney, solidifying his reputation as a leader in customer success. But it was the challenge of cobbling together tools like Salesforce and spreadsheets that ultimately inspired him to create a dedicated platform for customer success teams.
“Teams need their own solution tailored to them, not something built for sales. That was the driving force behind founding ClientSuccess.”
Leadership Style: Competitiveness with a Heart
As a CEO, Dave thrives on competition but emphasizes doing it the right way—with class and integrity. Growing up in a family of five brothers, friendly competition was a constant, whether on the sports field or in professional pursuits.
“I hate to lose more than I love to win. But I respect great competition because it raises the bar for everyone.”
Dave’s leadership philosophy centers on building great teams by surrounding himself with smart, passionate, and kind people.
“Every one of my employees could walk down the street and be paid a lot more, but they choose to be here—to grow this business, with all its strengths and warts. That makes them special to me.”
Beyond his professional life, Dave prioritizes being a dad first. He encourages his team to never miss important family moments and even ends each Friday town hall by saying:
“Go make a memory this weekend.”
Industry Insights: The Evolution of Customer Success
Dave has witnessed the transformation of customer success from the early days of account management to the sophisticated, data-driven discipline it is today.
“The coming of SaaS brought the recurring revenue model, and with it, retention became critical. That’s when customer success managers emerged as a dedicated role to grow and protect that revenue base.”
Reflecting on his time at Omniture, Dave shared the high stakes of managing strategic accounts:
“I’ll never forget Josh James [CEO of Omniture] telling me, ‘You will not lose a strategic account.’ It was a lot of pressure, but we succeeded. And that experience taught me everything about retention and customer value.”
At ClientSuccess, Dave has continued to push the boundaries of the industry. Recent acquisitions have allowed the company to unify its platform, enabling customer success teams to manage onboarding, engagement, and retention from a single, seamless solution.
The Role of AI in Customer Success
Dave is a firm believer in the transformative potential of AI, which he refers to as “Customer Success 5.0.”
“We’ve developed Smart CS AI—early-stage capabilities that help our customers gain insights and automate tasks. This year, we’re doubling down on AI, taking those early learnings and multiplying them across our roadmap.”
To foster a culture of innovation, Dave has encouraged his team to embrace AI in their daily workflows:
“We brought in an AI expert for an offsite, explored its potential, and brainstormed ways to integrate it into our product. I want every employee to use AI as much as possible because that will spark new ideas and opportunities.”
The Future of Customer Success
When asked about what excites him most, Dave pointed to the unified vision for ClientSuccess.
“We’re creating a unified platform for a unified team to deliver a unified customer experience. The possibilities are endless, and it’s thrilling to see our vision come together through acquisitions and innovation.”
Dave’s advice for young professionals? Focus on creating opportunities and being pulled into roles by demonstrating impact.
“Crave challenges, crave learning, and do great work so that people seek you out for cool opportunities. That’s the best sign you’re making a difference.”
Personal Reflections: A Legacy of Integrity and Innovation
For Dave, building ClientSuccess is about more than just creating a product—it’s about building something meaningful with integrity and care.
“I want people to remember me as one of the good guys—someone who’s hungry, passionate about building, but who always cared about people and approached everything with class and integrity.”
Final Thoughts
Dave Blake’s journey from consulting to becoming a pioneer in customer success offers invaluable lessons for leaders, entrepreneurs, and professionals alike. His story highlights the importance of innovation, integrity, and a people-first approach—values that have fueled both his personal and professional success.
Whether you’re interested in customer success, SaaS innovation, or leadership, Dave’s insights are a masterclass in building a business that truly matters.
“Crave challenges, crave learning, and do great work so that people seek you out for cool opportunities. That’s the best sign you’re making a difference.”

Key Takeaways
Dave’s Leadership Philosophy
- How competition and a customer-first mindset shape his approach.
Energizing Work & Staying Inspired
- The role of personal passions, from family to outdoor adventures.
