In this episode of Inside the Workflow, we sit down with Todd Baylis, Chief Customer Officer at Bloomerang and founder of Qgiv. Todd’s journey from co-founding a startup to leading customer success at a major nonprofit technology company is a testament to his deep commitment to customer-centric innovation. With a background in the nonprofit sector and a passion for solving customer challenges, Todd has spent his career refining strategies that enhance donor engagement, simplify technology, and empower organizations to maximize their impact.
In our conversation, Todd shares how he approaches leadership, industry challenges, and the future of nonprofit technology, all while balancing a demanding career with family life.
Leadership, Strategy, and Customer-Centric Innovation
Todd’s leadership philosophy is built around listening to customers, identifying core challenges, and leveraging technology to drive meaningful change. He emphasizes the importance of blending customer feedback with market trends to stay ahead of the curve.
Key Leadership Principles:
- Root-Cause Thinking: Instead of taking customer feedback at face value, Todd and his team dig deeper to uncover underlying issues and develop holistic solutions.
- Failing Forward: His entrepreneurial journey started with a willingness to experiment, learn from failure, and refine his approach.
- Building a Mission-Driven Culture: At Bloomerang, he ensures that values like simplify, act, and care are embedded into the company’s DNA and reflected in everyday decision-making.
Industry Insights: Challenges and Emerging Trends
The nonprofit sector faces unique challenges, including fragmented technology, donor retention struggles, and the need for seamless integration across fundraising and donor management tools. Todd discusses how Bloomerang is addressing these issues by creating a unified giving platform that simplifies donor engagement and enhances organizational efficiency.
Biggest Industry Challenges:
- Fragmented Systems: Many nonprofits rely on disjointed tools that don’t integrate well, making it difficult to track donor relationships effectively.
- Staffing & Expertise Gaps: Organizations often lack dedicated tech teams, so solutions must be intuitive and easy to adopt.
- Evolving Donor Expectations: Today’s donors expect a personalized, seamless giving experience, similar to what they encounter in for-profit sectors.
Emerging Innovations:
- AI & Automation in Donor Engagement: Bloomerang is leveraging AI to help nonprofits better understand, segment, and engage with donors—ultimately improving retention and fundraising success.
- Event Data Optimization: By analyzing attendee data from fundraising events, Bloomerang helps nonprofits turn one-time event guests into long-term supporters.
- Reducing Administrative Work: Automation tools are freeing up nonprofit teams to focus more on relationship-building and mission-driven work.
The Future of Nonprofit Technology
Todd sees the future of nonprofit tech as being more integrated, intelligent, and donor-focused. Instead of nonprofits juggling multiple disconnected tools, Bloomerang is building a system where every interaction—from donations to volunteer sign-ups to event attendance—is connected and actionable.
Key Predictions for the Future:
- AI-Driven Donor Insights: AI will help nonprofits identify potential major donors, personalize outreach, and improve retention.
- Seamless Fundraising Experiences: Tech platforms will make it easier than ever for donors to give, whether at events, online, or through peer-to-peer campaigns.
- Smarter Engagement Strategies: Nonprofits will move beyond mass emails to more personalized, automated, and effective donor communication.
Reflections: Personal Growth and Work-Life Balance
Despite the demands of leading a fast-growing company, Todd values his role as a father and family man. He admits that maintaining balance isn’t easy but strives to be present when he’s with his loved ones.
“Being present is hard. It doesn’t turn off—but I try to be mindful and in the moment, whether at work or with my family.” — Todd Baylis
He also shares advice for aspiring entrepreneurs: embrace the journey, focus on progress, and trust that the hard work will pay off.
“You don’t have to have it all figured out. Keep grinding, stay focused on customer problems, and the rest will fall into place.” — Todd Baylis
Final Thoughts & Call to Action
Todd Baylis is shaping the future of nonprofit technology by building solutions that simplify complexity, enhance donor engagement, and help organizations thrive. His customer-first mindset and passion for mission-driven work make this conversation a must-listen for anyone in SaaS, leadership, or the nonprofit space.
“It all starts with understanding the root issue customers are trying to solve—because if you look a little deeper, you can solve multiple problems at once.”

Key Takeaways
- Todd’s leadership style and how he fosters a culture of innovation and customer-centricity.
- The evolution of nonprofit technology and how Bloomerang is streamlining donor engagement.
- Lessons from entrepreneurship—failing forward, adapting to challenges, and scaling a business.
- The role of automation and AI in freeing up time for nonprofits to focus on relationships.
- Todd’s approach to work-life balance as a leader and family man.
Episode Highlights
- 0:00 – Introduction and Todd’s background in nonprofit technology.
