Kyle Norton (CRO at Owner.com) sits down with JD Saint-Martin, President of Lightspeed Commerce, to unpack how he went from startup founder to public-company executive. They discuss scaling Lightspeed from $75M to $1.2B in recurring revenue, and the leadership lessons behind that growth. The conversation covers building high-performance sales cultures, promotion systems, enablement investment, RTO and culture philosophies, and more. Thanks for tuning in! Catch new episodes every Wednesday. Subscribe to Topline Newsletter. Tune into Topline Podcast, the #1 podcast for founders, operators, and investors in B2B tech. Join the free Topline Slack channel to connect with 600+ revenue leaders to keep the conversation going beyond the podcast! Chapters 00:01:51 – Startup to Acquisition 00:03:34 – Global Upbringing & VC Start 00:04:03 – Scaling to $1.2B ARR 00:05:25 – Growth Through SaaS & Payments 00:05:44 – Founder to Exec Transition 00:07:21 – Empathy From Doing Every Role 00:09:11 – Leading 3,500 Employees 00:11:07 – "Roll in the Mud" Leadership 00:13:28 – Early Lessons & Advice 00:16:37 – Building High-Performance Culture 00:18:28 – Candid Hiring & Fit 00:21:42 – Transparency in Recruiting 00:22:06 – Obsession With Metrics 00:23:55 – Inputs vs Outputs 00:24:58 – Manager Pyramid Framework 00:27:57 – Promotions & Company Values 00:29:42 – Elite Points System 00:33:29 – Systemized PIPs 00:36:20 – Retaining Top ICs 00:40:31 – Investing in Enablement 00:42:05 – COVID & Lost Osmosis 00:45:06 – Return-to-Office View 00:49:18 – GTM Owns Enablement 00:51:05 – Balancing Autonomy & Consistency 00:53:32 – Payments & Compensation 00:55:35 – No Work-Life Balance 00:59:41 – Energized by the Work 01:18:34 – Favorite Book & Takeaways 01:20:13 – Closing & Outro

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

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