Industry Challenges & Trends
- How AI and consolidation are reshaping the SaaS landscape.
Building ClientSuccess
- Why Dave left Adobe to create a platform that simplifies customer retention.
The Future of Customer Success
- How AI, automation, and better insights will drive long-term customer relationships.
Episode Highlights
- 00:00 – Introduction & Dave’s Background – From consulting to leading ClientSuccess.
- 05:00 – The Competitive Edge – How Dave’s upbringing and leadership style shape his approach.
- 10:00 – Customer Success Evolution – The early days, key challenges, and why it matters more than ever.
- 15:00 – Scaling a SaaS Business – Lessons from Adobe, Omniture, and founding ClientSuccess.
- 20:00 – AI & The Future of CS – How technology is reshaping customer retention and engagement.
- 25:00 – Leadership & Work-Life Balance – Dave’s thoughts on integrating work, family, and personal passions.
- 30:00 – The Road Ahead – What’s next for ClientSuccess and customer success as a whole.
Scott Smith: I’m excited to welcome Dave Blake, founder and CEO of Client Success, a platform that is transforming how SAS companies grow and retain their customers. prior to Client Success, Dave spent time at both Adobe and Omnature, and we’re really excited to have him here today. Welcome, Dave. the last time I saw you,…
Scott Smith: I think you had just recently become a first-time grandpa, which I feel like probably trumps anything else that you’re up to or doing. that’s been pretty exciting, I imagine.
Dave Blake: …
Dave Blake: so exciting. And I’ll tell you, I couldn’t wrap my head around being a grandfather. I don’t feel old enough to be a grandfather, but it’s been the best experience ever. It’s so fun neat to see my daughter go through that experience.
Dave Blake: It’s a hard experience and see what a great great mother she is so it’s great to be a grandpa. Yeah.
Scott Smith: Yeah, I think that was the first thing that you and…
Scott Smith: I were talking about is just like, man, what are we doing as CEOs to stay fit and to stay energetic? And I’m telling you about my exercise regimen, and you’re telling me man, just hanging out with kids keeps me youthful. And I thought that was terrific. So, I’m excited to talk with you about, a couple different topics today. I think the first one that I actually just wanted to kind of get started work now especially in this kind of remote hybrid world there’s all different places you can work you can get inspiration from all sorts of things what are some of the places that you get your inspiration from some of the places that you go to work or that you take yourself so that you can get excited and inspired
Dave Blake: that’s worked for us and we’ve had a lot of benefits but it can be isolating at home right and working out of your home office and those things. I find inspiration a lot of places like it one is just my daily routine in the morning of going for runs or walks and meditation and prayer and those types of things. and then I love just getaways to My favorite place I think is Lake Pal. So, we try to go to Lake Pal once or twice a year. maybe three times. For those who don’t know, it’s in southern Utah. And it’s like the Grand Canyon full of water. And we’re on a house boat and we surf behind a boat. And I just love to be there and just relax and unwind and be inspired with my thoughts during that time. So, those are a couple of my things. My
Scott Smith: I think the Lake Powell thing seems to be I still haven’t discovered it.
Scott Smith: My wife grew up going there and…
Dave Blake: Scott,…
Scott Smith: I still need to go.
Dave Blake: you gotta go. We’ll have to go sometime. It is the best. especially if you like water skiing and surfing behind a boat and…
Dave Blake: we do cliff jumping and ju just have so much fun down there. It’s a blast.
Scott Smith: I think the thing that I heard that I actually felt probably most excited by was my brother-in-law telling me and…
Scott Smith: my father-in-law too.
Dave Blake: Yeah. Yeah.
Scott Smith: He was telling me 20 I mean maybe it’s a little different now but 20 years ago when they would go there was one spot that he could get cell reception and he had to go out of his way to drive 20 minutes in the boat to actually reconnect with work…
Dave Blake: Yeah. Yeah.
Scott Smith: but the rest of the time he was totally disconnected.
