Pylon

To our customers and community, thank you for another record breaking month at Pylon. The team is working insanely hard to build the best product we can. This month we launched... → MS Teams chat integration → AI Agent modes → SAML SSO log-in → Keyboard shortcuts v2 → Brand center → Human-guided runbooks → Amazon Redshift integration → Reply all and forward email issues → Emails rendering in dark mode → Page navigation breadcrumbs ... and a lot more more. — Some of our favorite customer love — This was the best moment of my life and I have never felt more heard and special thank you and especially Bennett my hero This software f*cking rocks. It knows issues magically without having to reply. Like that blows my mind Pylon is currently ranked in the top 2% of the 10k+ companies we've evaluated over the past two years I LOVE it. Thank you so much - That was a super valuable call Can’t express in words how eagerly we’ve been waiting for this! Great job team 🙌 Your product is goated Also just used the chat and DAAAAAAMN the AI bot is good. Wow. Kudos. pylon is a sick product Seems like you guys are crushing it, anytime a bizops person asks me what we do for CS I tell them they have to talk to you guys! my background is actually in implementation and I've done software implementation trainings across all the board. this is the easiest implementation I've ever had to do because the product just makes sense. I love what you’re doing! I think its a great idea. Pylon team, our team saw that Reply All and Forwarding features were released and wanted to say THANK YOU! We're very excited these features are now available. 🎉 love the content engine you guys have built I love your teams’ linkedin content - and the grit and hard work …. I am confident that you will build a great product!! this is my first time really using pylon all day and damn its so much slicker than zendesk lol been using your product as I help stand up a Customer Success org at one of my clients. Love the product and excited to see where you all go! Honestly we’re loving it. It does exactly what we need. We’re setting up our knowledge base now Hey Pylon team, saw the announcement about MS team's chat. Please, please, please let us know when and how we can set this up!! This will be a game changer for us. nice work getting that teams integration live so fast. shows how much quicker you can move when you're building exactly what customers need instead of guessing. thanks again on that -- pylon has been amazing I’ve really enjoyed using your platform. I think you guys have a really good thing going! That's awesome. And I would say the big thing that I think also separates you guys from your competitors right now is we were on Intercom, and I can't even get a physical human to meet with me from Intercom versus, like, *, *, and yourself have made your guys so available to meet with us. My dude, how are u shipping features this fast?

Introducing Pylon x MS Teams Chat This is a BIG deal if you support customers over Teams. We already supported Teams channels, but many teams talk to their own customers over chats instead. One customer in particular was really excited about the integration. So after we built it, we decided to surprise them with a demo in the office! Bennett decided to build it in 3 days and demo it for him live 🚀 -- - This was Bennett's second "integration sprint" after crushing our Discord integration in 6 days a few months ago. - Learn more about the integration at https://lnkd.in/g5AHxMdr

How do you pick the right GTM role? Most people get this wrong. They optimize for brand name, salary, or whatever sounds impressive on LinkedIn. The best GTM operators I know think differently. That's why we're co-hosting an event with VibeScaling on August 20th with some of the best GTM operators I know including... → Cailen DSa (First GTM hire at 6 unicorns including Box, Dropbox) → Mana Anvar (Second AE at Pylon) → Chelsea Palmer (Enterprise GTM at Anthropic) We'll cover topics like evaluating opportunities, red flags to avoid, balancing risk vs reward + more. If you're thinking about your next move or want to level up your GTM career (or join Pylon), this is for you. Link to apply in comments ⬇️ -- 🎥: one of many times that Mana has rung the bell at Pylon

Join me in welcoming Matthew Hafizi to Pylon! He's joined as our first SDR. His job? Book as many qualified demos as possible for our sales team. This is part of our broader strategy to start hunting our best-fit customers directly instead of relying more on inbound. We're hiring for 3 more SDRs ASAP. Want to join? https://lnkd.in/gmcYnSnd -- A bit about Pylon: - Team has doubled this year (20 → 40) - Backed by the best (a16z, General Catalyst, YC) - Offsites to Korea and Hawaii - Incredible office in SF - Selling a best-in-class product