- 5:00 – Leadership lessons: Building a strong culture in remote and hybrid teams.
- 10:00 – The biggest challenges nonprofits face in donor engagement and retention.
- 15:00 – The future of nonprofit tech: AI, automation, and relationship-driven fundraising.
- 20:00 – Todd’s entrepreneurial journey: Lessons from growing and selling a company.
- 30:00 – The importance of resilience, adaptability, and continuous learning in leadership.
Scott Smith: All right, I’m excited to introduce and welcome Todd Bis, who is the chief customer officer at Bloomer and founder of Qgiv, to today.
Scott Smith: So, welcome, Todd. …
Todd Baylis: Thanks for having me.
Todd Baylis: I’m excited to be here and excited to chat for a little bit.
Scott Smith: I’m sitting in Utah today and it’s like 18° and you’re sitting in, I think, Florida, And what’s it like over there?
Todd Baylis: Central Florida, it’s a chilly something along those lines. So, this is the time of year…
Scott Smith: Incredible. Yep.
Todd Baylis: where everyone wants to be in Florida as opposed to six months from now when it’s 110 with the heat index and everyone’s like, why do I live here? So, this is the time to be in Florida.
Todd Baylis: But I want to be coming over to Utah soon.
Scott Smith: Yeah. …
Scott Smith: I grew up it’s great as it warms up. that’s all right for snowing skiing and all these kind of things, but I grew up in New Jersey where it’s incredibly humid and so I don’t miss that aspect of things, but so many great benefits to where you are and I miss the East Coast. So, there’s a lot of different topics that I’m excited to talk with you about today, Todd. I think, one of the things I was pretty excited to kind of see and, talk a little bit about, of course, is your first business, in building having seen the acquisition with Bloomerang, which is pretty cool, and having you change your role in title.
Scott Smith: but before we get into some of that, I’d love to hear, just a little bit about some of the areas and places that you find inspiration. how do you create and how do you shape what you eventually end up building? How do you do it?
Todd Baylis: you’re really trying to do is blend the customer feedback. So it always kind of starts with how do we focus on what the customer is ultimately trying to solve a root issue and I think it’s always important that you really try and understand what the root issue of things are because a lot of times it comes out in a different format or you have to kind of read between the lines a little bit and so if we can take that customer feedback understand and kind of get it at a deep level and understand the root issue they’re trying to solve then maybe we can solve it in an elegant way and kind of build towards that. And then you try and marry in obviously the strategic focus and the components of what’s happening competitively on the landscape and those sorts of things and then how those two kind of merge together and where those kind of common points are and then that helps you prioritize and build the things that your customers are asking for while also kind of remaining competitive and building forward.
Todd Baylis: So doesn’t always look exactly like the customer is describing it, but oftent times if you look a little bit deeper, you can solve multiple things just by understanding the root issue of it. So that’s where I draw inspiration. that’s where I try and help guide product teams and other areas and that sort of stuff is really kind of starting with that customer voice and then marrying it with all of the other aspects because ultimately they’re the ones that we’re serving.
Todd Baylis: They’re the ones that pay the bills and they’re the ones that we need to continue to delight and make happy. So, I think that’s spoken like a chief customer officer probably, but yes, absolutely.
Scott Smith: Right. Yep.
Scott Smith: I think it’s perfect. one thing it kind of reminded me of, I’m sure you’ve heard the quote or phrase, I think it’s from Henry Ford. He said, if I asked them what they wanted, they give they’d say faster horses. how do you figure out if you’re building a faster horse or if you’re building the right thing? Because I agree with you. I think the customer feedback is critical,…
Scott Smith: right? Yeah.
Todd Baylis: You know what’s funny is I use that story all the time.
Todd Baylis: So, it’s definitely one that I’m familiar with and my team will actually laugh. They’ll say, ” I’ve heard that before.” I think that’s part of where the wisdom and the experience kind of come in. And, you just have to understand that’s where the strategy kind of sits, where is the market going? What’s the white space? And kind of how are we continuing to solve the root issues. I think again you can very much fall into that if you become service level in your understanding of what the customer’s daily routines are, what they’re trying to do. And so I think it’s a little bit of understanding where you feel the white space is going and where the kind of strategy makes sense. And that’s some time experience and a little bit of I don’t think it’s formulaic. I think it takes a lot of thought and that’s why you have a team.
Todd Baylis: that’s why you help that’s why it’s not one person it’s hundreds of people trying to row in the same direction and get that stuff going. So that’s ultimately the hard question to solve So it started I actually grew up in the nonprofit world in a lot of different ways.