Dave Blake: And that has been the case. I remember years where we’d go out there and I have five brothers and we’re all very active in business, several CEOs and things.
Dave Blake: And so it’s funny because it used to be a situation where we’d go out at night into this one spot on the lake and we’d be all like holding our phones up trying to get their cell reception. And in the last couple years we actually got Starlink on our house boat down there. And while our wives don’t love it because we can stay connected, it’s actually been nice because there are times when you want to be connected and you want to check in and you want to write down your thoughts and so it’s been good for us.
Scott Smith: Tell me just a little bit. So, my dad, he also had five brothers and as a result, I don’t know if it was because he was in this crucible of pain and…
Scott Smith: competition, but he was a really competitive guy. What’s it like growing up in that world with those five brothers?
Dave Blake: Yeah,…
Dave Blake: we are super competitive. it’s been a fun, but we’re the best of friends ever. And so it’s been really good. I can’t forget my sister who’s the oldest and her husband who’s our brother-in-law and he’s competitive as well but we’re just the best of friends and we’ve done a lot of things together in business and out of business and we just loved each other. So we’re competitive but friendly competitive if that makes sense.
Dave Blake: But you get us any kind of sport behind a boat and we will always try to compete to be the best on the court on the surfboard.
Scott Smith: I think that’s the sort of ideal persona of a CEO is somebody…
00:05:00
Scott Smith: who no matter whatever they’re excited about, passionate about,…
Dave Blake: Yeah. Yeah.
Scott Smith: They want to compete. They want to be the best. And I think it in influences and infuses energy everywhere in the product and the team. So that’s awesome.
Dave Blake: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Scott Smith: Let’s talk a little bit about customer success. this is an area that I saw I’m not sure about some of your earlier roles like Hitachi for example but certainly at Adobe Omnature customer success has been there and it’s been there for quite a while for you. I don’t know if I would call it the early stage or the roots of customer success. probably always been there, but I feel like this title and this name really over the last 10,…
Scott Smith: 15, 20 years became more prevalent. Can you talk a little bit about, being at the early stages of what I feel like is sort of a revolution for companies to understand and take on this task of customer success?
Dave Blake: Yeah, I feel like I was one of the OGs and…
Dave Blake: in customer success. I started my career in consulting and I just loved engaging with clients at the time and solving problems for them. that was really the beginning of my career.
Dave Blake: I was with Arthur Anderson business consulting and then Hitachi consulting and that actually really translated well into a customer success role. when I started they called it account management. So the first kind of formal customer success role I had was at a company called Many in Utah know It’s just iconic company. and I was tasked with taking care of the most strategic accounts. And the key was make sure they get value out of our product and don’t lose them. make sure they’re happy and they continue to retain. I had no idea what that meant or how to do it, but I just rolled up my sleeves and kind of took the skills that I had in consulting and just understood their business, developed a great relationship and help them get value out of the product.
Dave Blake: And that’s kind of how customer success came about really the coming forth of SAS which that recurring revenue and retention became that much better. People started having account management originally and then customer success managers to take care of that revenue base and grow that revenue base. And I was there in the early days. It was a lot of fun. yeah.
Scott Smith: you have this opportunity to work with the top customers, but also I imagine that sort of intensity, the potential for pain, especially from a cancellation churn, you’re kind of juggling this pretty intense situation, right?
Dave Blake: I’ve always taken great pride on doing everything we can to take care of our customers and not have any customers turn.
Dave Blake: and so when I was at Omar here’s a story I had Josh James who’s a legendary CEO came to me and said you will not lose a strategic account and these were customers like Apple and Microsoft and Sony and Disney and big accounts and when he said that I kind of took a big gulp and was but we did have a success but throughout my career I definitely have had customers turn and there’s nothing like the feeling when you hear a customer said hey I’m so excited and we’re going to renew and there’s nothing like the pit in your stomach when you have a customer who said what I’m sorry we’re not getting value or whatever reason we’re going to churn it’s just that pit in your stomach that’s hard to get over and I think that you have to have
Dave Blake: that to be a good CSM, you have to both be able to experience both. If you don’t care, if you get a turn email and you don’t care, then you’re in the wrong role.