Putting 🔆Brian Hansen🔆 in the Spotlight today! He's transforming CS teams into revenue powerhouses while building cultures where people thrive, and his insights on smart prioritization are helping teams focus on what really moves the needle. 𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗸𝗲𝗲𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝘆𝗲 𝗼𝗻? The biggest trend I'm watching is CS teams moving closer to revenue ownership. CSMs are now having direct conversations about contract value, expansion opportunities, and renewals. This can be uncomfortable territory for CSMs, but revenue is where real impact happens and it’s where influence lives within a company. This shift creates a coaching opportunity for leaders: developing business acumen, not only relationship-building skills. The CS teams who embrace this commercial mindset are becoming some of the most valuable players in their organizations. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗱��𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀? Question the traditional playbooks. For example, just because the playbook says to do monthly customer check-ins doesn't mean that's what your customers actually want. The traditional approach was built around our limitations. We couldn't track customer behavior in real-time, so we defaulted to scheduled touchpoints. But now we have technology that can tell us when customers are struggling, expanding usage, or ready for strategic conversations. New CSMs should embrace this change. They can ask "Why?" and “Why not?” and can use tools that let them engage on the customer's terms. The future belongs to CSMs who can be flexible. 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗱𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗳𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗮 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀? The foundation of strong CS culture is psychological safety. Leaders must create an environment where mistakes are learning opportunities, sharing bad news early is the norm, and people can be vulnerable about challenges. However, safety doesn't mean low standards. You must set high expectations for collaboration and hitting revenue targets. I also believe in leaning into people's strengths, where team members deliver better results using their best skills and combining them with technology to fill gaps. Additionally, keeping customer value at the center is key. When work gets difficult, we can come back to what is best for the customer. This naturally drives both accountability and collaboration in the right direction. (continued in comments!)

I threw a party for 100+ interns in SF and my biggest takeaway is that the tech bro slander is uncalled for!!! Amidst a sea of black backpacks, Allbirds, Apple watches, and LinkedIn lanyards, I had conversations with the brightest young engineers about how they perceive the future of innovation; their common desires to join startups as a means to seize autonomy over their talents; how vibe-coding has changed the meanings of “studying CS”; and of course, premier league. Go Chelsea F.C. I would be lying if I said that I didn’t have my apprehensions about conversing with “tech bros.” Nonetheless, as I reflected after the event, I realized that our innate tendencies to reduce people down to professional stereotypes hinder us from forming the most meaningful connections. As network theory argues, the most enduring and useful networks are those that span diverse industries, communities, interests and football leagues. After all, tech bros don’t speak in code (with a few exceptions…) Furthermore, I was so grateful for the rare opportunity to interface with incredible founders: Marty Kausas, Advith Chelikani, Austin Hughes 🤝 and hear their reflections on their journey. A few shoutouts: thank you to David Ongchoco and M. for helping put together this event, my amazing friend Matthew Cyntje for accompanying me at the check-in table, and our very own Comma University Fellows for coming out Tanisha Dhami, Fahmida Rahman, Shaivi Rau, Kyle R., Robert Zhang

Today's Spotlight is shining on 🔆 Victoria Crow Dog🔆! 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗱𝗶𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁/𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀? In college, my life revolved around martial arts. If you know me today, this still tracks. College was phenomenal: study hard, kick stuff, punch stuff, throw people. But graduation hit, and “study hard” had to be replaced with professional badassery. Fate intervened when a martial arts buddy encouraged me to join their technical support team at a digital asset management company. I spent seven glorious years in tier 3 support, knee-deep in UNIX server administration, leading in-person sys admin training, QA, and troubleshooting a rainbow of operating systems. Gather round, kids, let me tell you the tale of the Altix server. Like our team, each server had its own name, personality, and quirks. I was hooked. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗼 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘄𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁? That support is about answering tickets. Following generation teams don’t just react, they proactively enable, automate away inefficiency, and build custom solutions. When empowered, they share what they create and scale their impact across the org. If your team is stuck grinding through tickets, there’s no room for growth or innovation, and that’s a fast path to burnout. Teams thrive when given space to experiment, collaborate, and solve problems before they happen. Support is about prevention, creativity, and automation, not just troubleshooting. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗲? It’s that moment when you solve a problem and feel a customer’s shoulders drop. You’ve taken a burden off someone’s day. I always joke that there are no lives at stake in support. But when you genuinely relieve someone’s stress, it feels like you’re giving them back a little bit of their life. That’s the magic of support. You get to unblock and make someone’s day better, and that’s incredibly rewarding. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝗮 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗺𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗶𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻? Early in my career, I believed hard work spoke for itself. I kept my head down, worked hard, and assumed everyone—from my boss to the broader org—would recognize my value. I was channeling my inner Stuart Smalley: “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me!” Surely, that would be enough, right? No, honey, it’s not! The squeaky wheel really does get the grease, and often the promotions and recognition too. It’s about making the right kind of noise. Impactful noise. Highlight the outcomes that matter. That small win with significant impact is a better story than a marathon project that didn’t move the needle. If you don’t own your narrative, someone else will, and they won’t capture your badassery like you can. This is the advice I give my team, especially women in tech: advocate for yourself and shine a light on your achievements.

When you work @ the intersection of People + Support, it doesn't get much better than this. Michael Messbauer 💎, you are a true Gem 💎 s/o Pylon for the csat survey assist 🏀 ⭐ CC: Intelligems