Scott Smith: CEO, tell me about QV. I’d love to understand what was it that inspired you to want to get into the space and actually spend what presumably became a lot of time here.
00:05:00
Todd Baylis: So I was involved as kind of from a program perspective. I was a youth board member of an organization called Campfire. and it was really impactful on my life as it kind of built up and kind of through program levels like in volunteering in those different areas.
Todd Baylis: And then it was kind of born out of what I affectionately called doing anything anybody would pay us for when we were in college with a co-founder of mine. that’s an important thing, we need to have money to spend and pay rent and all those other things. And so we created a proof of concept and then kind of failed our way forward, I think would be the best way to describe it. and really kind of focused on the fundraising aspect of it and how to be both wide and deep in terms of the functionality. because we really felt that there were two areas between donor management and then the fundraising component and it was hard to be successful either in kind of both.
Todd Baylis: And that’s why I think it’s been so great to join up with the Bloomerang team because we can take what was one of the best fundraising systems and one of the best donor management systems and bring that together and really build a giving platform that really drives all of those different aspects for a customer. And it’s something that really hasn’t been done in the nonprofit world. It’s a lot of kind of piece together systems that don’t all always talk to each other. I mean or they’re loosely integrated for lack of a better term. And so it’s an opportunity with Bloomerang to really continue to build and solve some of those core customer issues in a way and build it right in terms of taking the time to build the plumbing to build how the products come together from an integration perspective and from an experience perspective and do something the industry hasn’t really seen or been able to accomplish for a whole lot of different reasons.
Todd Baylis: And so that’s the exciting part is that we can truly again I think solve that root issue which is our customers might have five or six different solutions and some of them talk some of them work and we have the depth and the breadth to solve those in a singular platform and have them talk in a way that an organization it makes sense to an organization without a high level of configurability and custom things and all this sort of stuff. really simplify that and we as a team are dedicated to that at Bloomerang and we’re excited about it. So that’s the five minute progression that includes all of it I guess. but it really is about failing forward and learning from mistakes listening to customers and then continuing to marry that with where the mark strategy with where the market’s going and all the other pieces.
Scott Smith: Especially I think the phrase was do anything anyone would pay us for.
Scott Smith: I talked to the CEO.
Todd Baylis: I mean,…
Todd Baylis: that’s what you do when you’re 19 or 20, right? Right.
Scott Smith: Yeah, exactly. I remember I got my first job offer and I showed it to my dad and I think he was probably thinking “Wow, he didn’t say anything. it wasn’t like I felt like I could see it in his eyes really.” But I think he was excited that I had that job offer. but I talked with the o which is a marketing automation product and he mentioned that he and his co-founder were like we literally just want to replace our salary and that’s our first financial goal so that we could then spend time and work on this really cool project.
Scott Smith: And I think a lot of the time, there’s either it came to me in a dream which realistically I don’t think actually happens that often, but I think your case like Yeah.
Scott Smith: Yeah. it’s certainly fun, but I think this one feels more tangible so let me ask you actually
Todd Baylis: I think there’s a lot of accidental entrepreneurs that kind of come out of,…
Todd Baylis: hey, I started doing something and it started working and then I kind of kept going and then that one step leads to another and…
Todd Baylis: you are where you are.
Scott Smith: Yeah, exactly right.
Scott Smith: So you mentioned kind of failing forward, figuring things out. I think we all maybe don’t understand how difficult and challenging building a company, building the right thing. you talked about strategy and execution and customers, but can you talk a little bit about some of the times where it was just a struggle, things were hard. you had to kind of overcome either yourself or, a founder relationship or something that was going on even in the market where you’re just like, I don’t know if I’m doing the right thing, but you just kept going.
Todd Baylis: First of all, I think it’s all about continuing to improve your mindset and your individual how you show up and how you kind of push through those. and I think it’s important everyone talks about grit and those sorts of things and that’s really like how do you identify bless you how do you identify the next step on these things right so a lot of stuff’s hard I mean we’ve been going through the past year of how do we bring teams together how do we take the best of both worlds and how do we then truly deliver the customer to the customer through that and that it’s not always clear what it is but a lot of times it’s Okay, there’s a huge struggle. How do I find that next Even for me, it can be as simple as if I’m procrastinating on a project or there’s something where it’s just like I don’t want to do it. Sometimes it’s as simple to me I need to go open the document or just write down the next step.
00:10:00
Todd Baylis: And So, for me, it’s always about identifying even micro ways to kind of build a little bit of momentum that then all of a sudden you get into a flow and then all of a sudden you’re like, “Okay, hey, this isn’t as hard as it seemed just because I’ve spent a little bit of time building that flow and finding those micro things that help get you, started.” And then momentum begins momentum. Right. Right.