Scott Smith: Yeah, absolutely. our products are a little different, but we have folks who use our product for free and who can sign up and just come and go as easily as they please and even for the free ones I’m like I read all the MPS feedback and I’m like…
Dave Blake: Yeah. Yeah.
Scott Smith: why I get so I’m like I try not to let it ruin my day or anything but I think it’s an important part of being a leader. can you talk a little bit about you sort of saw this potential for customer success but why do you feel like maybe you stuck with it for not only did you lead accounts you led teams you built a whole business around this idea is there something at some time where you were like I think this is the thing that I’m going to do for 20 years or…
Scott Smith: like that I’m going to
Dave Blake: …
00:10:00
Dave Blake: I just kind of followed my passion and where I found, interest and had a great journey with Amateur and then we were acquired by Adobe and so I was with those two companies for a decade doing this and really enjoyed it and was able to be very innovative and build out a lot of best practices early on in this profession. And then afterwards I was like, what do I want to do next? And it was either go and kind of join another team and run it or build a solution that I wish I would have had. and that’s what I decided to do is I’d love to be an entrepreneur. I love to create things and build things and create jobs and do it around something that I know and solve a painoint and a passion and chase a passion that I had.
Dave Blake: And so that led me to founding client success which is a customer success platform and have now spent two plus decades in this space and…
Dave Blake: and loving it still.
Scott Smith: It’s amazing.
Scott Smith: And maybe just we can talk I’d love to talk a little bit about the product you’ve built,…
Scott Smith: but also what was it like before, sort of like managing and interacting with customers in the past? what…
Dave Blake: Yeah. …
Scott Smith:
Scott Smith: what was it? So why was it how usually when you build a new product it’s so frustrating I have to build this thing There.
Dave Blake: we were doing what a lot of people do with when they don’t have a solution. We were cobbling together several things.
Dave Blake: So, we were trying to use Salesforce, but Salesforce was really built for sales teams and building the sales experience and managing that and custom dashboards and custom custom spreadsheets. And I remember at the end of my time at Adobe, one of the last big assignments is CEO of Adobe, a shop new wanted to have really good visibility on the top 100 accounts at Adobe. So I created this program called T100 which was the top 100 customers and built dashboards and insights that can really help all the executive team have very good insights into the top 100 customers and that was a lot of fun and we had a lot of experience and so when I left Adobe I was like what everybody should have that kind of dashboard you shouldn’t have to cobble it together you should and teams should have their own solution to use just the post sales
Dave Blake: team should have something tailored to them that was easy to use and…
Scott Smith: Awesome. …
Dave Blake: executives should have really good insights on the customer base not just the prospect base. So that was the driving force to jump off and take a chance and build client success.
Scott Smith: I’d love to, kind of let’s talk a little bit more about client success and…
Scott Smith: sort of the formative stages. So, it sounds like clarity I’m pretty clear on the why. can you talk about, building that early team? I think I saw one of your LinkedIn posts where you highlighted how excited and enthusiastic you are every day to work with your team and I just think that’s so important, how have you figured out how to do that? How did you figure out how to build that team, keep those folks
Dave Blake: …
Dave Blake: I was fortunate to have a really good team at Omure and Adobe that just inspired me and what they’ve done since is phenomenal.
Dave Blake: So, I’ve always learned that if you can surround yourself by really smart, passionate people who are great humans, then you’ll be in a good spot as a leader, as a CEO. And that’s really what I’ve tried to do is find great people who are smart and that I enjoy working with. And that’s been my mo the whole time. Now, it hasn’t always worked out.
Scott Smith: Sure, sure.
Dave Blake: We’ve had employees come and…
Scott Smith: Yeah,…
Dave Blake: but overall, I feel like that everybody who’s come and gone just been really good humans who are smart, work hard, have a passion, and rally around something and are willing to almost sacrifice to be here to grow this business.
