Callidus Software - Leslie Stretch

Company:Callidus Software, Dublin, CA
Company Description:CallidusCloud enables its over 3700 customer companies to accelerate and maximize their lead to money process with a complete suite of solutions that identify the right leads, ensure proper territory and quota distribution, enable sales forces, automate configure price quote, and streamline sales compensation — driving bigger deals, faster.
Nomination Category:Management Categories
Nomination Sub Category:Executive of the Year - Computer Software - 500 or More Employees

Nomination Title: CallidusCloud's Leslie Stretch

Tell the story about what this nominated executive has achieved since January 1 2014 (up to 650 words). Describe the impact he or she has had on your organization. Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms.

In 2014, Leslie Stretch, CallidusCloud’s CEO, oversaw yet another record year, building on the company’s momentum from previous years while taking steps to fully develop the company’s vision of Lead to Money, the idea that a unified strategy for revenue generation operations is the only way to drive scalable productivity improvements in sales and marketing. He also guided the company through the completion of its pivot to the cloud and away from on-premise solutions, and saw the results of his efforts in an explosion of customers. CallidusCloud’s customer base grew by more than 1500 new customers in 2014 alone (from 2200 in 2013 to 3700 in 2014) while churn remained low (less than 10 percent).

The company’s revenues grew significantly as a result of Lead to Money, from $112M in 2013 to $165M in 2014. This growth was achieved while maintaining positive operating income and EBITDA, something most SaaS companies are still incapable of achieving.

Under Stretch’s leadership, the Lead to Money concept received an important new component in September 2104 with the acquisition of Clicktools. This customer feedback and analytics company provided CallidusCloud with the ability to understand the customer experience; Stretch became a key spokesman articulating what that meant for every stage of the selling cycle and the possibilities for companies who were willing to introduce customer experience measurement into the sales process, including adjustments to compensation plans, evaluation of marketing content and strategy, and management of customer contract renewals. This was particularly evident at the company’s CallidusCloud Connections events in Europe in the fall of 2014, where Stretch made customer experience measurement a central message in his keynotes and conversations with customers.

Stretch also used a by-now familiar formula for bringing not just the technologies of the acquired team into the fold but also the talent. The Clicktools team was absorbed into CallidusCloud nearly intact, preserving the know-how that developed the technology and created a loyal customer base. It was the same approach he used in the acquisition of LeadRocket in February 2014.

Stretch and CTO Jimmy Duan drove the release of Thunderbridge, a new data analytics solutions with direct and immediate applications in sales, insurance and telecommunications. Thunderbridge is envisioned as a foundational piece of technology that will be applied to various aspects of the Lead to Money process to discover specific, actionable insights and deliver not just data but information that can be applied in targeted ways to drive performance.

The company headcount increased across the company, necessitating a move to larger office space; this was researched, negotiated and finalized by the management team in fall of 2014, with the company moving to Dublin in early 2015.

In bullet-list form, briefly summarize up to ten (10) of the chief accomplishments of this nominated executive since the beginning of 2014.

• Acquisition of Clicktools, the company’s 10th acquisition in the last two years
• New emphasis on customer experience, reflecting new, complete vision of the buying process
• Acquisition of LeadRocket to bolster marketing automation offering
• Debut of Thunderbridge data analytics solution
• Continued revenue growth, from $112M in 2013 to $136M in 2014
• Successful C3 events in Las Vegas and, for the first time, in Europe (London and Frankfurt)
• Drove plans to move to larger headquarters facilities in Dublin, CA