Scott Smith: I get out of bed and I go work out. And if I can just roll my body out, I’m good. It’s like the whole day is great.
Todd Baylis: And then all of a sudden one foot in front of the other and then you’re at the end of the day you’re like,…
Scott Smith: Yeah. Yep.
Todd Baylis: man, look at how much I accomplished. And it all started with, simply like getting out of bed.
Todd Baylis: So I highly identify with that and…
Scott Smith: Yeah. Yeah.
Todd Baylis: that’s what I think can truly help people, move forward.
Scott Smith: And then tell me a little bit you talked about building a great team kind of making the experience great for your customers. I don’t know what your sort of company’s dynamic is whether QV boomerang or both but is this in all boomerang?
Todd Baylis: All Bloomerang. We are one team under Bloomerang. One Yeah.
Scott Smith: All right.
Todd Baylis: All Bloomerang. One team. Yes.
Scott Smith: And is this a remote organization? Are you guys all in the same office somewhere? what’s the kind of dynamic and tell Anna I guess part of the question I’m asking is I think building a strong culture whether it’s in person remote multi-country global whatever it always seems difficult so I’d love to hear your perspective on building a strong culture etc
Todd Baylis: But prior to acquisition was a hybrid. So we had a kind of core office. We had a lot of people who came in and out, but we also had plenty of people who were hybrid or flex. And so we’ve moved more to a remote culture. And so I think we we are a remote company. So I think that the biggest thing as you go through that and it starts with leadership. It starts from the top. our CEO Dennis is great at this in terms of we have to define what our values are and the behaviors that follow those values. and as long as we are living those and we’re holding people accountable to them and it’s not just things on the wall, but it’s a social contract in terms of what the behaviors are. And for Bloomerang, it’s simplify, and care. And there’s a whole lot of behaviors that fall behind those.
Todd Baylis: but they drive what we try and do, what we want to aspirationally be kind of every day. And then how are we holding each other accountable to it. So it’s not just myself with my team Dennis with Bloomerang or any of those. it’s holding individuals accountable. And that’s how you build that. And sometimes people say self- select, they say, “Hey, I don’t identify with this.” And that’s okay. that’s where you got to find an organization that you identify with those not just the values but the behaviors that fall behind it. And so just being very intentional around that helps I think regardless of whether the culture is a remote culture whether it’s a hybrid or in person or any of those things that’s what makes culture a living breathing thing.
Todd Baylis: Absolutely. Absolutely.
Scott Smith: was that you started we define the culture and we define the values and the behaviors. So, it’s like you paint what you want first before you go, it’s interesting. and so I guess presumably it comes into interviewing and then onboarding and sort of like everyday stuff, performance management, all these kind of things, right? It’s just everywhere. Okay.
Todd Baylis: Totally. Yep. Yeah. it’s got to be a cohesive process because I mean anything if you aren’t interviewing and looking for those things and finding and defining some of those specific behaviors that fall behind the kind of broader values that’s where you get into that misalignment and especially when you have act simplify and care as kind of broad values.
Todd Baylis: If you’re not more specific on that act can mean to people or can mean a lot of things to take an example of simplifying something actually is the mastery of it.
Todd Baylis: You have to understand all of the complexities behind it with which to simplify. So it’s not easy which can be synonymous with simple sometimes. And so, those are the types of things that you have to move throughout the kind of the journey of a team member coming into the organization and how they maintain it and how we do it across the board.
00:15:00
Scott Smith: And so how about Is care details make it right?
Scott Smith:
Scott Smith: I’d love to hear more about that one. That sounds pretty interesting.
Todd Baylis: We care about the industry and…
Todd Baylis: we care about our customers and it is about meeting them all the and really understanding where they’re at, putting ourselves in each other’s shoes and being able to, again back to the issue thing, Understand what their root problem is and then work to document and simplify that into our actions. So, it’s not just care about a specific client. It’s actually also for us especially caring about the industry that we serve as well. but again identifying root issues driving into those being able to translate those into usable things to inform product and really drive that voice of customer over. So that’s an example of it. we care about each other too, right?
Todd Baylis: That’s the other one.
Scott Smith: Right. No,…
Todd Baylis: It’s like it’s not just caring for customers, it’s caring about each other. And that means, meeting each other all the way because some days you never quite know where somebody else’s how their day is going, right? So sometimes that extra step that you have to take maybe to go meet them where they’re at can be huge. And then if everyone’s doing that, it works out. Yes.