Dave Blake: And that was a key thing especially early on as a startup is you have to have people who are willing to sacrifice a little. I always say that every one of my employees could walk down the street and be paid a lot more but they choose to be here at this time with w strengths but all of our warts and be on this journey at this time and that makes them special to me that they’re willing to do that.
Scott Smith: I 100% agree. I remember some of the first folks that I interviewed e even just at previous startups for sales roles.
Dave Blake: Yeah. Yeah.
Scott Smith: I would interview kind of this young upandcomer and I would interview the grizzled Adobe Cisco Oracle person, And I think when it came down to it we often opted for folks who were willing to sacrifice something and even maybe sometimes they were willing to sacrifice the big thing for your startup or just their time or a club or whatever but it certainly takes a lot but I think you get a lot out of it. I find that I just am so excited and enthusiastic every day versus, when I’ve worked for bigger companies, it just felt like you’re a cog in a machine, sometimes, not always. were there any places that you found folks that were unusual or…
00:15:00
Scott Smith: atypical in your recruiting process? Was it pretty traditional? Did you go out to your prior companies? you were talking to a customer support person. I don’t know.
Dave Blake: I don’t…
Dave Blake: if I could say that. I mean, what I’ve done is I’ve drawn on past colleagues that I’ve trusted. that’s been great. So, I’ve had a lot of individuals who I’ve known over the years who I’ve been able to go and tap again and say, “Hey, we had a great experience at the last time. We did some great things. Do you want to come and do that here at Client Success?” And that’s been successful. But I’ve also had people I’ve never known who we were fortunate to find and recruit and have joined the company and…
Scott Smith: Awesome. …
Dave Blake: now they’ve become those lifelong friends and trusted colleagues that I really appreciate.
Scott Smith: you talked a little bit earlier about, finding ways to be both competitive and, find joy with the people that you work with.
Dave Blake: Yeah. Yeah.
Scott Smith: As you think about it as a CEO now, how have you I don’t necessarily think it’s sort of easy to balance things. I often feel like you’re on a teeter totter. Sometimes you’re extreme over here. But how do you find the right way to make sure that you are, flying high in the professional, but also in some of these other areas in terms of your real life or your out of work life, I guess.
Dave Blake: Yeah, that’s been super important to me. So, I have two of my older daughters are now married. they’ve been in SAS recently. they’re actually event marketers for a SAS company, which is really cool. and I’m on that tail end where all my kids are older.
Dave Blake: But one of the things that’s always been important to me is I’m a dad first. but I also recognize that it’s important for me to perform every day because I’m also responsible for the lives of many employees. And so balancing that is super hard. I once heard some CEOs that I really respect said, there’s no such thing as balance if you’re going to be a founder and a CEO. you just have to also accept that sometimes you’re going to have to do a lot in work for a period of time and you’re going to be out of balance in family and other times you want to dedicate to family. And how do you try to integrate your work life and your home life in a way to help facilitate that and that’s what I’ve really tried to do is try to integrate life a little bit.
Dave Blake: But I try my best and I really encourage my employees to never miss those important moments in their family life because you won’t get them back. and life’s too short to miss those things. So, I was really trying to encourage two things. One, don’t miss the important moments. And then every Friday, we have a town hall and…
Dave Blake: the last thing I always say to my employees is go make a memory this weekend. make a memory with your family, your loved one Just go and the importance of making good memories because those things are super important. Yep.
Scott Smith: That’s awesome.
Scott Smith: Yeah, absolutely agree. one of the first things that we do every executive meeting that we have every Monday is just sort of do this short segue and talk about what we did over the weekend. And it’s always so fun to hear about, these memories folks are making. It’s a way to connect with my team, but also just it’s so great to hear they worked on a project or something. Refreshes the mind and they’re prioritizing things that are important.
