About the episode:

"The truth is, you don’t need to be an expert in your craft today. You just need the ability to learn - and be hungry.” Sam Crowell Richard shared this quote during the latest episode of the How I Got Here series🎙️. It really resonated with me.

Many people are nervous taking on new problems. Some are scared to fail. Others don’t want to step on toes. But the most successful growth folks aren't scared to take on new challenges. They charge head-first into them.

Sam is an example of this growth mindset in action.

She’s encountered a ton of hard challenges across marketing, product management, customer success, and product-led growth during her career. And she's used those challenges as motivation - not as obstacles to her success.

If you like hearing stories about the growth mindset in action, you'll really enjoy the convo with Sam. We covered a lot of ground, including:

• The real benefits of working at early stage companies

• How to leverage relationships with mentors

• How she crossed from marketing into product management

• Why she keeps her worst 360 evaluation for motivation

• The skills needed to have a successful career in growth

• And much more

About Sam

Sam Richard is a director on the Growth team at OpenView, an expansion-stage venture firm that helps turn software companies into market leaders. At OpenView, she has helped accelerate top-line growth by establishing processes and best practices that support product-led growth. In this episode, Sam talked about the challenges she’s faced during her career, the kind of problems she loves to work on, and the most important skills she thinks are needed to succeed in growth.

Show Notes

[02:35] What OpenView is and how her role fits in there

[04:01] The skillset that has helped her get to this point

[05:32] The foundation of her skillset

[13:20] What happened when she led the marketing team

[18:37] Challenges she faced when she took on project strategy

[20:41] How she learned how to crossover into the product realm

[26:28] What the vibe is at OpenView

[31:40] Favorite type of problems she loves to work on

[33:22] Trends she has noticed