Scott Smith:
Scott Smith: I totally agree. I think that empathy, understanding, caring about your team. It’s just a good example and actually it brings me to a question, but we have a sales rep who lives down in Southern California near these fires in the Palisades. And so every day he’s like, “Hey, sorry. I just cannot do anything this morning because my daycare with my kids is not available.” And it’s just a huge ongoing problem obviously for the whole community, but for him as well. And I think try to be flexible and helpful is super important for us as opposed to just figure it out,…
Scott Smith:
Todd Baylis: You have to be No,…
Scott Smith: it’s like can’t quite do that.
Todd Baylis: you have to have that empathy and be able to do that and really understand again meeting them where they’re at and helping people. We had team members that were impacted in North Carolina from the hurricanes that went through. And so again, How do we continue to, be flexible in those areas and, be understanding? It’s not going to be forever. And I think that people remember that more than they remember all of the other things. It’s the flexibility you can afford afford to the grace if you can during those hard periods because, everyone goes through it at different times and we all need that support. So,
Scott Smith: sure I kind of fully grasp the picture of Boomerang. So let’s say for example Scott personally to donate. Is it like Scott’s company with all of its employees want to donate? tell me a little bit about actually sort of like the brass tax
Todd Baylis: Yes. Yeah.
Todd Baylis: So for the most part, it’s the organizations that are looking to identify you, Scott, and your interactions and different things through the organization. So, that to you may look like, hey, I’m giving to this organization on their website. I’m attending an event and hey, I’m volunteering I’m hearing from someone at the organization telling me more about their mission or I’m giving to a friend of mine. and so all of those different aspects are part of how an organization builds their donor base and the relationships with those and that’s what we do all of those things.
Todd Baylis: whether it’s you entering at a website or you attending an event for an organization and giving a donation or buy or participating in an auction, then we are not only facilitating those events and the payments and you and the fundraising that goes behind it, but then also helping the organization better understand who you are inside of the donor management system and help help them this is Scott. He’s CEO site. we got to go through this and understand we should reach out to him.
Todd Baylis: we should better that relationship with him so that 20 years from now after Zit’s super successful and…
Scott Smith: Got it.
Todd Baylis: he understands our mission he may make a transformational gift to us to better the lives of thousands of children and so that journey is very disjoint now from a software perspective and we have the ability to really kind of cohesively build that to where an organization without the technological cap capabilities a lot of organizations have in the profit world can facilitate that. And so that there’s very much a need there and it’s not simple because it’s smaller deal size organization talk SAS metrics. it’s much smaller ACVs but with a lot of needs and less capability than you’d see in the profit world.
00:20:00
Todd Baylis: So that’s the enigma of our particular market and what we’re trying to make better for those customers.
Scott Smith: And then I think one of the things I’m imagining is that the old way of doing business for many of your customers was a Rolodex piece of paper on their desk or a spreadsheet that was saved on their computer as opposed to a sophisticated CRM effectively. Right.
Todd Baylis: Or hey, the executive director was there for 20 years and they know everyone in the community that gave large dollar checks and that they could do and that person’s no longer here.
Todd Baylis: they’ve retired and we don’t remember who all those people are or who all their kids are. That may be the same thing. And we should really focus on the donors and the organizations that are successful now are successful because of a lot of the foundations that were built a decade or…
Scott Smith: Amazing. Okay,…
Todd Baylis: two earlier in that kind of donor funnel. And so we can help facilitate that entire kind of life cycle of a donor and help organizations be in a better position as they go forward. So, that’s a big piece and it takes a long time in that and we can insert at different points, but overall that’s the journey
Scott Smith: and going if I think about how it used to be how it is now and then kind of the future what you’re both excited about that’s emerging now I’ve talked with CEOs of companies that do customer success software talked to companies who do software for marketing automation and for you guys what there’s so many cool and interesting things coming out right now ways to get that information so you could go talk to your director and have them talk for an hour and then cribe it easily and put it into your system and then automatically follow up So what kinds of stuff are you guys excited about that either you’re hoping to do or you’re working on doing?
Todd Baylis: of the things that we’re working on that I think makes a ton of sense in this industry is organizations are very event dependent. They like to run events. They’re very good at delivering experiences whether to donors or whether it’s part of events or different things. But what they’re not good about is understanding who’s actually attended the event and how to cultivate them kind of moving forward. And so you had take an organization that runs at one. It was a purses for purpose event. with an organization in McKenna, Texas and I was not the car,…
Todd Baylis: the bag.
Scott Smith: Got it.
Scott Smith: Got it. Okay. Cool.
Todd Baylis: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Purses for purpose. and they probably had 600 people in that room.