Dave Blake: And that’s what I think if they’ll prioritize those things, they’ll come back and they’ll make some great memories over the weekend. They’ll come back refreshed, ready to go. it just energizes them, reminds them what’s most important, but also brings that energy back and really amplifies their work at their work here at Client Success.
Scott Smith: So let’s talk a little bit about client success and…
Scott Smith: and some of the things that you guys have been doing over the last I think 18 to 24 months for example I know that you’ve acquired is it three companies you guys have acquired.
Dave Blake: Yeah.
Dave Blake: Yep. Yeah.
Scott Smith: So I’d love to hear a little bit about that obviously there’s a lot of new trends and technologies like chatgbt and AI and other tools. You’re acquiring these new technology companies. Tell me about some of the things you’re excited about.
Dave Blake: Yeah. I think those that’s one.
Dave Blake: So we’ve been fortunate to acquire three companies over the last 12 to 18 months and really came about to say in the heart of the economic downturn in early 2023. the economic downturn kind of started the second half of 2022. So going into 2023 there was a lot of headwinds and dark clouds for everybody right and we sat back and we said okay we could think about it two ways.
00:20:00
Dave Blake: One is we could hang on for our dear life and just grin about it. Or two, we could lean in and be bold and be aggressive and try to do things and use this economic downturn to find to do creative deals. And so we created this A strategy with no business to do it. I mean, we’re a very efficient business. We don’t have a lot of capital to go out and do acquisitions and those things. and we said, there’s going to be opportunities. We believe that there’s going to be consolidation in SAS in general and that we can find opportunities to really accelerate our vision by doing creative deals in the market during this time period. So, we did one that actually happened to be a company in Utah, which we were really excited about. That taught us a lot. it was a successful acquisition, but we learned a lot.
Dave Blake: But what it ended up doing is it propelled us which was kind of a unique thing. we did a product in the exact same space and sunset the first product which was crazy right. So we bought customer onboarding platform that led us to another one that was much more robust and we sunset the first one and then we just announced yesterday a third acquisition that we did. All of them are very complimentary to our product and accelerate our vision and it was just about tenacity and creativity and kind of being bold that we were able to do it. So that’s been super fun for us and to see the market our customers react to it positively to these moves have been really invigorating. Yeah.
Scott Smith: to add new functionality like this.
Dave Blake: Yeah. Yeah.
Scott Smith: We’re often whoa. First of all, that’s awesome because then we don’t have to worry about the three or four different interconnective tools that we’ve, tried to figure out, kind of duct tape together. And two, it’s always and typically pretty great to be able to just pay one company a little bit more …
Dave Blake: Yeah. Yeah.
Scott Smith: a lot more, whatever the case is. so I’m a big fan and I totally agree. I think we’ve seen a lot of companies consolidate these tools and sort of try to build this kind of I don’t know big bigger platform. how about on the AI side of things like do have you guys experimented there?
Dave Blake: Yeah. Yeah.
Scott Smith: Are you investing much time and energy? Tell me a little bit about that.
Dave Blake: We’re a big believer in AI and that it will transform all spaces including ours and I’ve kind of talked a lot about this concept of CS 5.0 know customer success 5.0
Dave Blake: 0 which is this AI burst era. and we’ve done our own venture into AI. So the capabilities in our platform we call smart CS AI. and we’ve done I would say early stage capabilities but our customers have really responded well and this year will be an exciting year for us. our roadmap is very highly focused on many and so we’re excited to take the early learnings that we’ve had and…
Dave Blake: the early ideas and feedback from customers and multiply that this year and we’re looking forward to it.
Scott Smith: One of the things that I’ve noticed,…
Scott Smith: I don’t know if it’s the same with your team, but I feel like for a while now, we’ve had just about every CEO, VC, talking about really excited by it. And I think on the other hand, there’s often, your family folks who are maybe a little less technology interested or some of your team who are just sort of doing their work day-to-day where you kind of have to convince them. as an example in Zeit, I think one of the things that I and our executive team often like to do is share both personal and professional examples of how we’re using AI u to help people get around this initial hump of how can I use it?