Todd Baylis: And so they’re making contact with a ton of people in there that are there because their friends have invited them or different reasons and that are going to have a great experience that aren’t necessarily tied to the mission of that organization. And we’re going to have the ability to take those 600 people, understand who they are, help the organization sort them, and really build that outreach to those because while they may know 50 of them, and they may work with those 50 all the time, there’s probably another five or 6 hundred that they just had an interaction with who had a great experience that they can go more closely build a relationship, not an electronic relationship, but automate a lot of the electronic pieces so that they can have more facetime,
Todd Baylis: build those relationships with those donors and engage them as volunteers, as sustaining donors, as major donors, those sorts of things. and being able to piece all those pieces together is something that h again hasn’t been done before, but it’s allows organizations to lean on what they’re already doing very successfully and get even more out of that. and that’s something that doesn’t exist and it seems, I think, in some ways pretty tactical. but at the same time it’s a huge problem because organizations can’t do that today. it’s very difficult for them to find that five or six hundred people engage them in an automated basis and then kind of help sort how they should have the human interactions that follow that. So that’s an example of something we’re super that you can’t do unless you’re one company and together across all of that kind of breadth and depth. and we can introduce all sorts of fun stuff into that.
Todd Baylis: AI automations and things like that to personalize those experiences. So, that those are things that are coming, early this year that we’re excited about and kind of again steps into those areas and then we can continue to improve on that. and then that helps organizations raise more. It helps them drive their mission better. It helps in so many different ways. So, we’re excited about that and the value prop that falls behind that.
00:25:00
Scott Smith: any organizations this time that’s spent on administrative work as opposed to talking to customers or finding customers or being with your customers. I know so it’s super interesting that in this case it sounds very heavily focused on let’s get out of the way from basically wasting their time. I mean it’s important stuff that they’re trying to do but do it faster, more effortlessly automatically and…
Scott Smith: go talk to more people.
Todd Baylis: It’s about automating the administrative and…
Todd Baylis: then being able to spend that as facetime with customers, employees, with people because that’s the stuff you’re never going to auto like you can’t automate that. You can’t build connection through those things. And so how do you become more efficient in those more administrative tasks and things like that, right? So absolutely Yeah,…
Scott Smith: meaner because people would be like, “That’s totally weird. You’re a weirdo.
Todd Baylis: No, no, it’s about meeting people and maybe you’ve automated how you’re going to organize who you meet and how you’re going to who you need to be talking to and…
Todd Baylis: those sorts of things, but it’s not about replacing that interaction. So, it’s about augmenting it and making it more efficient.
Scott Smith: So when you go to these conferences,…
Scott Smith: per purses for purpose for example, I don’t know, but perhaps you hang out, you meet with your customers or you’re trying to find potential new customers, right? are there times where you get feedback in person that both either surprises you or disappoints you? And can you talk a little bit about that? how do you stay resilient to what is presumably a neverending feedback cycle?
Todd Baylis: you get all of those right…
Scott Smith: Yeah. Yeah.
Todd Baylis: but I think you have to look at it as feedback is a gift especially negative feedback that’s coming from a customer because they’re taking one sometimes the noisiest customers are actually some of your best customers and you have to understand where they’re coming from but they’re spending their time to tell you about a problem that they are having with your system that will ultimately help you improve whether that’s within the people interactions whether that’s within the different areas. And so if you look at it as a gift in terms of that and then help them work through those solutions, you can’t always do that depending on what the situation is and those different things. But they’re volunteering their time to tell you about their problems that you can either solve or that you should be solving.
Todd Baylis: And I think when you look at it that way, and kind of are open to it, you certainly get the emotions, the ups and downs, but when you pull kind of back to that perspective, it’s a little bit of some mindfulness where, it’s the clouds in the sky, but the sky is still above it. we have to end it’s just temporary,…
Scott Smith: That’s nice.
Scott Smith: I like that.
Todd Baylis: we’ll get through this and it makes us better for it. So whereas you do have the up and down days that come from that it’s also about maintaining the perspective that it is a gift and it’s there that you can use that to make yourself better and make the product better, the company better and make that customer’s experience better.
Todd Baylis: So that doesn’t mean that I don’t have bad days because I’ve had a bad customer conversation or something popped up that disappointed me or different things but I think that perspective is a way to ground it back to an improvement some sort of improvement.
Scott Smith: So you’re in a leadership role. I think sometimes people particularly team members can be maybe a little bit more careful with sharing all of the terrible, negative, bad things because they’re like I’m sure Scott doesn’t want to hear all this, right? They want to buffer it a little bit. How do you make sure that you’re actually getting the truth how do you seek out the truth? what are some of your strategies? this is more personal. I’m curious, but
Todd Baylis: the team’s great at this stuff. it’s not that they aren’t good at it, but the more that you can have those conversations and kind of hear it’s not intentional, but reduce the filtering that goes up and down in those conversations. The more direct you can get it, the better off. I think it helps you understand of what may be happening and putting together the patterns and how you might be able to solve them and pattern matching. So, spending more time with the people who are upset I think always helps. I think I went through, years ago a time when I didn’t do enough of that. And, that obviously comes back and not again, I don’t think anyone’s intentional in this. it’s a bias to try and…
00:30:00
Todd Baylis: filter some of that information and then as a leader, it’s a filtered information like, it’s not that bad,…
Scott Smith: Right. Right.
Todd Baylis: right? they seem to have it under control. It’s not that.
Todd Baylis: but then you get on a call and you’re like, ” actually this might have been worse than it was framed to me.” So, just trying to take those opportunities to do that and…
Todd Baylis: just be more engaged. And again, back to less administrative, more people, and go from there.
Scott Smith: Love it.
Scott Smith: One of the things I’ve kind of always reflected on is more of a interaction in a TV show that I watched as a kid…
Scott Smith: which was a TV show called House and he’s a doctor and he basically does it.
Todd Baylis: I watched all of it.
Scott Smith: Okay. Cool. And …
Todd Baylis: Yes. Yep. Yes.
Scott Smith: for those he basically interacts with these patients who never share the full truth, the full story, and he always has to peel back these kind of steps of the shells of the onion. I’m using the wrong word no matter what, but anyway, you get the point. and I think his skeptical,…
Scott Smith: maybe overly negative view ends up helping him find the truth, which I think is always super interesting.
Todd Baylis: And…
Todd Baylis: I think that’s about being curious in those conversations and a little bit about I go back to the root issues thing. So, I think people sometimes think I’m repetitive on things I say, but if you’re curious and kind of can seek that stuff out, then it helps give you perspective and directly direct perspective, not interpreted perspective. Is it How many times is it that it takes people that are absorbed?
Scott Smith: I don’t know. It’s infinite it seems like.
Todd Baylis: Fair enough.
Scott Smith: Let’s talk about so we’ve talked about customers and…
Todd Baylis: Fair enough.
Scott Smith: strategy building the building a great team. I think there’s this perspective that broadly is different depending on who you are about competition.
Scott Smith: It can either be we need to spend all of our time making sure we know what they’re doing or I need to be aware. Tell me a little about how you feel about the competitive landscape. How does it motivate or change how you think about things? What’s your approach to it overall?
Todd Baylis: I think it’s a broad approach,…
Todd Baylis: So, you’re trying to understand what’s happening within the market. I think that but if you’re pursuing the right whites space and the right and the right strategy that’s going to ultimately build the most that we talk about from a competitive perspective it can turn into some noise if you’re not careful. So I think you got to have it you got to have that perspective.
Todd Baylis: You got to have an awareness of what’s happening and then you have to adjust of is this a now kind of tactical thing that we’re worried about or is it hey what they’re doing is going to alter the ultimate whites space and kind of strategy that we’re pursuing and I’d say that the former of those is good to know it is super impactful for sales it’s impactful from a retention perspective yes we got to know that stuff and we have to adapt accordingly but if
Todd Baylis: it’s the more strategic thing then it becomes a leadership conversation that’s much more depth and understanding whether it impacts the longer term so you kind of have to bucket those two things and there’s a level of leadership that needs to be concerned with the day-to-day and the tactical but you have to be more concerned with the strategic implications and whether that’s going to impact the white space that you’re pursuing…
Scott Smith: So tell Yeah.
Todd Baylis: which a lot of times isn’t happening as clearly as think a lot of times that’s where the competition is not always really as they’re not necessarily pursuing the same thing.
Todd Baylis: So that’s why it’s less noise there.
Scott Smith:
Scott Smith: So if I maybe like one way to interpret or sort of think about what you’re saying maybe if I can understand it obviously it’s specific to your customer and so for example if the competitor is going in a totally different and interesting direction but it’s not going to meet the needs of the customer as you believe maybe it’s interesting but it’s not that important. But if it’s like they’ve acquired a competitor to a product line that you are working on or you’re building and it’s like really in there, you’re really going to have to think about the differentiators that you guys have and potentially some positioning and marketing for I don’t know battle cards, other things
Todd Baylis: to that feature set. have they fundamentally changed how they’re going to pursue…
Todd Baylis: where you see the white space in five years? And if you think that they’re headed that way, then there becomes much more okay what’s happening. But ultimately we do a lot on the competition side but it’s maintaining focus on what we’re doing. How do we continue to build momentum? because I think you can overindex on the competitive landscape if you’re not careful. it doesn’t matter what they’re doing if you’re not doing what you need to be doing. Good. Yeah.