Scott Smith: That’s pretty amazing. I could do it like this. And I think in the CS world in particular, to me it feels like there’s so the communications, the health scores, the reports that you’re talking about. I mean, it’s sort of endless, right? Yeah.
Dave Blake: own personal, it’s going to run you over. It’s going to leave you behind,…
00:25:00
Scott Smith: Yeah. Yeah.
Dave Blake: So, we’ve encouraged that the last year as in kind of the beginning of our journey into AI, we had an offsite with all of our employees and we brought in this AI expert and we did just that. We said, “Hey, let’s learn about AI first from some very innovative, forwardthinking individuals about the potential. Let’s open our minds to the potential and then let’s creatively think how we drive innovation in our own product product. And we did some fun activities and kind of competition around coming up with creative ideas. And then we said we want all of our employees to use AI as much as possible in many different ways because that will spawn new opportunities.
Dave Blake: And so I think as you said the world of customer success, there’s so many opportunities. I think people are just scratching the surface and there’s going to be some really exciting innovations this in the next couple years and…
Dave Blake: we’re looking to lead the way in that regard.
Scott Smith: it. Yeah,…
Scott Smith: it sounds like you have the right priorities, which is pretty cool.
Dave Blake: Yeah. Yeah.
Scott Smith: …
Scott Smith: couple other thoughts, I guess, or questions for you. one of them is you mentioned you’ve been building client success. you’ve been working on this between 8 and 10. What’s the timeline now?
Dave Blake: about 12 years.
Dave Blake: Yep. Yeah.
Scott Smith:
Scott Smith: 12 years. Okay. so your commitment has been incredible and I think your desire to, move and grow with your customers as they sort of navigate this customer success landscape. How have you, I guess, been able to figure out the different ways to make sure your product resonates with your users and…
Scott Smith: that they’re excited about it and that also you’re kind of going in the right direction?
Dave Blake: Yeah. Yeah.
Dave Blake: I think we have always from the beginning ensured that our DNA is one of engaging with customers. so we have always been very deep with our customers as far as engaging with them at all levels. So everybody in our co company has direct exposure to our customers and interaction with our customers. Our head of product has always been somebody we’ve always selected somebody who prefers to get on the phone with customers,…
Scott Smith: Yeah. Heat.
Dave Blake: prefers to be in front of the customers. so I think that’s a key thing. but you can’t always just take orders from customers either. So we really try to be in tune with what the customer needs are.
Dave Blake: But then we also take that back and say, “Okay, this What are they not asking for that they don’t know about and how can we go that direction?” The second thing that we typically do is we use our product every day, all day, all of our products and now we have three products and so we’re using that constantly. And so usually we know a feature request before a customer asks because we recognize it or we see a gap in the product before. so I think those are two things is really engaging with customers and prospects but then really making sure that all of your company uses your product and understands it really well and can provide input into the roadmap.
Scott Smith: I think that’s a really big competitive advantage that you guys have is being able to use I mean there’s lots of products…
Dave Blake: Yeah. Yeah.
Scott Smith: where it’s actually tough not only to use it but to want to use it right …
Dave Blake: For sure. Yep.
Scott Smith: but this is a huge competitive advantage and I feel very similar with our product but that’s awesome so maybe another similar question it’s a little different is, how do you guys I guess one when you think about competition, depending on how you look at it, there’s millions of different products that sort of could compete. There’s probably a handful that you believe are competitive with you guys. how do you either make sure you’re competing well enough and then maybe making sure that you’re not entirely fixated on those competitors? how do you approach competition?
Scott Smith: Yeah.
Dave Blake: That’s the way competitor aware but customer focused. I look at competition as we talked about at the beginning I hate to lose. I’m very competitive. And when you ask the question, do you like to win or hate to lose? I’m one of those that almost hates that that hates to lose more. So I like to be competitive, but I also appreciate great competition and classy competition because it just raises the bar for everybody. and so I certainly respect every one of our competitors, but I don’t want to back down one ounce in a competitive battle against them, and I think they feel the same. So, yeah.