Scott Smith: Okay. Yeah,…
00:35:00
Scott Smith: absolutely I think I’m trying to remember the gist of the quote that I remember reading, but basically it’s like you never go out of business because of a competitor. It’s like you run out of money or you run out of energy or interest. Those kinds of things. It’s like you personally drive it into the ground, not your competitor.
Todd Baylis: Absolutely. Yes.
Todd Baylis: does it affect TAMs and market sizes and market share? Yeah, it has an impact but you get to a certain scale and it’s very difficult for the competition to be what brings you down. it’s very much that’s an internal ex lack of execution or those sorts of things.
Scott Smith: …
Scott Smith: we didn’t talk about this very much, but I’d love to know a little more about kind of the Todd outside of Bloomerang, outside of, the work that he’s doing. for example, I think sometimes it can be pretty challenging to not constantly be iterating on some problem. I have four kids and they want to play chess or they want to do homework or they want to play basketball or they want to go to a dinner movie date with dad whatever. Tell me a little bit about your life and how you kind of try to at least separate them or maybe struggle to do it.
Todd Baylis: try is the right answer. being present is hard. I have two kids. I have a seven-year-old and a nine-year-old. and it doesn’t turn off.
Todd Baylis: And I think that’s one of those things that I’m still working through. So, I’d love any of your advice with four kids how to get there. But ultimately I do think …
Scott Smith: I just have double the problem…
Scott Smith: but not double the solution.
Todd Baylis: okay, fair enough. But you’re right in terms of the presence and turning that off. I have not been super successful at being able to truly turn that off and through it, but I do try and be present and mindful, when I’m with family or when I’m doing other things. But it’s always kind of there in the back of your head. So, how are we going to do this and what about this piece and that piece and just kind of all of the problems and future whether present or future. So, I identify with that. I don’t have any good advice.
Todd Baylis: All right, that’s fair. So, when you figure it out, let me know.
Scott Smith: long before I figured out.
Todd Baylis: right, fair enough.
Scott Smith: So I have kind of two quick, follow-up questions basically. So, I think first of all, Todd, you’ve built a great business and you’ve built a great team. it sounds like you’ve built a great family. when you think about Todd the 18-year-old 1920, I think gra even graduating from Carnegie Melon like you did with what is the piece of advice or couple pieces of advice that you’re just like you would love to have shared but couldn’t or nobody did. Okay.
Todd Baylis: and I think largely I might have followed that when I was younger but I do think it’s about not being as worried about where the ultimate end is and that it is part that the journey is a part and kind of probably the more important part of it and continue to kind of that it will work out if you continue to pay attention and continue to grind and you continue to focus on customer issues.
Todd Baylis: and how you solve them and where the white space is and the other pieces will work their way out. So I guess maybe it’s be a little more zen about it. It’s okay. you will get there.
Todd Baylis: It’s going to take some time.
Scott Smith: I think that’s excellent advice and…
Scott Smith: I think we should end on that because it’s such great wisdom. because I think a lot of the time it’s like forget everything you’ve ever learned. But this advice is sort of like you’re doing okay,…
Scott Smith: keep working at it. It’s going to work out. I think it’s very supportive but also includes a lot of effort and energy which is probably the biggest part of entrepreneurship and…
Todd Baylis: and maybe go a little bit hard and…
Scott Smith: luck of course.
Todd Baylis: go a little bit harder, you can always do a little bit more every day.
Scott Smith: Yeah. Yeah.
Todd Baylis: But yeah,…
Scott Smith: This is great. Todd, thank you so much for sharing so many great thoughts and piece of advice and strategy and tactics today. really appreciate it.
Todd Baylis: I appreciate you letting me come on and look forward to doing it again sometime.

About Our Guest
Todd Baylis is the Chief Customer Officer at Bloomerang, where he leads customer success and innovation in nonprofit fundraising. Previously, he was the CEO and Co-Founder of Qgiv, helping over 6,500 organizations enhance their online giving strategies.
With a strong tech and leadership background, Todd also served as President of Cipher Integrations, later acquired by DSM. He holds a Master’s in IT Management from Carnegie Mellon University and has been recognized as a Polk County Emerging Leader.
Passionate about customer success and nonprofit impact, Todd continues to drive innovation and growth in the sector.
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