00:30:00
Scott Smith: that’s really healthy. but it leads companies to be great. So, that’s awesome. two other questions for maybe like one this is more just looking at,…
Scott Smith: your daughters for example. by the way, I think it’s so cool that they both live in Utah and they work nearbyish.
Dave Blake: Yeah. Yep.
Scott Smith: That’s so cool.
Dave Blake: They’re both here. One’s in northern Utah and the other in southern Utah.
Scott Smith: I imagine you at least tried to provide some, advice over the years to them. maybe they never listened to you, but when you think about the advice that you would give to your kids…
Scott Smith: who are kind of growing up moving into either the similar indust industry or at least trying to do similar things to what you did, what’s important to you to share? what would you share?
Dave Blake: Yeah. …
Dave Blake: you know what? I think that especially early on, and this is the advice I do give my kids, I have a son who’s at BYU right now, and we were texting just a little while ago about some of his, trying to get internships and stuff like that.
Dave Blake: I think for young professionals it’s like seek opportunity and a diverse opportunity like crave learning crave challenges crave opportunity and when you are pulled into opportunity that is the best sign that made that means you’ve made your mark. a lot of young professionals are raising their hand I’d like a raise. I’d like a promotion whatever. For me, the best indicator of a great employee is somebody who’s that people are seeking to take on new responsibility and pulling you in different directions. And those have been earlier in my career and throughout my career until I became a founder. it was those situations where I had my head down and I just tried to take great pride in my work and work hard.
Dave Blake: And when people started asking me to take new responsibilities or promote me without even surprising in those things that was a great sign that I was having an impact on things. And so that’s what I try to teach my kids. Get a lot of experience early. make a great name for yourself and do great work so that you’re pulled to cool opportunities. Yeah. Yes.
Scott Smith: I love that. I saw, sort of a related quote, but Jason Lumpkin, who runs Saster, he highlighted I guess the enthusiasm from CEOs who see folks on their team who want to take responsibility from the CEO and to own and to drive and to work in that Love it.
Dave Blake: It was more of a contractor that I was working out just didn’t take it and own it. And I love owners.
Dave Blake: I love people who want to take on a challenge and who seek to take things off your plate, and those are the best employees. so yeah,…
Scott Smith: Last thought. I’m sure you’re thinking about a lot of different things for this year. what are you most excited about for both the future of your work and kind of I guess when people think about Dave Blake that you want them to think about you
Dave Blake: I’ll answer those two.
Dave Blake: What I’m excited about is I’m excited about our vision come together. We’ve got this vision for this unified platform for unified team delivering a unified experience and we’re bringing that together through these acquisitions and to be able to infuse that entire stack through is super exciting to see the possibilities there. that’s what I’m most excited about for those if I want them to remember Dave Blake. I just want them to remember that he is one of the good guys, that is passionate about building that is hungry but cares about people and goes about things in a classy and classy and integrous way. that’s what I would want people to think about.
Scott Smith: Awesome. it’s been great having you and thanks for your time, Dave. Yeah.
Dave Blake: It’s great to be here, Scott. Thanks for having me.

About Our Guest
Dave Blake is the Founder and CEO of ClientSuccess, revolutionizing how SaaS companies manage and grow their customer base. Previously, he led global customer success at Adobe, managing $440M in revenue with top-tier retention rates, and held leadership roles at Omniture. Dave is passionate about driving customer success and innovation in the SaaS industry.
Subscribe and Stay Ahead
Don't miss an episode! Subscribe to Inside the Workflow on your favorite podcast platform and join the community of professionals committed to achieving excellence in their work.





Connect with Us
Be part of our community.
Follow Zight on Social Media
Stay connected and get the latest updates on upcoming episodes, behind-the-scenes content, and more.
Contact us
Have questions, suggestions, or want to be a guest on the show? Reach out to us at [email protected].